Claytown Troupe

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Claytown Troupe are an English alternative rock band from Bristol who formed in 1984.

The Claytown Troupe were formed in 1984 in Bristol by lead singer Christian Riou, who claimed in an NME interview that a local clairvoyant advised him to form a band called "the Clayton Troop" who would have success internationally and spend time in America.

Between 1985 and 1987 the band were active on the Bristol live circuit supporting acts that included Fields of the Nephilim, Alien Sex Fiend and Chiefs of Relief. The line up changed in late 1987, and a new set of songs was written which became the album 'Through The Veil' After recruiting guitarist Adrian Bennett & bassist Paul Waterson they played as supporting act such as Salvation, Lightning Strikes.

During the summer of 1988 the band were included, along with The Wedding Present, The Trudy & The Hunters Club, on a 4-track EP on the cover of House of Dolls magazine, plus filmed a promotional video for the song Prayer.

In September 1988 they signed to Island Records by Ron Fair, who also produced the debut album, Through the Veil with extra mixes by Ralph Jezzard.

With a major record deal behind them but no manager, they met small label owner Steve 'Abbo' Abbott (ex.UK Decay vocalist) and decided a sixth member rather an established team would help build the band, so asked him to switch to management for them.

The album was released in October 1989, reaching No. 72 on the UK Albums Chart .^[1]

'Through the Veil spawned three top 100 UK singles – "Prayer" UK 79, "Hey Lord" UK 86 and "Real Life" UK 85.

They were played as support band for The Cult's Sonic Temple tour at Wembley Arena and Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre.

Later they toured with Pearl Jam, The Wonder Stuff, The Damned, Julian Cope, Jesus Jones, The Godfathers, and The Mission, as well as playing the Los Angeles Foundations Forum, which also featured Ozzy Osbourne and Soundgarden.

The band were dropped from Island Records after the company was sold to Polygram. Subsequently they signed to EMI Records USA, where the second album Out There (1991), was produced by David Bianco at New York's The Hit Factory.

'Out There' spawned two top 75 UK singles – "Ways of Love" UK No. 57,^[1] "Wanted It All" UK No. 74.^[1]

In 1992 as guests of Pearl Jam on their Ten Tour the band were transferred to EMI UK after the US label was taken over by Zomba.

In 2004, they were invited to perform at the Whitby Gothic Weekend, this creating a renewed interest in the band, they then played a handful of gigs in late 2004 with interim members Clive Murray (guitar), Chris Sharp (bass) and Dan Roth (drums).

In 2008, the band were guests of The Mission's at the Shepherd's Bush Empire.

Saw the band joined by drummer Phil Martini (Waywood Sons, Spear Of Destiny (band) and Joe Elliott's Down 'n' Outz) to play the Camden Rocks festival with Headliners The Rifles & Therapy?.

The band played the Bristol Fleece, 22 years since their last hometown gig.

Bristol Archive Records released the original 1988 demos.

Claytown will be part of the bill with The Mission and The Chameleons at the 'From the oyster comes the pearl' alternative rock festival in Dubai on the 23 of November. As a warm-up for the festival, Claytown Troupe played a ten song setlist at Holroyd Arms in Guilford on September 29,2024.

• "Prayer" (1989) No. 78
• "Hey Lord" (1989) No. 86
• "Real Life" (1990) No. 85
• "Ways of Love" (1990) – UK No. 57^[1]
• "Wanted It All" (1992) – UK No. 74^[1]
• 'Skybound' (1992) Unreleased

• Through the Veil (1989) (Island) – UK No. 72^[1]
• Out There (1991) (EMI)

• List of bands from England
• List of bands from Bristol
• Culture of Bristol

• Official Site