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Johnny Panic (more info)
  • Label: Repeat
  • Label Type: indie
  • About:
    Life threatening
    hospitalisations, band members and managers lost to medical conditions and
    breakdowns, hellish record label machinations, prostitutes, cage fighting,
    strange corporate lifelines, lost weekends in foreign countries and all
    underscored by friendship and an unshakeable ambition and belief in the music.
    The story of Johnny Panic so far is enough for a 110 page screenplay let alone
    an 800 word press biography.

    We haven't got
    time to get into all the gory details now, so let's just get the salient
    details out of the way first. While still at school Rob Solly (vocals, guitar,
    songwriting) met Jonny Shock (drums, drinking, comedy) on a bus in south east
    London bonding over a shared love of music and they've been playing together
    ever since. A few guitarists later they struck gold with Matt James who they
    found right on their own doorstep and after the amicable departure of long
    time bassist and friend Nash Francis they drafted in Sean Mannion (Rob:
    "the most natural musician out of all of us").

    Drawing
    inspiration from the glorious history of artists that have meant something in
    the last 50 years of rock and roll, any triangulation of where they're coming
    from would have to include The
    Clash, Guns n Roses and the early American punk scene (they've covered
    The Nerves/Blondie and The Ramones to spectacular effect).
    In 2005 Johnny
    Panic released their debut 'The Violent Dazzling', an album of stadium
    sized hooks and melodies wrapped around concerns of mental health,
    prostitution, drugs and prisoners of conscience. A typical quote from Rob at
    the time went thus, "There's an ethic missing from a lot of bands"
    he explains. "We live in a society that refuses to question. That's where
    rock 'n' roll comes in. We're not here to shove them down people's throats,
    but every single one of our songs is trying to get something across."
    It ís the sort
    of record that makes much more sense in a post-'American Idiot' and 'Welcome
    To The Black Parade' world. Of those that heard it, many fell for the passion
    and scope of the likes of 'Burn Your Youth' (subject: young male suicide) and
    'Automatic Healer' (prostitution), however the record labels inability to get
    their head around what the band had delivered coupled with some dark financial
    shit meant that the album never really stood a chance.
    They managed to
    extricate themselves from their record label but it was a blow that would have
    KO'd lesser bands. Many will be surprised to hear Johnny Panic are about to
    come out fighting again.
    But then
    front man Rob Solly, knows a thing or two about fighting. From the age of 14
    he's been practising Tae Kwon-Do, reaching a level that found him competing in
    the US and Australia,
    he's also done Thai Boxing in Thailand
    and trained in Brazilian Ju Jitsu and boxing as well. The last two years have
    found Rob training and fighting in mixed martial arts - yes, that's Ultimate
    Fighting Championship and Cage Rage stuff to uninitiated. In fact Rob's first
    paid fight is on September 30.

    It's fair to say
    that he's in pretty good shape which probably helped when he was hospitalised
    with septicemia, a complication brought on from peritonitis (which, lest we
    forget, was enough to finish Houdini off). Having been rushed to hospital four
    times to be cut open and have parts of his damaged intestines removed, the
    thick scar running down his abdomen is the only tell tale signs that things
    have not always been so rosy. "I lost three and a half stone in
    three weeks because they were feeding me through a tube in my neck".
    Struck down while on tour in Aberdeen, the rest of the band would come visit
    to keep his spirits up. "Septicemia is incredibly painful, you're
    basically poisoning your own body, but that's nothing compared to having Jonny
    sitting on your wound bag and sending all the fluid straight back onto the
    wound. It would have been a lot worse if I hadn't been in charge of my
    own morphine drip.".

    Its being able
    to maintain a sense of humour about things and this fighting spirit that found
    the band not giving up. Scoring a British Arts Council grant to travel and
    play at this years South By South West festival, winning ten grand from the
    Windows Live Spaces competition and covering The
    Turtles 'Happy Together' for NPower's 2006 cricket sponsorship. All of
    this helped keep the band afloat and enabled them to self finance the
    recording of their second album, inevitably and appropriately called 'The Good
    Fight'. Rob even collared Biffy
    Clyro and Therapy? producer Chris Sheldon in the street and talked him
    into producing and mixing the record.

    Head and
    shoulders above their debut 'The Good Fight' is the sound of a band hitting
    the ground running. One hell of a comeback, key to it's success is the
    emergence of Matt James as one of the most distinctive guitarists in the UK.
    Hype? Check out the solos on 'Stay' and 'M-19' for the evidence, or just
    listen to the whole album. First single 'Dislocation' is an anthem to
    frustration with a refrain of "Boredom turns me on", while rumbling
    bass, squealing guitars and shouted backing vocals explode the tightly wound
    tension at the heart of the song. Musically the album is broader that its
    predecessor and along with the aforementioned influences The
    Stooges ('Gone'), Green
    Day ('Never Me') and Morrissey ('Heroes Of Villains') get at least a
    nod.

    Rob's lyrics are
    once again a mixture of the personal and the political, but whether it's a
    Colombian guerrilla movement or a dig at those that turn thugs into folk
    heroes it's never forced down your throat. "I like to think of it as
    amazing songs, with depth if you want it" says the front man. After
    everything the band has been through to get to this point they've got an album
    that sounds amazing, their goal now is to get the music out there to as many
    people as possible, to keep writing and playing the music that matters to
    them, basically to keep fighting The Good Fight.






    There's only one
    question to ask you: Which side are you on?
  • Members:
    Rob Solly - Guitar , Vox
    Matt James - Lead guitar, Vox
    Sean Mannion - Bass, Vox
    Jonny Shock - Drums, Drinking
  • Influences: MSP, THE CLASH, GUNS N ROSES, SPECIALS
  • Sounds Like: JOHNNY PANIC
  • Member Since: 2007-12-11