Biography

About The Quireboys

The Quireboys Biography (Summer 2022)

When The Quireboys released This Is Rock N Roll in 2001 it felt like a timely reminder of a less complicated past.

A long-forgotten era when feelgood live music provided food for the soul.

And a time when simple songs about love, loss, fun and friendship filled jukeboxes and packed playlists on both sides of the Pond.

Eight years had passed since The Quireboys initially went their separate ways — marginalised by grunge, nu-metal and rank mismanagement.

But This Is Rock N Roll announced a welcome return for a band that celebrated sustained chart success and global acclaim on the back of debonair debut A Bit Of What You Fancy.

Stylistically, a classy comeback record delivered a respectful nod to the past.

But This Is Rock N Roll was more about looking forward than looking back.

And ultimately it would lay the foundation for the band’s long-term future — inspiring a run of critically acclaimed records that firmly established The Quireboys as the godfathers of British rock and roll.

Significantly, This Is Rock N Roll signalled the start of a prolific songwriting partnership that would go on to underpin two decades of remarkable creativity.

Guitarist Guy Griffin joined The Quireboys in 1989 and made his presence felt across A Bit Of What You Fancy and follow-up Bitter Sweet & Twisted.

But by 2001 Griff had stepped up to co-write 12 of This Is Rock N Roll’s 13 tracks alongside founder member and vocalist Spike.

And the template had been set for the most productive and illuminating period of The Quireboys’ career.

Griffin and Spike delivered more of the same on 2004’s wonderfully upbeat Well Oiled — the record which introduced Paul Guerin (guitar), Keith Weir (keys) and Pip Mailing (drums) to Quireboys fans.

And with a core line-up committed to building on The Quireboys’ colourful 80s legacy, fans flocked to experience the second coming of Guns N Roses’ far cooler UK cousins.

The band added multiple headline tours, major festival bookings and more to late noughties head turners Homewreckers & Heartbreakers and Halfpenny Dancer.

But it was the release of 2013’s game changing Beautiful Curse that confirmed The Quireboys’ status as true national treasures…20 years after the band’s original split.

Griffin and Guerin never sounded better on riff-fuelled opener Too Much Of A Good Thing while Weir’s golden touch constantly elevated 12 bona fide rock and roll classics.

Beautiful Curse was the first of six albums in six years for new label Off Yer Rocka with 2019’s Amazing Disgrace bookending a career-defining run of form.

Fast forward to 2022 and Griffin, Guerin and Weir — alongside rhythm section Pip and Nick Mailing — continue to celebrate a bulging back catalogue bursting with hidden gems and long-forgotten favourites.

And they’re doing it without Spike following the difficult decision to part company with the band’s original frontman at the start of the year.

A brave new era began with a barnstorming show on the 2022 Monsters Of Rock Cruise in the USA. Subsequent sets back in the UK revealed the Griffin-fronted Quireboys to be in rude health and ready to approach the future with confidence.

Good times, good vibes and good tunes.

This Is Rock N Roll. This is The Quireboys.

Simon Rushworth

Meet the Band…

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Guy Griffin
Keith Weir
Paul Guerin