The band was formed by
guitarist/songwriter Chris Reed and
vocalist Mark Sweeney, along with
bassist Steve Smith and
drummer Mick Brown (who would later join
The Mission). Sweeney left the band in late 1981 and Reed permanently took over as vocalist, with Martin Fagan joining as a second guitarist. The group's sound, featuring a numbing guitar drone, powerfully throbbing
bass, pounding
drum machine, and Reed's cavernous vocal tones, caused the Lorries (as their fans came to call them) to be quickly lumped into the then-developing
gothic rock scene by pop journalists, although the band themselves denied they were ever associated with goth and preferred to cite
Wire as an influence, and said they "were primarily inspired by
MC5." In 1982, the Lorries' manager Dave Hall provided
independent record label Red Rhino with a
cassette of the group's
demos. Impressed by the quality of the songs, Red Rhino label head "Tony K" (Tony Kostrzewa) signed the band and immediately released "Beating My Head" unchanged from the demo as the band's debut single. The song made a strong appearance on the influential
NME independent
record chart. Fagan and Smith soon departed the band, to be replaced by Dave Wolfenden and Paul Southern respectively.
John Peel was an early supporter, and the band recorded two radio sessions for him in March and November 1983 (released on CD in 2014 as
BBC Sessions 1983 - 1984, part of the band's 3-CD compilation
See the Fire). In 1985, the band's debut album,
Talk About the Weather, The album, which most fans consider to be the band's best, received generally positive reviews and sold well for a small label offering. as did follow-up non-LP singles "Chance" and "Spinning Round", the latter of which is generally felt to be the Lorries's strongest song. The band released one more album on Red Rhino (
Paint Your Wagon, which reached No. 1 on the
UK Independent Singles and Albums Charts and No. 3 on the
NME indie chart) in 1986, a single ("Cut Down") and a four track EP ("Crawling Mantra", utilizing the one-time band name change to "The Lorries"), before signing to
Situation Two, an offshoot of
Beggars Banquet Records. also failed to chart, and the band was subsequently dropped by the label. In 1991, the band released a further single, "Talking Back", and then the
Blasting Off album on the tiny Sparkhead label, after which Reed broke up what was left of the band. In 2003, Reed revived the name Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and released four new songs in 2004, available via internet download only on the band's website. The band toured frequently in the UK during 2004 and 2005, but although journalist
Mick Mercer wrote in 2014 that "new material is on its way", no additional Red Lorry Yellow Lorry music was subsequently released until 2024. In 2005, the band released
Thunder in the Black Cave, a live
DVD recorded in Belgium during their 2004 European tour. In 2024, the band released their first new material in almost 20 years with the track "Driving Black" posted on their website. ==Discography==