Project Information

Hurricane #1

About the project

It is best I think to quote the Daily Record’s Interview with the lead singer of this band

Article credit: Daily Record (http://dailyrecord.co.uk)

INDIE singer Alex Lowe is back after cheating death, and he is planning to head back on tour.

Alex Lowe has survived cancer and wants to tour again.

SCOTS rocker Alex Lowe has battled back from a deadly cancer he claims was caused by his rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle.

The singer-songwriter was plucked from obscurity in 1996 by Creation Records boss Alan McGee to join
Ride guitarist Andy Bell’s new band, Hurricane#1.

Within months, the ex-farmhand was enjoying a string of chart singles and albums.

Now Alex, 47, is relaunching the band with a new line-up after beating bowel cancer .

His diagnosis in September 2013 turned his life upside down and he is still being treated for kidney failure.

He said: “The first thing that went through my head was whether I was going to be able to play again.

“It wasn’t looking good for a while. I should have been dead three times.

Hurricane#1 performing in 1998

READ MORE: Former Oasis boss Alan McGee launches gigs to help homelessness and tells of own time on streets

“I died on the table. I got a line through my neck to my kidney because of my kidney failure and it went wrong.

“I was dead for 32 seconds and some weird stuff happened during that time. So I’m not scared of dying.”

Doctors told Alex that his hedonistic living and unsocial hours contributed to his cancer and stage five kidney failure.

He said: “The doctors said it was a lifestyle thing, It caught up with me from the touring.

“I was never a drug-taker. What nearly killed me was the late nights, the drinking and the women.

“I was like Keith Moon. I’d sit with bums on the street and have a beer with them and people would ask me if I was homeless but I would also have a beer with pals like Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters .

image: http://i3.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article8034769.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/JS90547738.jpg
Alex in hospital.

“I was always on the go and I’d be up all night and sleeping at the wrong time, but I think it was the booze and the ladies that really got to me.”

The cancer had gone undetected for four years before Alex had treatment. He said: “Fortunately, it had been growing slowly, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.

“I went through a big operation. They got the cancerous growth out and I did chemo and radiotherapy at the same time as dialysis for the kidney failure.

“I know I shouldn’t be here. But I said, ‘There’s no way I’m dying yet’ and I had a thing about getting Hurricane#1 back together.

Alex was close to death during his treatment but is keen to get back to music now.

READ MORE: Rock star Noel Gallagher talks about why Scotland has always been at the heart of his career

“It’s a new line-up because Andy Bell is playing with Ride and the other two guys have normal jobs and weren’t interested. I wanted to do Hurricane#1 for the last time.”

Hurricane#1 released an album in November called Find What You Love and Let It Kill You, featuring songs Alex wrote while recovering in hospital.

And a new album Melodic Rainbows has been produced in Los Angeles by Danny Saber, who has worked with The Rolling Stones, Madonna, U2 and David Bowie.

Alex in 2000 – he lived in a caravan in Blairgowrie.

The single I Wanna Kill You will be released on June 3, just before the band fly to the US to play in Boston.

He has also lined up a tour in Japan, where Hurricane#1 enjoyed fame akin to Beatlemania, thanks to their hits Step Into My World and Only The Strongest Will Survive.

Alex got his big break thanks to his then girlfriend responding to an advert in Melody Maker.

He said: “I’m from Blairgowrie originally and I was staying in a caravan in Perthshire with no money and no food, picking raspberries on my grandfather’s farm.

“Unknown to me, my girlfriend at the time had sent a demo in of me singing after seeing an ad in Melody Maker for a known artist looking for a singer.

“I was so frustrated because nobody was interested in my music. I was all set to break up with my girlfriend, sell everything and go travelling.

“But my cousin rushed into the caravan and told me there had been a phone call from Cremation Records.

“I said, ‘What? Do you mean Creation? Why would they be phoning me?’

“My girlfriend explained that she had sent the demo and 10 minutes later, I got the call inviting me to London to audition.

Alan McGee
Alan McGee was responsible for putting the band together.

“I met Andy Bell and McGee and the penny dropped that it was the guy who signed Oasis.

“I got the gig and within six months we were playing to thousands in arenas all over the world.

“We flew to Japan and before we landed, the captain said, ‘Congratulations to our guests on this flight Hurricane#1. You are now No1 in Japan’.

“Thousands of fans were at the airport to see us. When I saw a fleet of police bikes I thought there had been a bomb scare.

“I saw limos and thought they must be for a VIP.

“When we performed the gigs in Japan we couldn’t hear ourselves play. It was like Beatlemania.

“We did a gig in Osaka Blitz, a huge 7000-capacity arena that sold out in half an hour.

“We went onstage and it was like The Beatles said. You couldn’t hear anything for the screams. It was like a jet engine.

“It was a good feeling and a big buzz. I had tried for 12 years to be where I got to be. I thought, ‘I’m going to live this.’”

READ MORE: Scots rocker Pete MacLeod says working with Alan McGee will help bring new influences through on forthcoming album

Internet trolls claimed he faked his illness for attention to have another go at a music career.

But their jibes just made Alex more determined to bring back Hurricane #1.

He said “When I had the kidney failure and the cancer, a lot of people out there thought what I am doing now couldn’t be done.

“They said I was finished and people laughed at me. There was a lot of tension.

“Some people on social media were nasty and said I was lying about my cancer, people that I know.

“They said there was nothing wrong with me but why would I lie about having cancer? I was ill.”

His recovery took a long time and Alex has had to change his lifestyle.

He said: “When I got out of hospital I could hardly move but every day I got up off the couch and I tried to walk. I kept doing that and I changed my diet. I didn’t eat a lot of red meat, sticking instead to fish and chicken and vegetables.

“I stopped drinking for a while. I don’t drink much now but I used to be a maniac with the drink when I was young.

Alex with the band in their 90s heyday.

“It made me more determined to try to do this again because people didn’t think I could do that.

“I wrote the whole album in my bed in hospital when I was dying, even though they said I was done. But I thought I might as well do something.

“I didn’t have my guitar but I wrote the lyrics and the chords.”

And when Alan McGee urged him to get Hurricane #1 going again, he decided to go for it.

Alex said: “I thought, ‘What else am I going to do, sit at home and watch Coronation Street all day?’

“When I got out, I got the band together and we recorded the songs and a German label signed us up.

“I would say to families of those who have something wrong with them and are down in the dumps – never give in.

“You can’t give up. I’m still ill but I’m still fighting.”

Read more at

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/hurricane1-frontman-alex-lowe-rock-8034685#61LIaIptdiyw3fHv.99

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Date: Current

Client: Bourbon Sleeze Records

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