Goldie Lookin’ Chain Comes Into Its Own
The story so far…
“The permanently stoned mob are The Darkness of the hip hop world.”
- KERRANG!
Goldie Lookin Chain are a direct result of the coming together of several of Newport, Wales most twisted minds. The concepts and ideas have been constantly banded around in various guises since as far back as 1983. Early experiments carried out by founding member Chon Ben-Wa Balls aka Mr. Love Eggs aka Eggsy, involved the use of ‘Studio Recorder 60’, a portable tape recorder to record favorite dialogue from television shows which were then overdubbed using a myriad of Eggsy’s favorite swear words.
Thirteen years later, co-founder and beatmeister extraordinaire Dwayne Xain Zedong began creating electronic music with his “Rave Generator”. This device enabled Dwayne to master the principles of sequencing beats and soon a collaboration of the two minds came to pass after a chance meeting in the car park of a deserted college.
Five years later, the GLC began to come into it’s own. By this time another 21 fully grown adult males had also become inspired enough by this cultural phenomenon to want to add their own personal styles and rhythms to the fast-expanding collection of urban poetry. The eight piece core of the crew consists of: Eggsy (Mr. Love Eggs), Xain (Dwayne Xain Xedong), Adam Hussain, Two-Hats, Mike Balls (Hardest Man in Soccer Violence), Billy Webb, Mystikal and the Maggot.
After a series of homemade CD-R releases, the band finally decided to perform live for the first time and the summer of 2003 saw the dawn of Goldie Lookin Chain as a live expression of the band’s thoughts and emotions. The majority of this popularity seems to have sprung from the successful website (www.youknowsit.co.uk) created by the Chain’s resident alchemist and technological dabbler, Mystikal: “It’s wicked, it’s everything a website should be and much more. To date we’ve had over a million hits and counting. We’ve got music, muck, madness and mayhem. To think it all started as a front for my online sex cult “The Church Of The Hidden Truth” is really quite astounding.
Sold out UK and European tours were a familiar sight for the GLC in 2004. Love was spead all across the UK with bands like Snow Patrol, The Darkness and The Streets and a sold out tour of Great Britain in October called An Ounce Don’t Come For Free (in reference to The Streets latest album A Grand Don’t Come For Free). Eyewitnesses claim that these ‘shadowy figures of chaos’ were seen at all the top festivals including Glastonbury, Leeds and Reading, V2004, T in the Park and the Coventry Godiva Festival and Country Fete. In September of last year, Goldie Lookin Chain’s album (called ‘Greatest Hits’ in the UK) was released to critical acclaim, entering the UK charts at Number 5. When we inquired as to the nature of the title, the Maggot (Tallest Man in Hip-Hop) replied, “I’m very much into the works of Freddie Mercury. When Queen released an album called ‘Greatest Hits’, it did very well so we thought we’d have a go”. He wasn’t wrong. 200,000 copies have been sold in the UK alone, the album already spawning four hit singles, with great expectations set for the rest of the world and anyone currently residing in this dimension.
According to Q Magazine, the Goldie Lookin Chain have single handedly switched the entire country of England onto their particular brand of Welsh slang. As you begin your journey, please be aware of the following GLC term: safe as f*ck (a term currently in the process of conquering England) = really good or of the highest quality.
Goldie Lookin Chain’s US debut Straight Outta Newport will be available on Record Collection May 10th, 2005 and they will be setting foot on US soil within the month. Stay tuned…
Community
Connect with BMI & Professional Songwriters