Liberty 37

Liberty 37
Liberty 37 performing at the Reading & Leeds festival in 1999
Background information
Origin	Swansea, Wales, UK
Genres	Indie rock Hard rock
Years active	1998–2002
Labels	Beggars Banquet Records Mighty Atom Records Organ
Members	Ishmael Lewis Andrew "Twink" Watkins Cliff Harris Tim Batcup
Past members	Simeon Betteridge Rhodri Thomas

Liberty 37 were a four-piece band, hailing from Swansea, Wales. The band started out with the name Travis, but were forced to change it when another band with the same name became successful. After changing names from Travis Inc. and Applecore (this came too close to the Beatles' Apple Corp organisation) the band settled on Liberty 37.

Travis Inc made enough of an impression during their brief incarnation to feature as "ones to watch" in Kerrang!'s Class Of 1998 feature, where they were described as "Soaring, uplifting, but still bruising - Radiohead gone hardcore." That snap assessment was a neat encapsulation of Liberty 37's strength - an ability to pile up intense layers of guitars without sacrificing melody or obliterating delicate shades of feeling. The band first demonstrated the trick on vinyl for Org Records release on their debut single - "No Beauty", a record which won them more friends and clinched their deal with Beggars Banquet. Their debut record for Beggars was the Stuffed EP, released in May 1998, which saw them "sending waves of emotion crashing against solid, abrasive guitars" (Kerrang !). A UK tour with Bullyrag saw Liberty 37 spread the word around the country for the first time.

Liberty 37 were included in Rock Sound's critic's poll of the top 50 albums of 1999 for The Greatest Gift and again in 2001 for God Machine.

1999 proved to be most eventful for the band. They released "Revolution" in January and then the action came thick and fast. Liberty 37 joined Pulkas and One Minute Silence on a 22 date festival of riffing and moshing which lurched its way around the UK in February. They finished recording their debut album. They lost one drummer, borrowed another, and finally found a third one to join them full-time. And in May of that year, they released "Oh River", which was playlisted by MTV in the UK, following it up with another jaunt round the UK in the company of A (band) on an 18 date UK tour. The band finished up playing at the Reading / Leeds festival in August.

In contrast to 1999, the year 2000 proved to be a most frustrating year. Following the release of the Revolution CD single in February and a mini tour of the UK in March and April the band started writing material for the follow-up album to The Greatest Gift during the summer of 2000. However, the band hit a number of setbacks during the remainder of the year. First drummer Cliff broke his arm playing 5-a-side football, only to be emulated by guitarist Tim also playing football. Finally, the band were set to go into the studio at the end of the year to record demos for the album.