Some bands are born with a copy of the NME stuffed inside their mouths. Some
spend a small lifetime attempting to carve a nice, noisy niche for themselves in
the fabric of musical cool. However, a select few don't even try to achieve a status
of pseudo-cool. Indeed, fewer still choose to buck fashion and the fickle world of
rock 'n' roll fakery quite as effortlessly as Blind Frog Ernie.

Starting out as the brainchild of guitarist and chief songwriter Dave Fox, Blind
Frog Ernie first started hopping the clouds in 1998. Born out of the ashes of the
Urban Blues Experience, countless shattered rock 'n' roll dreams, and the
obligatory foot-thick smoke cloud, Blind Frog Ernie set about work laying the
foundations for what was to turn into the band's debut album release 'Naked:
from the forehead up'. A heady marriage of blues mastery, foot-to-the-floor rock
kinesis, and alt.pop sensibility, 'Naked…' displayed the framework for what was
to follow.

Ragged in places, smooth as silk in others, 'Naked…' won the band a new army
of friends and fans alike in their native Hull, and led to the band making a handful
of appearances at Liverpool's legendary Cavern Club. With local press and radio
already attempting to steal on Blind Frog's march, a collective scrat of heads
brought about the realisation that maybe, just maybe, it was time to sit up and
take notice.

With the arrival of front man Neil Bailey, the band returned
to Yorkshire's Mayfield Studios. With forthcoming album 'Inner
Sanctum' already in the pipeline, the band released 'EP' as a taster for what was to
follow. 'EP' showed a far more mature and intrinsically cultured approach to the
band's song writing genesis. Effortlessly fusing smoggy Uriah Heep riffs, Jethro
Tull's prog leanings, and the sort of quirky immediacy that would have The Coral
foaming at the gills, the band have hurled down the gauntlet to their
contemporaries;

"From the expansive DMT, to the raucous crash and burn of Dead Inside, Blind
Frog Ernie are unstoppable. Watch 'em rise" - Channel 4 Teletext, November 2003

"If you like the kind of music that weighs itself down with a solid, heavy groove,
then Blind Frog Ernie should be right up your street" - Hull Daily Mail, April 2003

"Blind Frog Ernie are surprisingly powerful. You've got to see these guys in
action, one of the best bands I've seen." - Simon Green, Kerrang Radio 2004

“BFE have a familiarity which encroaches on many genres of the darker side of
music yet in essence remains essentially positive.” - www.hullscene.com 2004

Radiating a confident swagger to worry all those who stand in their way, Blind
Frog Ernie's sound is as bullish as it is downright brilliant. A walking daydream
of musical abandon, 'EP' is a timely shot in the arm for retro rock. And if the EP's
a welcome injection of life, Christ alone knows what the album's going to prove.
Electro-shock therapy, anyone…?


By Kristian Barford

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