Urusei Yatsura (band)


Urusei Yatsura were a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1993.

History

Founding members Fergus Lawrie and Graham Kemp met in the summer of 1993, whilst attending the University of Glasgow. They recruited Elaine Graham as bassist, and the line-up was completed with the subsequent addition of Elaine's brother, Ian Graham, on drums. They took their band name from the manga Urusei Yatsura, written by Rumiko Takahashi, and contributed their first recording, "Guitars Are Boring", to a compilation album released by the Kazoo Club. This was based in Glasgow, and run at one point by the future Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos. This record in turn brought them to the attention of the BBC Radio DJ John Peel, who brought them in to do a session.
Over the years they released three albums: We Are Urusei Yatsura, Slain By Urusei Yatsura and Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura. Albums in America and Japan were released under the name of Yatsura for legal reasons. The band had one Top 40 hit single, 1997's "Hello Tiger", which reached #40 in the UK Singles Chart. Other singles released by the band include "Strategic Hamlets" and "Slain By Elf".
Urusei Yatsura split in June 2001, leaving Kemp to work on solo material and the other band members to form Projekt A-ko. In 2011, Lawrie formed the three piece band Angel of Everyone Murder with Sarah Glass and Lea Cummings on bass, and released a self-titled double album on Kovorox Sound. The release featured six drone compositions of 15–20 minutes each, made with self-modified guitars he called HALO guitars. In 2012, Angel of Everyone Murder 2 was released.

Discography

Albums