The name Send More Paramedics is a reference to the 1985 horror/comedy, Return of the Living Dead. The band originally formed as a side project of Leeds band 'And None of Them Knew They Were Robots, but have gained a higher profile than And None of Them Knew They Were Robots, who have since split up.

The band played in the 1980s crossover style, what they described as "Zombiecore... a fusion of 80s thrash and modern hardcore punk", with lyrics about zombies and cannibalism, and are heavily influenced by zombie movies. On-stage, they dress as zombies and the drummer dons a Mexican wrestling mask (a homage to the character in Brian Clement's Meat Market films with whom he also shares the name El Diablo). As part of this on-stage persona, band members claim to be members of the living dead.

The band performed at the 2005 Download Festival, the 2006 Reading and Leeds Festivals, were one of the first acts confirmed for 2006's Damnation Festival and were the opening act for Avenged Sevenfold at the Camden Underworld. They also toured as support to The Offspring. Their live show was described by Drowned in Sound as "brilliantly ghoulish" and "mouth-agape entertainment of the highest quality".

Disc 2 of the 2006 album, The Awakening, is a concept disc, a zombie movie soundtrack, similar to the soundtrack in George Romero's Dawn of the Dead.

They won the 'fresh meat' competition on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show, leading to a "Guerilla Gig Live" performance on BBC Three. The band's third album, The Awakening, featured guest appearances from Jeff Walker and Ken Owen from Carcass.

The band announced their impending split in a Myspace blog in June 2007, which read:

“Dear Mortals,

Send More Paramedics will be playing their last show on 27 October 2007 at Joseph's Well in Leeds. We will be honouring all the commitments we have made up to that date. It's been 6 years but our zombie corpses are finally rotting to the point at which we can continue no more. A million thanks to you all.

Yours faithfully,

SMP

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