Breed 77 (pronounced "Breed Seven-Seven") is a band whose music is a
fusion of
alternative metal and
flamenco.
Origin
Breed 77 comes from the
British overseas territory of
Gibraltar. Old
Gibraltarian school friends,
Paul Isola,
Danny Felice, and
Stuart Cavilla met up in
London and became informally known as the
Gibraltarian Mafia. When, in late April 1996, this circle of friends formed a band, they wanted a name to reflect their joint origins and called themselves simply
Breed. The band were forced to change their name because it was previously registered by
Steve Hewitt (formerly of
Placebo) on his
vanity record label. Stuart Cavilla, the band's bass player, had previously worked as a motorcycle courier under the call sign of
Kilo 77 or
K77, and the band became
Breed 77.
Awards
In 1998,
Kerrang! readers voted Breed 77 the 'Best Unsigned Band'. In 1999, they won both the
Metal Hammer and
Kerrang! awards for the best new band. Then in 2001 they signed a five album deal with
Albert Productions, the legendary Australian publisher of
AC/DC.
Music releases
Breed 77's self-titled debut album was first released in November 2001 and due to a high demand was re-released in April 2005. Their second album
Cultura was released on
3 May 2004 and went to number 61 in the
UK album charts and number 3 in the Rock Album Chart.
Cultura produced the singles "
La Última Hora", "
The River", and "
World's on Fire". "The River" managed to secure their first
UK Top 40 position, getting to number 39 in the
UK Singles Chart. "World's On Fire" just missed out scraping in at number 43, but was number 1 in the Rock Singles Chart. Neither song received any mainstream radio air-time and the videos were featured only on the
Scuzz and
Kerrang! TV music television channels.
Breed 77 released their third album
In My Blood (En Mi Sangre) internationally on
11 September 2006.
In My Blood (En Mi Sangre) was produced by Ron Saint-Germain (The Saint) noted for his work with
Soundgarden,
Tool,
Creed and
Bad Brains. Two bonus tracks were produced by
Greg Haver (
Manic Street Preachers). The first single from this album, "
Alive") was out on
12 June 2006, also known as
Download Monday, and reached number 6 on the Rock Singles Chart. The second single was "
Blind", released on
4 September 2006. Their last single to date is "
Look at Me Now", released on
23 April 2007. The single includes a special cover of the song '
Zombie', by
The Cranberries.
In early 2007, the band released the
iTunes exclusive album
Un Encuentro (to coincide with the launch of "
iTunes Latino". The album featured 11 songs from previous albums but all sung in
Spanish. This album was re-released in physical CD format on
7 May 2007.
The band is currently finalising their fifth studio album,
Insects. The first two tracks have been announced as "
The Battle of Hattin" (April 2008) and "
Wake Up" (July 2008). The album is set to be released on 17th November 2009.
On tour
Breed 77 have toured consistently over the years, and have supported bands such as
Black Sabbath,
Machine Head,
Danzig,
Ill Niño,
One Minute Silence and
Napalm Death. Now as a headlining act in their own right they have built up a loyal following.
They headlined a
UK tour in September 2006. Breed 77 played at Santa Cruz X 103.9's Jingleballs concert on
December 6 2006, in
Santa Cruz, California. It was their second live
U.S. performance. Their first performance was at the South-by-Southwest (SXSW) music festival in 2005 in
Austin, Texas, at the now defunct
Hard Rock Cafe.
In 2008 they were invited to open mago de oz's concerts in Mexico.
Current members
Former members
- Lawrence Bautista - drums (1996–1997)
- Nick Beefly - drums (1997–1998)
- Charlie Gomez - bass guitar (1999–2000)
- Dan Wilkinson - bass guitar (2000)
- Peter Chichone - drums and other percussion (1998–2006)
- Adam Lewis - drums and other percussion (2006–2007)
Discography
Albums
