Del Amitri

Del Amitri
The 1997–2002 Del Amitri line-up on stage at the Guildhall in Southampton on 16 May 2002
Background information
Origin	Glasgow, Scotland
Genres	Alternative rock
Years active	1983–2002, 2013–present
Labels	Chrysalis, A&M, Mercury
Website	delamitri.org
Members	Justin Currie Iain Harvie Andy Alston Ashley Soan Kris Dollimore
Past members	Donald Bentley James M Scobbie Paul Tyagi Bryan Tolland Mick Slaven David Cummings Brian McDermott Jon McLoughin Mark Price

Del Amitri is a Scottish alternative rock band, formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1983. The band grew out of Justin Currie's Jordanhill College School band and came together after a teenaged Currie placed an advertisement in the window of a music store asking for people who could play to contact him. The band was formed with the original line-up of Currie (bass and vocals), Iain Harvie (lead guitar), Bryan Tolland (guitar) and Paul Tyagi (drums). Currie and Harvie were the only members of the band to remain present throughout its history. They were also the main songwriters of the group.

The band had five Top 10 albums in the UK, and one Top 10 single, "Roll to Me", on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.

The band has repeatedly stated a story that Del Amitri "Started at school in 1980, originally called Del Amitri Rialzo in order to confuse the public (name was invented for its meaninglessness; all other stories are fabrications) in west Glasgow, Scotland."

The liner notes of one album state: "...if you ask us what the name means – expect violence". Speculation about the name's origins have included the Greek for "from the womb", and a handbag brand name. At the very end of the band's 1996 tour diary video release, titled Let's Go Home, Currie supposedly reads an entry from the "Wonders" section of Volume 5 in Arthur Mee's The Children's Encyclopædia which, he says, refers to a false god from Greek mythology called Delametri, largest of all false gods, 458 feet (140 m) tall and made entirely of gold. It was built on sand and collapsed, killing the entire population of Tarros, the town that built it. He ends the reading saying, "There you have it: false gods built on stupidity."

When asked about the origin of the band's name again in a 2010 interview, Currie stated: "It was invented to be meaningless. Just a corruption of the Greek name “Dimitri,” basically. In... various books, it says “Del Amitri, which is Greek for ‘of the womb’” — [but] it’s not Greek for “of the womb” in any Greek dialect. But that’s become almost a fact even though it’s not a fact."