The Venus Reaction – All the info you could need!

David – \” A psychiatrist friend once told me that, whether it was irrational behaviour or simply making silly mistakes purely because you can\’t stop thinking about someone you\’re in love with, the slang term he used was \’The Venus Reaction\’. Basically if you\’re driven slightly mad by love then you are the victim of \’The Venus Reaction\’.\” 

The Songs – 

\’Crashing Up\’ – Lyrics by Chelsea Reilly, Chelsea suffered extreme bullying at school to the point she had to leave. She was singled out for how she looked & her different take on life. She wrote \’Crashing Up\’ about the way society sets standards for the way you should look. Her coloured hair & individuality made her a target & in the wake of tragedies like the murder of Sophie Lancaster in 2007 this is clearly unacceptable. \’Crashing Up\’ was her phrase that summed up the way she fought back.

\’Lifetime\’ – David – \”I wrote the song because at the time I was going out with someone nearly 10 years younger than me, it wasn’t an issue but I couldn\’t help wishing we were closer in age. The opening line \”where were you when I was gorgeous?\” sums the whole song up really. At the time I wasn\’t doing as well with music as I wanted & I felt time was running out. So it\’s really a song about time & the fear of it running out before you’ve achieved what you wanted to, which of course it eventually will.

‘Crashing Up’ – Original demo version (2013)

“If Chelsea & I thought this was ever going to be released to the public we’d probably not have slammed it down so fast! I quite like the naiveté of it. Chelsea had never recorded her voice before & had only just started singing. I put the drums down using a fairly cheap electronic kit & then got the other instruments down pretty quick so we could get on with Vocals. Chelsea’s got some lungs on her now but we thought it’d be fun to include this version with the single, it’s what kick started everything else”. 

(Photo – Kriz-p, © Kriz-p)

David Donley – Project Co-ordinator, Writer, Guitarist, Producer

In the last ten years David has toured the UK & Europe as a drummer with \’Glen Matlock & The Philistines\’, & U.S singer songwriter Willie Nile, played Bass for \’Woody Woodmansey\’s Holy Holy\’, as well as innumerable sessions & appearances on drums or guitar with artists such as Sham 69, Daphne Guinness,The Featherz, Sacha Luffman, Adam Ant, & Atlantic Machine. He has provided the soundtrack & score for two films, \’Silver Lining\’ (2003) Dir – Ben Lavington-Martin, & the soon to be released \’Messed Up Kids\’ Dir – Illy Hill. He also produced the \’Taking Off\’ E.P by Sacha Luffman (2015) & the debut album \’Ticket To Rock\’ from Swiss rockers \’Daxx & Roxane\’ (2017) garnering several 9/10 reviews in the rock press & three K\’s from \’Kerrang!\’ magazine.

David’s story behind \’The Venus Reaction\’.

David – \”I\’m very lucky to have played with the artists I have & also to have crewed as a tech for the likes of Viv Albertine, Midge Ure, & The Jim Jones Revue to name but a few. I felt after ten years I\’d neglected that I write, & that I used to have a band that was mine, or a project that was driven by me. Initially I was going to do a solo single & play everything, even sing, just put it out & be glad it existed, that\’s it. Once I\’d written \’Crashing Up\’ with Chelsea I was inspired again, \’Lifetime\’ was a track I\’d already demo-ed & liked so I decided those were the two tracks. Chelsea & I demo-ed \’Crashing Up\’ but I didn\’t think my drums were strong enough, I wanted them to be like Ed Graham plays so I just asked him \”will you play drums on this?\” & he just said \”Yes\”. I\’d met Amie by this point & I didn\’t want the project to be a duo of me & Ed so I decided to go for the one off band Idea. So Amie was in which just left the Bass position. It seemed ridiculous to ask Glen (Matlock) despite him being the obvious choice, the thought of Ed & Glen as the rhythm section on this was just to good to ignore so I asked Glen & he was up for it. On \’Lifetime\’ I was just going to leave my Bass track on but I\’d been in The Philistines\’ with Jim (Lowe) as well as his solo project \’Atlantic Machine\’ & as a bassist he always had a great mix of simplicity, power, & melody so I thought it\’d be cool to have him re-do the Bass on \’Lifetime\’, & it sounds great. Once it was recorded & Jim mixed it there was a painfully long wait for things to get moving, mainly because I just wanted to get it right, I needed someone with my enthusiasm to get behind it & finally I met Chris Topham from Plane Groovy Records. I\’d met a friend of his at a party & told her the tale of the single & she suggested I send her an MP3 & she\’d get it to Chris. Chris\’s immediate reaction matched my own enthusiasm & that was it, Plane Groovy would release it on both physical & digital formats & world wide distribution would be handled by www.burningshed.com.           

