County: Dublin

About The Chase

The beginnings of The Chase date back to 2004 and arose from the ashes of the now defunct Fusion (a band which included The Chase's founding members Joe Pendred and Derek Keegan in it's ranks before imploding after a short run of gigs). The two years following the demise of Fusion saw Joe and Derek regularly recording new songs aswell as re-working older material in marathon nightly sessions under the influence and direction of god only knows what, and the lads aren't telling! But ultimately, these late night sessions bore impressive fruit and culminated in a substantial body of almost 100 songs by mid 2005.

Joe and Derek were then joined by Marc MacEodhasa on drums in late 2005 who added his own songs to the band's already sizeable repetoire and resurrected some previous material recorded by Marc & Joe in their younger years, and the band settled as a 4-piece in Nov/Dec 2005 with the final addition of a bass player. With the guys having played together over the years, things quickly gelled and an originals set and some covers were rehearsed in late 2005 / early 2006 before The Chase jumped straight into playing regularly around Dublin from March 2006 onwards.

2006 was a busy year for The Chase and they have come a long way since their first live show as an opening support band back in March '06. The band have gone from strength to strength since then playing over 30 gigs in 9 months including headline slots at The Sugar Club, Eamon Dorans, The Voodoo Lounge and Whelans aswell as appearances in Fibbers, The Hub, The Cavern (Isaac Buttes) and Crawdaddy.

The Chase launched their much anticipated debut 'Start As You Mean To Go On' E.P. at The Sugar Club at the beginning of September '06 which served as a stepping stone to the more arduous task of setting down a full album. They are currently in the process of recording another 16 songs to add to the 4 tracks already recorded for their EP. These 20 songs will then be whittled down to a more digestable 12-14 tracks which will feature on The Chase's, as yet unnamed, debut album planned for release in the first half of 2007.

The Chase parted company with their original bassist in Oct '06 and temporarily featured the multi-talented Shane Cusack (ex-Fusion, ex-Humanzi) on bass until a permenant replacement was found in Dec '06 in the form of Jack Hamilton (already a veteran of the Belfast circuit at only 19!), who has injected new energy into the band's songs and beefed up the rhythm section as well as helping to establish an all Ireland fan base for the band.

[source: The Chase's MySpace page]

Lineup

• Joe Pendred (Vox & Guitar)
• Derek Keegan (Vox & Guitar)
• Marc Mac Eodhasa (Drums)
• Jack Hamilton (Bass)