WELCOME TO RETROVILLE...!

Retrofin; think Ollie Reed in aviators dipping his tattooed penis into your pint, with classic flick 'Invasion of the Bodysnatchers' projected on a backdrop of crumbling Victorian brickwork, accompanied by distorted guitars, Jager fuelled vox and a dream to one day own a midget bar in Thailand... now throw in a few shades of Audioslave or Foo Fighters and you have Britain's well awaited answer to the steady bombardment of American rock heavyweights.

History

"Retrofin started out as an idea in the pub between some drinking
mates and over time, it's evolved into something entirely different..."

How did Retrofin come about?
Once upon a time, five young sprites would go to the Firkin pub in Hornchurch,
(deepest, darkest Essex) and rip the piss out of the bands that played there.
They witnessed some great songs get murdered week in/out by dastardly soundrels
who were paid top coin to play other people's music badly.

On one of these nights, it was so awful, that the friends decided to give it a
shot themselves and rolled up to a rehearsal studio the following week with a list of songs they wanted to play together. Now, we're not talking 'mustang sally' or 'house of the rising sun'; No, no no! We're talking about a solid set of rock tracks; Poison (Alice Cooper), Rebel Yell (Billy Idol), She Sells Sanctuary (The Cult), Inside (Stiltskin)...

Within a couple of months, the first line up played their first gig at The Welcome Hand pub in Mungo Park; A two hour set of 22 songs and two original tracks - "Dear Rock N Roll" and "Danny".

The band performed under the name Retrofin and the line up was; Peter Hackshaw (vocals), Dean Ford (Guitar), Craig Burnett (Lead Guitar),Jamie Carson (bass) and Tony Lewis (drums).

After a few months, Retrofin played some more gigs and had written enough original material to launch themselves on the unsigned scene. Their first gig was at Pacific Edge in Romford, Essex and the songs performed included; Dear Rock n Roll, Danny, Stealing Fans, Chemical Attraction and Slut Like You (all songs that no longer feature in their current repertoire and have been lost along the way); a demo CD was cut shortly afterwards at MusicTek studios, who were based in Romford at the time and the band began dragging themselves around the circuit gaining early experience at venues such as; The Ruskin Arms, The Standard, Pink Toothbrush, Golden Lion (etc)...

The original Retrofin sound was classic rock meets indie, but over time and with a number of line up changes, the sound has moved heavier and Retrofin has it's own distinctive identity. They used to be compared to The Cult and Generation X, but now you are more likely to hear shades of Foo Fighters/Fuel or Stone Temple Pilots, from their wide range of influences.

Line up changes;
The boys lost Tony Lewis on drums when he moved to Australia - they are all still great mates and Tony often uses his phone bill to stay in touch (nice!) and Craig left the band when he moved to Galway, Ireland. Jamie got caught with a transgender prostitute on tour and went into hiding for some time but now he's living with a man called 'Daz' in Woodford.

Venues....
Retrofin have slowly built up a following on their travels and have played for promoters such as Glasswerk, FeedME Music, Bugbear, XFM, Wildplum, Club Fandango (etc). They have headlined shows at London Astoria 2, The Clapham Grand, The Cavern Club (Liverpool), The Garage, The Marquee Club, Nambucca, Clapham Grand, Brixton Telegraph, Dublin Castle,
Purple Turtle, have played at festivals all over the UK and
shared the stage with the likes of; Gallows, Slaves To Gravity, Heaven's Basement, The Glitterati, INME, Hell is for Heroes, Belisha, Koopa, Mcqueen (etc).

Chris Cornell of Audioslave wears a Retrofin t-shirt.

WHAT ARE THE SONGS ABOUT?
You can check our lyrics page to get an idea.
The songs that make up our debut album 'The Human Condition' are about the
fears and flaws of humans. Some of the lyrics are based on true experiences
and others...well; 'They Get You When You Sleep' is based on cult movie "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers" with Donald Sutherland. 'Jagermeister' is an ode to the band's favourite tipple, which they often encourage fans to drink through their eyeballs.... 'Baby Jane' tells the tale of a fading Hollywood B-movie starlet, 'Traffic' is about drug smuggling in Thailand, '1914' is a man reflecting on his days in the trenches of World War I and 'Civilian Soldiers' is about terror on London streets.

AND NOW?
- the current line up took shape when Pete and Dean woke up one day as the only original founding members of Retrofin (not together!). Wes, Jake and Dave all joined within 4 months of each other and many of the old tracks were culled as they didnt flow with the direction the band was heading. The new outfit began writing in the studio and adapting old songs to suit this next era and a more mature sound replaced the old. The first song written was 'Hunter' followed by 'Baby Jane'.

At this point, there was a debate about the band name, with Pete and Dean
wanting to change it to something new. The recent joiners to Retrofin actually
voted against it! Every couple of months or so, Pete still brings this up!

Retrofin in it's current form played their first gig in Croydon at The Brief.
A week later, drummer Dave broke his arm snowboarding!!!! This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it gave the band time to write and record their long awaited debut album.

In 2007, Retrofin secured a management and artist development deal with
MusicTek, drummer Dave Cawthorne was chosen by EA Sports to endorse the
'Rock Band' game for the XBOX360, the band invented the Jagermeister Double
Eyeball Goggle Shots on stage, attacked a BBC van after a show and Pete got
everyone into a whole lot of trouble in an Indian restaurant.

The Retrofin you see and hear now have worked their bollocks off to give you
energetic live stage performances with some great rock music which they are
proud of...

As 'The Human Condition' lands and starts it's journey into the public domain,
the band are already working on material for album 2 and are still evolving,
changing and ultimately, getter even better....