(

(Photo – Chris Youd, ©Chris Youd)

Amie Conradine – Vocals

Amie Conradine is a 5ft singing, brunette banshee, punk rock latex pinup, thrash drumming, velociraptor! At only 24 Amie has been working with bands and as a front woman for well over 10 years, writing her own music and lyrics since the age of 9. Known for her tenacity and ferocious stage presence, Amie commands the stage and compels audiences. Amie began modeling in her early teens as a casual hobby and by the age of 19 had graced the covers of multiple magazines, featured in numerous runways & music videos. (Bio excerpt from Amie\’s website – link below)

David & Amie\’s backstory – \” I had a three gig stand in job on guitar with \’Sham 69\’ a few years back, at one of the shows Amie was the drummer in the support band. I can\’t play double kick drum but she can so afterwards I was asking her about that. She told me she sang & that’s what she really wanted to do, she sent me a demo from an old band & I thought she sounded great, she was powerful & loud but never strays into that shouting growl mode that I\’m not a fan of, even at full pelt it\’s always \’sung\’ & you really believe her too, so we said we\’d do \’something at some point\’ but nothing fixed. When I got the idea for \’The Venus Reaction\’ project she was absolutely first choice & thankfully said yes.\”

Further info: www.amieconradine.com      

(Photo © AmieConradine)

Ed Graham – Drums

Ed\’s first band in London was \’Q*Sling\’ fronted by Norwegian born Paul Ronney Angel who later went on to form The Urban Voodoo Machine. His next band was \’The Darkness\’. Ed played on their three albums: Permission to Land (2003), One Way Ticket to Hell (2006) and back and Hot Cakes (2012). After the huge success of the band\’s debut album, The Darkness toured relentlessly and played many major festivals in the UK and Europe including Reading and Leeds, Download, and T In The Park as well as filming promotional videos in Australia\’s Blue Mountains and on a glacier in Iceland. The band won numerous awards including three Brit Awards and the prestigious Ivor Novello award. In 2006 The Darkness split but reunited in 2011 with all four founding members, with Download 2011 being one of their first come back shows. Following this, the band played numerous European and U.S festivals and toured with \’Lady GaGa\’ in the UK & South America. Ed currently has his own project \’Puppets To The Supreme Commander\’ who have so far released an EP, completed three videos, & are currently working on a debut album. Ed has involved various musicians in this project based around himself & singer Angus Duprey. David has been involved as Bass player for the EP & videos.   

David & Ed\’s backstory – \”I met Ed in 2002 through my then girlfriend who was a friend of Ed\’s. We met several times over the next decade & I always felt we were really similar as people. The Darkness reunion in 2011 bought Ed back to Lowestoft & then Norwich we began to hang out regularly. We were both touring a lot with the bands we were in so when we ended up home at the same time we\’d go to cafes, cinema, or the coast, just chatting & become much closer friends. Drumming wise I rate Ed alongside drummers like Phil Rudd from AC/DC, that solid way of playing, pushing the song forward, so many people think is easy until they try & do it! He came to see me play in Brixton with Glen Matlock, afterwards he said \”You\’re a way better drummer than me\”, it was flattering but completely incorrect as the demos of \’Crashing Up\’ & \’Lifetime\’ prove! When Chelsea & I recorded the demo for \’Crashing Up\’ I was attempting to give it the Ed Graham solid thump & punch. When it came to recording the single I felt that the real Ed Graham playing would be infinitely better, & I was right. Listening to Ed play the first run through in the studio was really exciting, it matched exactly what I wanted. The power, the fills, it\’s all there\”. 

