The Band Of Holy Joy - real beauty passed through, 1990

"As ever, the manic-depressive Holy Joy sing tales of love, drink, and loss. Unlike the claustrophobic feel of the previous albums, Positively Spooked is far more optimistic, something the band attributed to touring the former Soviet republics."

The Band Of Holy Joy - leaves that fall in spring live, 2008

"The band was formed in 1984, by Johny Brown in New Cross, South London. Early experiments revolved around cheap junk shop instrumentation and rudimentary electronics. After two self-issued cassettes, they signed to South London indie label Flim Flam for a string of singles and two 1987 albums; More Tales From The City and the live LP When Stars Come Out To Play."

The Band Of Holy Joy - real beauty passed through acoustic version, 2007

"how surprisingly little the ever affable singer Johny Brown has changed at all. Time has not quelled his passion, fire and sheer commitment to his art: always creative, often enigmatic, but forever engaging."

The Band Of Holy Joy - evening world holiday show live, 2011

"Ill fated meeting between Band of Holy Joy and legendary Manchester producer Martin Hannett conducted at the Slaughterhouse in Driffield in 1989. It was a proposed single but maybe the recording was a bit too singular for purpose and it was unduly scrapped, the sacred cow of noise sacrificed if you like. Playing it now it sounds great and insane, filled with a mad punk energy."

The Band Of Holy Joy - unlikely girl, 1990

"Formed from the ashes of an unrecorded '77 punk band, Speed, Band Of Holy Joy's initial musical forays were largely in the domain of industrial bricolage and occasional bursts of madness. By the time they began releasing records under their own name in the 1980s, the band's humanist tendencies came to the fore, with astounding portraits of people on the periphery, resulting in such classics as Rosemary Smith, Mad Dot and Don't Stick Knives In Babbies Heads. The sharp sensibilities of founder and leader Johny Brown eventually led to a star-making deal with Rough Trade, a few near hits and career momentum shattered when the label collapsed mere days after what might have been the band's breakthrough album."

The Band Of Holy Joy - here it comes, 1990

"Band of Holy Joy were formed by Newcastle émigré Johny Brown in 1984 in New Cross, South London while he was sharing a squat with Test Department, in what was then a thriving post-punk scene. Early experiments revolved around cheap junk shop instrumentation and rudimentary electronics before Johny and collaborators hit on their defining and defiant punk-folk-cabaret overload."

The Band Of Holy Joy - because it was never resolved, 1990

"In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.”

The Band Of Holy Joy - a revivalist impulse, 2017

"For three decades now, Johny Brown has managed to find beauty and poetry in the most unlikely places, beautifully articulating careworn lives in a manner that has few peers."

The Band Of Holy Joy - to leave or remain, 2017

"To say the Band of Holy Joy were an anomaly on the late-1980s indie scene is to wallow in understatement. All around, bands took to flared jeans and trundling Madchester beats, but the Band of Holy Joy made an oompah din on brass and accordions while singer Johnny Brown sang affectingly of London lowlife in a drunken Geordie wail. It was charmingly incongruous, as if Brecht and Weill had turned up in the middle of an episode of Byker Grove."

The Band Of Holy Joy - tactless, 1988

"One thing you can safely say about the Band Of Holy Joy is that they are never predictable"

The Band of Holy Joy - a beautiful cat, 2017

 

"Margin walkers and midnight drifters, Band of Holy Joy have wandered liminal landscapes of their own making for 3 decades now."

The Band of Holy Joy - the song of passionate intensity, 2017

"Funambulist, the latest missive from Johny Brown’s indefatigable humanist cadre, surveys Britain’s post-Brexit landscape with humour and compassion."

The Band Of Holy Joy - a lonesome dove, 2017

"songs steeped in the grit and grime of London street life while maintaining a defiant and often optimistic call-to-arms tone"