Maxïmo Park are a Northern English band signed to Warp Records, who formed in 2000. The band consists of Paul Smith (vocals), Duncan Lloyd (guitar), Archis Tiku (bass), Lukas Wooller (keyboard) and Tom English (drums).
The band have released two albums; their debut album named A Certain Trigger in 2005, which was nominated for the Mercury Prize and their second album, Our Earthly Pleasures, released in 2007. Their third album named Quicken the Heart, is due for release in May 2009.
Maxïmo Park formed in Tyne and Wear in 2000 (with frontman Paul Smith hailing from Billingham on Teesside). Their name was created by guitarist and founding member Duncan Lloyd with bass player Archis Tiku, adapted from Maximo Gomez Park in Cuba (with a sister Park in Florida U.S). Initially, the four founding members played only a handful small shows including Manchester's 'In the City', which showcases unsigned bands in the UK. In 2003, Lloyd felt their songs were "a little too shambolic and wayward" and were in need of "a focal point", at which point the then-girlfriend of drummer Tom English, noticed Smith singing along to Stevie Wonder's "Superstition". When Smith was found, the band did not know if he could sing and Lloyd stated: "when he first joined we didn't know if he could; just that he was a lunatic jumping around in a suit who had a book full of writing that could become lyrics". Lloyd also said that Smith was "the last piece of the jigsaw" as it was clear that he was a "distinctive frontman", something the band had always wanted, and he "helped mould [the band's songs] into something much punchier and more immediate". Around March 2004, a friend funded 300 copies of a 7" red vinyl single "Graffiti" and later released a vinyl of their tracks ("The Coast Is Always Changing"/"The Night I Lost My Head") that they’d recorded in their house in Fenham. After some time of doing gigs around their home town, Steve Beckett of the dance-electronic label Warp Records got hold of one of these records and decided to sign the band to his label.
Members
* Tom English – drums
* Duncan Lloyd – guitar
* Paul Smith – vocals
* Archis Tiku – bass
* Lukas Wooller – keyboard
Studio albums
* A Certain Trigger (2005)
* Our Earthly Pleasures (2007)
* Quicken the Heart (2009)
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