cirKus

There is more than one artist with this name:

1) cirKus are Karmil, Burt Ford (known for his work under various names with Portishead, Massive Attack etc) their debut album also features Lolita Moon and Neneh Cherry. Combining different ages, nationalities and music styles they are hard to categorise. Their sound is based around programmed yet natural sounding beats, acoustic guitars and the three very distinct voices of ford, moon and cherry.



2) Cirkus was formed from the ashes of bands Moonhead and Lucas Tyson, the group's high standard of musicianship was well known in their native north-east where they attracted much attention and had a devoted following. It was felt that the quintet could achieve success on a national scale, provided management handled matters properly and they got the right breaks. In 1973 they recorded their debut album "Cirkus One" at Sound Associates/Emison & Air Studios and just 1000 copies were pressed up.

When in 1975 lead vocalist Paul Robson left the group, his replacement was Alan Roadhouse (ex Halfbreed) who also played the saxophone. With Dogg on acoustic and electric guitars, Derek Miller on keyboards, John Taylor on bass and main songwriter Stu McDade providing backing vocals, drums and assorted persussions, this became the new line-up. As a result the band moved away from their early symphonic style adopting a somewhat more mainstream approach albeit maintaining a certain "Cirkus sound".

In 1977, Cirkus made an unusual move by touring in a somewhat zany theatre production called "Future Shock". Based on the musical, an LP of the same name was released, although none of the band members wrote any of the material. The LP was issued by Shock Records and is now very rare. The music is of a whimsical and offbeat nature, a far cry from the outfit's prog-rock roots and therefore of limited appeal. A year later a CIRKUS track called "I'm On Fire" was featured on a "Battle Of The Bands" LP but this proved to be their final offering before the five went their separate ways in the early '80s.

1994 saw the release of "Cirkus II: The Global Cut", where only Derek Miller remained from the original line-up. In 1998 the third CIRKUS album "Pantomyne" was finally unveiled. This offering brought original member, and main songwriter, Stu McDade back into the fold and featured cameo performances by an array of other musicians most notably former frontman Alan Roadhouse, who played flute.