In Andy J. Gallagher’s music, you hear longing, homage, respect, and love for
the glory days of punk rock. You can hear the emulation with each gouging lyric, and each ripping riff. The greats have showered the new life Andy has breathed into the genre with praise, and Andy has returned the favor by reigniting an interest in impassioned punk, drawing on long-term musical influences as divergent as David Bowie, The Velvet Underground and The Ramones. They flavor his sound with a distinctly punky edge, but what makes it exceptional is his ability, like so many of the world’s great musicians, to transform profound personal emotion into dazzling lyrics and songs.

Andy J. Gallagher first hit London’s intimate music venues with punky
avant-Britpop band The Shopkeeper Appeared. Fame beckoned with airtime plays on BBC Radio One and gigs with global superstars Radiohead, but Gallagher, ever-hungry for new creative experiences, headed off to explore the world’s music scenes collaborating with a host of characters including Sparks’ guitarist Adrian Fisher.

When he returned to the UK, crucial changes in Gallagher’s personal life prompted an outpouring of lyrical emotion and energetic creativity. And when Roman Jugg, ex-member of seminal punk band The Damned, heard Gallagher’s new demos, he insisted on producing his debut album, “Helicopter Dolphin Submarine.” Charged with raw, living vigor, an exuberance of personality and peopled by real world characters, Andy J. Gallagher’s debut LP has perfectly pinned down the zeitgeist of modern urbanites living in a wayward generation. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.