Viola Beach was an emerging British band full of talent and great music who tragically past away this past February in a car crash in Södertälje, Sweeden. The band’s final lineup consisted of Kris Leonard (guitar and vocals), River Reeves (guitar), Tomas Lowe (bass), and Jack Dakin (drums)
Viola Beach was formed in Warrington, England in 2013 and from that first year they started making waves little by little by having their track “Daisies” being featured on Bandcamp’s The Indie Cassette Player’s (this is now known as The Mill Records) second compilation album, they also had “Love my love” featured on the website’s third compilation album.
The band did not accept no’s for an answer, they self-financed the recording of the first single, “Swing & Waterslides”, then released it on their own record label Fuller Beans. The band work hard to make sure their music was heard, so hard, that they were supported by BBC Supporting (a platform for emerging musical talent), performed at the BBC Introducing stage of the 2015 Reading and Leeds Festival. There is also a recorded live session with BBC Radio 1.
Their music was a mix of British rock and something of their own creation, this mix made it infectious and so appealing to the ears, their music was and will be eternal. And it was just their first recordings, there are many demos, many songs, the 5-6 Track EP that was programmed for later on this year, there was so much music that they left us with. Just imagine if they had been given more time on this earth, more time to continue doing what they loved, I am pretty sure they would have blown the whole world away, theirs was true talent, they were musicians in the whole sense of the word.
Knowing this just leaves me grasping my own mortality and looking at the clouds and hoping that I can create something as everlasting as their music, something I can be as proud as they are playing that music, oh that sweet music in the skies. They are in the company of greats, and they probably are jamming and booking gigs in each cloud in the sky.
Thank you Viola Beach for this little piece of your talent that you left for us to enjoy.
