Scorpio Rising (band)

[citation needed] Scorpio Rising's definitive lineup and sound were created when bass player Steve Soar joined the band in 1992, whose influences included Parliament/Funkadelic.

[citation needed] The Scorpio Rising sound combined breakbeat-driven rhythms, pop melodies, and funk-influenced basslines with psychedelic and experimental guitar distortion techniques.

For a brief period, their breakbeat-flavoured drums, distorted rock guitars and "new lad superstar" (NME 1991)[citation needed] frontman Mickey Banks was hailed as a new direction for UK indie/rock music.

Scorpio Rising toured the UK with Smashing Pumpkins, PWEI, Neds Atomic Dustbin, Eat, Senseless Things and other contemporary bands of the early 1990s, culminating with appearances at Finsbury Park and Reading Festival in 1992.

Scorpio Rising utilised ripped speakers, metal pipe acoustics and vintage film studio equipment while recording Breathing Underwater/Zero for Chapter 22 in Ed's Garage (now[when?]

This session (co-produced by Teo Miller who also produced Daisy Chainsaw) generated interest from Sire, who the band signed with after Seymour Stein flew from New York to see them headline the Marquee club in London in 1992.

The album includes longer, darker and more psychedelic tracks: "Oceanside" and "Sleeping Sickness" and extremely heavy guitar and vocal eq processing.

The Sonic Gypsy's set occasionally includes parts from Pig Symphony's darkest song "Oceanside" and the unreleased "Apocalypse Ranch" from Scorpio Rising's lost Brutal Deluxe album.

In 2015, Banks recorded his debut solo album Born A Rolling Stone at Demon Studios, Manchester, which had a limited release in March 2015 to critical acclaim, and began gigging with a new sonic rock band The Sonic Gypsy Band, featuring Lead on lead guitar, Purcy Flaherty on harmonica, Piers Pennell on bass and Mon Duncalf on drums.

Banks now lives off grid as a continuous cruiser on his narrowboat The Heart Of Gold on the London waterways, and is the host of the controversial "Sonic Gypsy Radio Show".