Wolfhounds were one of the real musical pioneers of the eighties rock scene in Europe. Based in East London they would exert a huge influence on many artists, including the Manic Street Preachers.

The Wolfhounds jagged rock genius is only now becoming clear two decades later. At their finest - almost always in full live flow - they created sonic masterpieces that bigger bands could only dream of.

Musically they were always difficult to pin down, and it was impossible to include them in any indie guitar movement. Journalists struggled to describe their live potency, and in the studio their producers singularly failed to get this enormous live sound onto vinyl.

They had their pop moments - the song 'Anti-Midas Touch' usually ignited dancefloors and moshpits - but the band were always reluctant to pander to audiences, and the song rarely made the set. Their soundscapes were always challenging, experimental and a little 'difficult', and this did not help shift vinyl. Four different labels attempted to get them noticed on a world stage, but, like Dinosaur Jr, and more recently Sebadoh, they were an unpredictable product and not easily sold.

Lyrically they were one of the most literate, matching Mark E Smith street sarcasm with Dickensian bleak house stanzas. Singer David Callahan had additional ability to take those barbed words into altogether darker recesses as the music around him swelled to a cacophony.

Eventually other bands began to have success with the sound Wolfhounds were pioneering. Ride's first album on occasion achieved the same kind of sonic purity, and finally in America Billy Corgan's Smashing Pumpkins took a similarly edgy combination of barbed poetry and harsh guitars into the pop and rock arenas.

The Wolfhounds though called it a day at that point. Bands they had helped along the way, like House of Love, My Bloody Valentine and Lush went on to popular acclaim, whilst the Wolfhounds struggled to make ends meet. Personnel changes helped take the sound forward but finally the centre could not hold. The Wolfhounds were always about progression and evolution and the break was inevitable. The wolfhounds - Britains live answer to Sonic Youth - were no more.

This website is devoted to memory and music of The Wolfhounds, one of the world's great missed opportunities, and one of history's finest rock bands. For those who witnessed them in full cry, the band are unforgettable.
PHIL O'CONNOR
Ayup Online

Noise pop group the Wolfhounds was formed in Essex, England by singer Dave Callahan, guitarists Paul Clark and Andy Golding, bassist Andy Bolton, and drummer Frank Stebbing. Evolving from the ashes of the local garage band the Changelings, the group debuted in the spring of 1986 with the EP Cut the Cake; despite the record's gritty, intense approach, it nevertheless landed the Wolfhounds a spot on the NME's C-86 compilation cassette, a release which otherwise spotlighted a much sweeter jangle-pop sound.Even as C-86 emerged as something of a genre unto itself, the Wolfhounds continued exploring a darker, more experimental direction on the follow-up single "The Anti-Midas Touch," releasing the full-length Unseen Ripples from a Pebble in 1987. Guitarist Matthew Deighton and bassist David Oliver replaced Clark and Bolton prior to the 1988 single "Son of Nothing," with the subsequent LP Bright and Guilty remaining the band's creative peak; long-simmering internal tensions reached their boiling point during the sessions for 1990's blistering Attitude, however, and upon its completion the Wolfhounds disbanded. Callahan later resurfaced in the much-lauded Moonshake.
JASON ANKENY
All Music Guide

Groupe de rock hardcore britannique.

David Callahan (chanteur); Matthew Deighton (guitariste) ; Andrew Golding (guitariste) ; David Oliver (bassiste) ; Francis Stebbing (batteur).

Animé par le chanteur David Callahan, plus tard fondateur de Moonshake, ce groupe a défendu un rock déstructuré, agressif et radical, s’inspirant de Can, mais aussi de The Fall et Public Image Limited.

Originaires des environs de Londres, les Wolfhounds se font remarquer en 1986 par une série de 45 tours nerveux et chaotiques, dominés par le chant hargneux de David Callahan et par des guitares abrasives, parfois aux limites de la dissonance. On les compare à The Fall, Wire et à The Birthday Party. Certains titres, comme «The Anti-Midas Touch», bénéficient de mélodies plus accrocheuses. Le groupe se distingue également par des textes polémiques où Callahan, perpétuel révolté, s’attaque de front au conservatisme et à l’hypocrisie de l’Angleterre de Margaret Thatcher. Après une apparition dans la compilation C86 publiée par le New Musical Express en 1986, les Wolfhounds sortent en 1988 The Essential Wolfhounds, compilation de leurs premiers 45 tours. Engagés par le label Midnight Music, ils publient en 1989 deux albums, Bright And Guilty et l’intense Blown Away. Dans ce dernier, les Wolfhounds s’orientent vers un style à la Sonic Youth. Mais l’époque est au baggysound et à la fête perpétuelle : le groupe, toujours intransigeant, reste confiné à un succès d’estime. Il se sépare l’année suivante.

VINCENT LAUFER
Dictionnaire Du Rock 2000

Since I listen to verry sometime this CD and really find something of original. I influence are bazed on Smiths and voice of Morrissey, Fugazi with their " noisy " and experimental quoted. I find that wolfhouds is really additional has my influences and I m regrettably found the other albumes in the differents records shops and nobody know... I shall like knowing if it´s still possible has this day to get it albumes?
FRED
Yowdy!

Apart from The Clash, the Clash, and some Skids singles no music has made any impact in my life. The music press just uninspired. June Brides changed all that and tho it was obvious from the start that most c86 bands were worthless. McCarthy and Wolfhounds shone through. God at one point in my life I would have died for those bands. 'Me' by the Wolfhounds is still one of the most deeply personal songs for me. I still cannot understand how these bands have been ignored. On a op and political level, 'Red Sleeping Beauty' 'Frans Hals' and then the album were so fucking brilliant. For me the article with Wolfhounds/McCarthy in underground remains timeless. That had such an immediate effect on my life - it made me what to form/join a band.
RICHY EDWARDS
Manic Street Preachers

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