Bio

Marcel was a gypsy traveller, riding through the Rhineland on a banana seat caravan, playing his Bulgarian caliminara sitar to the restless locals throughout the land. Following a navigation blunder by his hasty kraut companion Boris, the caravan drifted from the Rhineland and found itself marooned in the Meadowlands (of Howick).

Trying to find their bearings the travellers continued on, and stumbled upon a small but notoriously popular gentlemen's club in the heart of industrial Newmarket. The proprietor of this dingy hangout, a local rapscallion named Ryan, had an affinity for heavy grooves, and quite fancied the strange tunes strummed by the newcomers. After several visits to the brothel (Marcel had quite an affinity of his own - for a buxom strawberry blonde named 'Jenny'), the gypsies asked Ryan if he would fancy lending his 5-string wielding talents to the band. After a round of ales on the house, the offer was graciously accepted.

Following a late-night viewing of ‘Weird Science’, the idea for creating a keyboardist arose, and the pair set about constructing what would become Yvonne. Built from random parts of old vintage synthesizers, Milton Bradley board games, Sergei Rachmaninov LPs, and a Vegan cookbook, their creation was a classically-training pianist, perfect in every way (except for her atrocious spelling – this could not be helped as half the Scrabble set they used was missing).

The final piece fell into place one day when the trio stumbled upon a wedding taking place in a nearby park. From a distance, the group could clearly see the remarkable double-kick-drum and odd-time-signature abilities of The Groom, and decided at once that he would be, once given a ridiculously over-sized drum kit, the perfect skins man for the job. Rushing the altar, the three stuffed an already very nervous James in a sack, and threw him in the van, along with half the wedding cake, two cases of Heineken and a selection of bridesmaids (all strawberry blonde).

When James finally submitted to their demands, the group set about constructing a rudimentary recording studio in the basement of the brothel. From within its smoky, ale-stained walls the songs and sounds of Battle Circus would gradually emerge, and find their way onto the very website that you see before you.

Band Members:
Marcel Bellve (guitar, vocals)
Yvonne Wu (piano, keyboard)
Ryan Marshall (bass)
Jester Staples (drums)

Links

• Artist Website