The Real Losers were a rock 'n' roll band from Leeds. Formed in 1999, under the influence of J.M.McCarthy's trash flick epic The Sore Losers, by Paula 'Hot Dog' Higgins and Chris 'Shake' Taylor who drafted a manifesto that stipulated that Shaun 'The Hand' Alcock play the guitar. The band attempted to recreate the motor city mayhem of the MC5 and The Stooges but failed miserably on their first release on Trepanner Headmusic records in Glasgow. The single 'Be A Panther' backed with 'Alright' and 'Electrick Losers' sank pretty much without trace. And the band took a more 'punk rock' approach. Bands like Guitar Wolf, Teengenerate, Dictators and the Real Kids proved a great influence.

Squirrel Records were the first label to take an active interest in the band, offering them a chance to put out two songs, Crime Time and Tell Me Something' on a split 7" EP with Pop Threat, soon followed by their debut LP, released in 2003. The pink vinyl of this record was of such thin quality, and on the band's insistence shrink wrapped, that most copies were warped. The LP was recorded at Springtime Studios in Wakefield by Gary and Ryan Jarman, who went onto bigger and better things in The Cribs. The LP was recorded in a weekend with the band and the Jarman's working into the early hours and sleeping on the studio floor. The LP was mixed the following weekend. In 2004 the London based label Wrench Records re-issued the album onto a more rigid CD format.

From there multiple single releases followed on a myriad of label spanning the globe. Wrench issued the 'Go Nutzoid' ep on 7", Bancroft Records over in Detroit put out 'Don't Leave Me Now' on yellow wax, High School Reject from Holland put out 'Gimmie Action' and Ken Rock (Sweden) released 'Oh Oh Yeah' which also featured a cover of The Zero's classic 'Beat Your Heart Out'

2004 saw the band release their sophomore LP on both the Trickknee Productions label and the German label Alien Snatch. The LP 'Music For Funsters' was the bands last and showed a maturity in it's approach. Allegedly this was supposed to be the band's power pop record, but the now trademark no-fi, high end hiss and distortion was still evident. The record was recorded in The Hand's cellar and incidentally the location for both LP's front cover photographs. This LP was recorded onto cassette using an 8 track by Mike Flower.

Trickknee Productions can also be credited for securing interest in the band over in the U.S. Todd Trickknee picked up the band's debut and through his involvement with zines such as Blank Generation, Smashin' Transistors and Terminal Boredom wrote positively about a unheard UK band. This culminated in Trickknee organizing a U.S tour in 2004, supporting the Catholic Boys, around many states. The band also played at the Blackout organized by the gentlemen's real rock 'n' roll magazine Horizontal Action. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.