(Photo – Nick Elliott  rock art photographer, ©Nick Elliott)

Chelsea Allana Reilly – Co-writer of A-side \’Crashing Up\’.

Brief Chelsea bio – 21 year old Chelsea left school & began working on solo material with David Donley at the age of 16, Chelsea providing the lyrics & vocals & David taking the music, engineering, & Production roles. The first two demo tracks they completed were \’Crashing Up\’ & \’The Hunting\’, the former being chosen as the flagship song for \’The Venus Reaction\’ Project. David & Chelsea have continued to work together both on Chelsea\’s solo material & as writers for future projects. Chelsea\’s vocals can be heard on the \’demo\’ version of \’Crashing Up\’ available via the download card included in the 7\” single edition. 

David & Chelsea backstory – David – \”I\’d been helping out at a Youth Centre in Banbury, teaching instruments to young people that were having trouble at school or in life generally, it was a cool place. One of the staff suggested I meet Chelsea as she\’d talked about wanting to write & perform her own songs. We were introduced & within the first session we came up with the bare bones of \’Crashing Up\’. We just found we were coming from the same place & I loved Chelsea\’s attitude & phrasing. Once the demo for \’Crashing Up\’ had been recorded I knew I wanted to do something more with it. Chelsea was still finding her voice having only just started singing, I asked her if it was cool to use the song for a project I had in mind & she gave me her blessing. Amie & Chelsea had similar experiences as teenagers so they bonded pretty quickly too\”.

(Photo – Kriz–p, © Kriz-p)

Glen Matlock – Bass on A-Side \’Crashing Up\’.

Brief Glen Bio – Whilst Glens career got off to an incredible start as Bassist with the \’Sex Pistols\’ & chief writer of all but two songs from their original catalogue of one album & three classic singles, it\’s the continual change & new material from the late 70\’s right to present day that fascinates as Glen continued to create bands such as \’The Rich Kids\’ & \’The Spectres\’ whilst also playing in the studio for the likes of \’Iggy Pop\’ & \’Ian Hunter\’. More recently he\’s been seen in the Bass position for both \’Primal Scream\’ at the Tsunami benefit concert in London, & \’The Faces\’ performing festivals in the UK & Japan. In the last two years alone he\’s toured Europe, the U.S. South America, & Australia as a solo artist, with bands like the all star \’International Swingers\’, as well as his self led projects involving Slim Jim Phantom, Earl Slick, Chris Spedding, & on & on. 2017 finds Glen having one of his busiest & in demand years yet.

David & Glen\’s backstory – \”Glen\’s genuinely one of my favourite Bass players ever & we\’ve been friends for a fair while now too. Since 2002 I\’ve musically popped in & out of Glens life mainly as a drummer. When we\’d recorded the Drums, Guitars, & Vocals with me on Bass for \’Crashing Up\’ there was really only one person to ask as far as I was concerned, I figured there was no harm in asking & just like Amie & Ed he said yes. I was equally surprised & pleased\”.

Jim Lowe – Mixing, & Bass on AA Side – \’Lifetime\’.

