Airbus Band

You can learn more about Airbus on:

the main Airbus website - detailed band history and much more
the Airbus Facebook page - lots of videos and remixes of songs available here
listen to Airbus on Spotify
see Airbus videos on YouTube

Airbus, pictured in LA in 2017 - photo by Sally Low

Airbus Biography

I started playing in this band when I was 15 because it offered a fun alternative to being educated. Over 15 years, the band wrote and recorded around 200 songs, many of which are now being released.

Airbus, pictured at The Downs in Bristol circa 1990

We played 1,000's gigs all over the planet and were fortunate enough to be signed to BMG Music Publishing and Spira Records. Living in LA for a couple of years, we were lucky enough to work with some great record producers which made recording more fun than I thought possible. This included Andy Stermer, who played in Jellyfish, Mike Howlett, who played in Gong, and Richard Dashut, who produced many of Fleetwood Mac's albums, including Rumours.

Airbus, pictured in Portishead during the '90s

In 2016, we decided to start working on our back catalogue of songs. We've been finishing them off ready for release and plan to release over 10 albums. The first of these records, Primitive Carnival, was released in 2017. See the discography section of this page for more information and details of other releases.

Ghosts was re-released through Bristol Archive Records early in 2017. It contains brand new mixes of the songs, including some extended versions. Again, see the discography section below to listen to the songs.

Airbus Band reflection in a spaceman's helmet

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Airbus Reconstruction of Portishead’s Sourtimes

The most well known recording Airbus did was a B-side of Portishead’s 'Sourtimes', entitled the ‘Airbus Reconstruction’. We went to Gordano school with Geoff Barrow. He’d been signed to Go Beat and recorded Dummy. It hadn’t been released and, at that time, no one had heard of Portishead. He gave us a cassette (oh dear, showing my age) with a click-track and Beth’s vocal on it. We spent a day in State of Art recording studio in Easton, Bristol, recording the music (to the click-track as it had to marry up with Beth’s vocal - she overdubbed the howling on the end section after the music was recorded).

It wasn’t until the song was completed that Geoff played us the original. I remember us saying, "Sorry," or something similar, as it was so different from the original and much heavier. But that’s what makes it work. We performed it live twice with Beth, if my memory serves correctly - once at Moles Club in Bath and once at the Ashton Court Music Festival in Bristol. Below you can see a version I found on Youtube.

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Ghosts

Ghosts was recorded by the band in a basement recording studio in Bristol on ancient (and often unreliable) analogue equipment. No computers, no wav files - this was all done on a 1 inch Soundcraft tape machine and a 2 inch Studer which gave the recordings a warmth and depth of which I'm proud. You can find Ghosts on Amazon, Spotify and most online stores.

Airbus band - Ghosts CD cover

The building on the CD cover is the Grosvenor Hotel which is located in the heart of Bristol, near Temple Meads train station.

You can learn how to listen to and purchase the 2017 remastered version of the album in the discography section of the page.

Below is a live recording of a song from the Ghosts album (released in 2000) called 'All My Wishes'. The video was shot at UCLA, CA, USA in 2001.

Airbus band - All My Wishes at UCLA, California

Here is a video of the song 'Gravity' from the Ghosts album. The footage was recorded at Glastonbury Music Festival in 1999.

Airbus band playing live at Glastonbury Music Festival

Save Your Breath

This is the second video from the Primitive Carnival album. It was shot in Portishead Youth Centre in the UK and Los Angeles USA. 'Save Your Breath' was released in July 2021 on the lead-up to the launch of the You album. You can learn more about both albums in the discography below.

Airbus band - Save Your Breath official video

Get Away

This is the second video from the You album. It was filmed at Ashton Court Festival in Bristol in the summer of 1993. You can learn more about You in the discography below.

Airbus band - Get Away official video

Fade

This video was shot in the Stujo in LA, USA, early in 2017. It's the first single off the Primitive Carnival album. Learn more about that in the discography below.

Airbus band - Fade official video

Listen to the first single from Primitive Carnival 'Fade' on Spotify

Buy the first single from Primitive Carnival 'Fade' on iTunes

Save Yourself

This is the first video from the You album. It was filmed at Portishead Youth Centre, where the band used to rehearse every week, in May 1994. You can learn more about the You album in the discography below.

Airbus band - Save Yourself official video

Airbus on HTV’s First Cut

First Cut was a television programme filmed over two days during May 1993 at the Lloyds Amphitheatre in Bristol, UK. The programme was a 'battle of the bands' which I'm pleased to say we won. Below are videos of some of the songs we performed on the show. The daytime videos are of songs performed during one the of the heats, and the night-time videos were performed during the final.

Ethnicus (the drum song)

This is one of the most popular songs we performed live, and was often referred to as 'the drum song' by people who didn't know its real name ('Ethnicus'). This is the best version we have, as studio recordings never worked as well as when the song was played live. The video encompasses two performances, the first from the heat, the second from the final, which played out under the show's credits.

Airbus band - Ethnicus, live on HTV First Cut

Later That Same Evening

Another popular live song, sometimes called 'the mandolin song' (you can see a pattern developing here...). Again, this is the best version we have recorded.

