JJ72 - JJ72

¬ History of the band: ¬ JJ72 consist of three members, Mark Greaney (lead singer and guitar), Fergal Matthews (drums) and Hilary Woods (bass guitar and back-up vocals). The band joined in 1998 when they were still at school in Dublin and you'd be forgiven for thinking 'oh another teenage boy/girl band' but you'd be wrong in this case! The band are a long way from being a 'Westlife' or a 'Boyzone' (even though all look young and cherubic and evidently wouldn't look out of place in either), they are in fact a guitar based band and a pretty damn good one at that. The band don't really have any ...  Read the complete review

Ø Introduction. ________________ JJ72 consist of three members – Mark Greaney, Fergal Matthews and Hilary Woods. The band started off when the male members of the group decided to get together and play in a band Mark is the lead singer as well as being the guitarist and songwriter and Fergal is the drummer. The boys were without a bassist and after seeing Hilary perform in a school production of Sweeney Todd they asked her to join and it formed the beginnings of a great band! *Mark Greaney – Lead vocals, guitar and songwriter. Mark played the violin from an early age giving him the chance to get more familiar with music and ...  Read the complete review

JJ72's debut album is an album of extremes. In terms of the songs that get the most the airplay, they can sound both beautiful and melodic, tortured yet sombre. But this isn't the perfect album, for a number of reasons. Still very young in years, and often compared to the (often-samey) Placebo, JJ72 certainly show a lot of promise. Some of the songs on this album are nothing short of breakthroughs. Others are... not. Opening with the splendid "October Swimmer", a beautiful, softly sung ballad, culminating in pounding guitar with gorgeous underlay and sweet, moving lyrics, as a debut song, this is astounding. If all the songs on this ...  Read the complete review

What JJ72 stands for is debatable. Janis Joplin as an influence? 72 being the weight at the time of her demise? Unfortunately JJ72 have broken down during the summer of 2006 having been around for over a decade. An indie rock band from Ireland, JJ72 were known to be Mark Greaney, Fergal Matthews and Hilary Woods, who would leave after the second album. She would be replaced but JJ72 never got around to releasing a planned third album. This self-titled debut was released on the 28th of August, 2000. Mark Greaney writes all the songs, plays the guitars and sings in the band. His songs are usually composed with a handful of obvious chord voicings, much strummed ...  Read the complete review

Sung in the last song of the album, Bumble Bee, singing his sad songs is exactly what Mark Greany does for the duration of JJ72's first album. Produced so as to sound as 'live' as possible, the album was one of the best of 2000 and definately in my view the most encouraging from any new artist. Although the Brits are usually terrible in terms of nominees, they surpassed themselves by ommitting JJ72 from best band and best album. Amazingly they even failed to get a nomination for best newcomer. Good luck against Craig David, Toploader.... The album starts with probably the most impressive song on the album.... October Swimmer. The song probably ...  Read the complete review