Excerpt from Z Management\’s bio –  Jim Lowe is a producer, mixer and Grammy award winning engineer. He has been part of musical milestones from Stereophonics, The Charlatans, & Herbie Hancock. Jim is also a multi-instrumentalist and plays bass, guitar and keys.Training extensively at Nomis Studios, West London, Jim\’s path eventually crossed with Stereophonics. He went on to produce and mix their #1 albums \’You Gotta Go There To Come Back\’, \’Language, Sex, Violence, Other?\’ and \’Pull The Pin\’ – which collectively spawned 10 Top 20 hit singles including \’Madame Helga\’ and \’Maybe Tomorrow\’  and the UK #1 single \’Dakota\’. The relationship with Kelly Jones and the band blossomed and saw Jim go on to produce extensively for the band and worked on their \’Graffiti On The Train\’ album which spawned three A-list singles at Radio 2 including the title-track, \’We Share The Same Sun\’ and \’Indian Summer\’. He also worked with Herbie Hancock, for which he won a Grammy award for the song \’Imagine\’, which featured artists such as Seal, Pink, and John Legend. He has also mixed projects for \’Foo Fighters, \’Manic Street Preachers\’  and Taylor Swift.

David & Jim\’s backstory – Jim produced, mixed, & played Bass on Glen\’s \’Born Running\’ album of 2010 so we met through Glen really. We’d met a couple of times briefly but when I took over the drumming position in The Philistines we really got to know & like each other. Jim did a solo project under the name \’Atlantic Machine\’ which I played drums on in 2014 we also played live at Voewood Festival that year. Obviously if you have a friend that does something like producing or mixing you listen harder maybe but I found myself with headphones on really loving Jim\’s work, choice of sounds, & style. When I needed The Venus Reaction single mixing Jim was an absolute must as far I was concerned, & yet again the planets aligned. When it came to the track \’Lifetime\’ I wasn\’t sure wether to leave my Bass on or not but then I thought about the way Jim played in The Philistines & started to feel that I\’d like that on \’Lifetime\’. I put it to him & he laid down the Bass, it was great & he added some really cool touches that made it better than the guide track. It also completed the circle of having friends on every instrument\”.  

John Davis – Mastering (at Metropolis Studios, London)

Brief John Bio – John has recently mastered releases for Lana Del Rey, Gorillaz, U2, Stereophonics, Bat For Lashes & White Lies, he\’s also re-mastered the Led Zeppelin back catalogue re-issues with Jimmy Page, & Joy Divisions \’Closer\’ album. 

David & Johns backstory – \”I met John about five years ago at Jim Lowe\’s birthday get together, I was fascinated by the science behind mastering & it was cool to meet this guy who had shaped the sound of some of my favourite albums of all time, particularly the \’White Lies\’ albums. He was always going to be my first choice if possible & it pleases me greatly that he was available when the time came & I was allowed to attend the mastering session & watch him at work which was truly amazing. He also mastered the album \’Ticket To Rock\’ by Daxx & Roxane which I Produced but was unable to attend the mastering session so it was great to finally see the magic happen.

Simon Pritchard – Cover painting artist

Successful Norwich artist specializing in paintings reflecting his love of of 50\’s rock \’n\’ roll & horror films of the 60\’s & 70\’s receiving accolades from many of the stars depicted in his paintings. He has had many exhibitions of his work including 2016\’s \’Peep\’ which showcased his kitch erotica collection focusing on the painted art that adorned the gloriously salacious film posters from 1960\’s erotic sexploitation films up to the porno chic of the 1970\’s & early 80\’s, \’If The Shoe Fits\’ was inspired by Bridewell Museum’s collection of vintage & antique shoes, an interactive exhibition that featured live mannequins, & June 2017\’s \’Festival!\’ that covered music, movies, & fashion. 

David & Simons backstory – “I had a friend who knew Simon & through her I entered this amazing world of new art & original creative people, I was really grateful for that because it fired me into action regarding my own projects & ultimately allowed me to make a connection with Simon. His work just oozes cool whilst being full of movement & colour, you can feel how much he loves the subjects he paints & it matched the new enthusiasm I had for my own work\”.