Biography

The Chief Whips are a 3 piece rock and roll band from Yorkshire UK. Frontman Steve Sanderson's previous band was Leeds based Punk/Blues act The Attic, who's minor successes included the infamous "'Off The Nest" EP from 1990. The band gigged regularly and support slots on tours by Paul Simmonon of The Clash and Eddie And The Hot Rods helped to establish them. The Attic folded in 1996 and Steve played guitar in a covers band for a few years. Eventually he began to miss the creative side of making music and began writing and recording songs based around the acoustic guitar. He teamed up with legendary local blues guitarist BB Tim and they began gigging, mainly in the Yorkshire region. After having become disillusioned with Rock and insipid Indie music, the impact of American bands like The Black Keys,The White Stripes and Souldad Brothers reinvigorated Steve's enthusiasm for the band format. In 2003 he decided to put a band together again and Bassist Rich Clark answered an ad in a readers wives supplement and the first incarnation of The Chief Whips was born. After unsuccessful attempts to find the right drummer session muso Al Elesis sat in on drums to record the bands first demo"Up The Creek". In response to local eccentric leftfield singer songwriter Cat Presley's favourable comments, the band decided to market the record. They sent copies to internet music site CD baby and the record began to sell well, particularly in North America and Japan. In November 2006, sticksman Marty Whip (fortunate surname) answered the call for a human drummer and the band recorded their debut album “The Other Creek”. The Whips philosophy is this. They don't care about the record industry and sucking up to the labels, they're too far down the track. The internet has opened up opportunities for anyone to reach a worldwide audience. Technology has now enabled the D.I.Y. ethos of the original punk era, which The Whips support wholeheartedly, to be realised.