Airbus band - Inertia, live on HTV First Cut

Inertia

We released this track as a 7" single (pictured below in the discography) in 1993, just after First Cut was filmed. The single did very well, selling out in local record stores.

Airbus band - Inertia, live on HTV First Cut

El Spira

This is an old song that we wrote in 1989 and recorded and released on Apple Trees in 1990. We played it live for many years as it was a favourite with our audience.

Airbus band - El Spira, live on HTV First Cut

Airbus on Wire TV

In 1993 we appeared on Wire TV, a cable television programme filmed in The Galleries shopping centre in Bristol UK. Unfortunately the recording quality isn't brilliant, but the video has Ross in the background, a friend from school who very sadly died in the early nineties. I thought it would be nice to have a memory of him on my website.

Don’t Be Afraid

...is a song we wrote in the late 80's. It was one of the first demos we recorded and helped us get our foot in the door with a lot of gig venues. At the beginning of the video, you'll notice the presenter having a professional 'moment' and swearing, thinking her microphone is turned off. Ross is sitting at the front on the right of the group of people directly behind me (I'm on drums).

Airbus band - Don't Be Afraid, live on Wire TV

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Airbus Website

Prior to releasing Ghosts, we used a lot of imagery from the album cover photoshoot on our website, which was built around 1995. Although the original website is long gone, the site is still used by Bluetree (the webdesign firm who built it) as an example of past works.

As I mentioned before, in 2016, we started working on mixes of all the songs the band recorded between 1987 and 2002 in James's recording studio, LA, California. We plan to release them over the coming years.

James has also been developing a new website with a much more in depth band history.

You can see the new Airbus website here. It's constantly under development, so new content will be added over time.

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Airbus discography

You (2021)

Release date: 11 September 2021

Available from Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, YouTube and more: find all the details and links on our You sales page.

“‘Simplicity is the mother of all pop’ is a universal Airbus proudly extol and display in frankly gorgeous tracks. ‘Save Yourself’ employs wiry guitar licks and spaced-out sounds but never forgets to be entertaining and thus memorable. Track two, ‘I’, is just gorgeous. Single to the charts please, driver.” CJ Warren

“If you can imagine what an aural cocktail of The Zombies, Elliott Smith and the Beatles would sound like, you’ll get an idea of the dreamy, colourful accordance that is weaved in the standout single ‘I’. Reminiscences aside, the band’s masterfully melodic presence on the airwaves once more is a breath of fresh kaleidoscopic air.” A&R Factory - read the full review here

Primitive Carnival (2017)

Buy Primitive Carnival on Amazon

Listen to Primitive Carnival on Spotify

Buy Primitive Carnival on iTunes

Ghosts (remastered) (2017)

Buy Ghosts on Amazon

Listen to Ghosts on Spotify

Buy Ghosts on iTunes

Learn more about Ghosts at Bristol Archive Records

No (2001)

Ghosts (2000)

Gravity (1997)

Inertia (1993)

Bug and the Big Fish (1991)

Apple Trees (1990)

Spitfire (1988)

Airbus were called Carrion at the time of release

Disography Promo Poster 2017

Gigs - See Airbus Live

Upcoming Gigs

More gigs coming after the release of the next record, Imperial Gunpowder... watch this space

Past Gigs

You Tour 2022 - full list of dates below poster

The Thunderbolt, Bristol, UK - Saturday 25th June 2022

Cafe De Stam, Paal, Belgium - Friday 24th June 2022

Stadsherberg Helsdeur, Den Helder, Holland - Thursday 23rd June 2022

Rock Cafe, Leuven, Belgium - Wednesday 22nd June 2022

Radio Benelux, Paal, Belgium - Tuesday 21st June 2022

The Old Ham Tree, Holt, UK - Sunday 19th June 2022

Primitive Carnival Tour 2017 - full list of dates below poster

Airbus Primitive Carnival Tour Poster 2017

Bristol Bierkeller, Bristol, UK - Saturday 18th November 2017 (PM)

Radio Bristol Breakfast Show, Bristol UK - Saturday 18th November 2017 (AM)

The Old Ham Tree, Holt, UK - Friday 17th November 2017 (PM)

Tile House Studios recording session, Uxbridge - Friday 17th November 2017 (AM)

Crobar, London, UK - Thursday 16th November 2017

Cafe De Stam, Paal, Belgium - Wednesday 15th November 2017

Radio Benelux, Paal, Belgium - Tuesday 14th November 2017

The Crazy Circle, Brussels, Belgium - Monday 13th November 2017

Rock Cafe De Engel, Den Helder, Holland - Sunday 12th November 2017

Rare Guitar, Muenster, Germany - Saturday 11th November 2017

Between 1987 and 2002, Airbus played thousands of gigs. These included Glastonbury Festival in 1999, regular residencies (Beatles style) at Wayne's Bar in Nice, France, and gigs across the UK, Europe and USA.

Unfortunately I don't have a record of all the dates, so they don't appear here. However, I would like to thank everyone who followed us around the country and the rest of the world over that 15 year period. Without your support, we wouldn't have had so much fun making music.

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