The band
The appearance of Githead and the release of their debut EP Headgit in 2004 surprised many, not only because of the unlikely 'front line' of Wire's Colin Newman (guitar/vocals), Minimal Compact's Malka Spigel (bass, vocals) and Scanner's Robin Rimbaud (guitar), but also due to the band's cyclic, hypnotic funkiness, not to mention the outfit's avant-pop sensibility.
The band's genesis was in the proverbial 'one off' as part of the celebrations of Swim's 10th anniversary, but it quickly became apparent that the band was more than a mere collection of individuals and that it was able to generate its own style with an ease that escapes many better-starred collaborations.
Initially 'drummerless', the band wrote and rehearsed in Swim's otherwise over-cramped studio from the outset, thus guaranteeing that all outbreaks of creative genius could be instantly recorded. This meant that as well as building up a repertoire, the band was also recording towards an end of released material, and subsequently able to fairly rapidly develop enough finished material to enable selections to be made for release.
Thus the debut EP Headgit was released before the band had played its third gig, and material towards the debut album Profile was already in the works before the band had even played two gigs!
The first three shows were performed without a live drummer, but it had always been the band's intention to be able play with live drums. Various applicants were considered, but in the end it was perhaps inevitable that Max Franken from Malka's band Minimal Compact would be the man to fill the drum stool.
Githead made their debut as a live four-piece in Antwerp in March 2005 following on with gigs in Spring & Summer that year. These included the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Cite De La Musique in Paris, The Paradiso in Amsterdam, Barby in Tel Aviv, The Botanique in Brussels & The Garage in London.
Since autumn 2005 the band have been concentrating on writing and recording their 2nd album, including a stint in live sound man Frank Lievaart's new Rotterdam studio. The resulting album Art Pop, viewed as the band's most fully realised work to date and released in May 2007 has been receiving very strong reviews including different 5 star reviews two weeks running in the The Independent.
Githead are...
Malka Spigel
Malka Spigel fell into the music and art world as a Tel-Aviv exile in early 1980s Amsterdam. Minimal Compact, which she co-founded with Berry Sakharof and Samy Birnbach, and in which she played bass and contributed occasional vocals, pioneered a minimal post-punk/ punk-funk sound that over seven years attracted a large, enthusiastic audience in continental Europe and beyond...
Robin Rimbaud
British artist Robin Rimbaud, also known as Scanner, traverses the experimental terrain between sound, space, image and form, creating absorbing, multi-layered sound pieces that twist technology in unconventional ways. Curiously, having played guitar since he was a teenager, Githead is his first opportunity to voice this unrecognised talent in the public sphere, eschewing electronics for six strings and an amp...
Colin Newman
Colin Newman is probably most widely known as the frontman/tunesmith of the art/rock band Wire, who through three incarnations in the 1970s, 1980s and 2000s have trashed as many genres as they have created, ranging from the austere future punk of their 1977 debut Pink Flag to the heavy-metal-dancefloor of their most recent opus Send (2003), passing through many colours of twisted pop, avant psychedelia and techno throb along the way...
Max Franken
Minimal Compact (like Githead) started life as a trio without a drummer but also (like Githead) needed a live drummer for the ever-increasing number of gigs they were being asked to play. Max Franken, introduced to the band by Mecano's legendary Dick Polak, promised to fill the drum stool 'until they could find a proper drummer'!