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Sean Brennan

London After Midnight (abbreviated hereafter as LAM) is a music project formed in the 1990s by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sean Brennan. LAM has retained and nurtured the political and socially aware element of the later punk scene that had virtually vanished from all music in the early 90s, and has become a passionate and socially outspoken dark rock-music project. LAM has a large worldwide following, with many rock, alternative, industrial, and gothic music fans. LAM shuns labels, however, saying that labels can limit an artist's creative freedom and can also destructively divide audiences - some people can define themselves by the style of music they listen to and refuse to expand beyond that label, which can ultimately limit artists.

LAM has gained a large and loyal following all over the world, from the USA to Europe, Latin America and beyond. LAM has headlined and co-headlined concerts and major festivals with bands like The Cure, Green Day, Blondie, Bauhaus, HIM, Rammstein and many more.

LAM has performed to crowds of over 30,000 people as headliner and co-headliner on major music festivals around the world. However, London After Midnight maintains a strong underground and independent "personality" despite being a top seller (charting in the top 10 and top 20 German DAC, and other European independent music charts, with each album released) and a major draw at international music festivals year after year.

Songwriter, instrumentalist, producer and founder Sean Brennan is known for his strong stances in favor of animal rights, anti-racist and pro-environmental and human rights issues, and support for progressive political and social causes. Whatever the approach or subject matter, the music of London After Midnight is unique. It's also deeply touching, powerful, socially aware, romantic, and haunting and can even exhibit a morbid wit (listen to the tongue-in-cheek "Your Best Nightmare" and try not to think of an Edward Gorey story).

LAM is all this, while at the same time appealing to a wide variety of people. There really is no genre classification that fits London After Midnight (despite LAM's "dark" image) because the music is so varied and the lyrical content (and even LAM's personality and causes) are unique and uncommon in today's music scene. The music Sean Brennan creates can really only be classified as "London After Midnight".

The live band includes Sean Brennan, Michael Areklett, Pete Pace, and Jeremy Kohnmann. Brennan plays the instruments on the albums (check liner notes on the new editions of LAM's albums for accurate details. Older Apocalyptic Vision and Trisol Records releases were translated incorrectly and contain inaccurate information! Wiki sites take note!).

LAM began performing live in Los Angeles in the early 1990s at the club Helter Skelter, which also hosted bands like Nine Inch Nails, Christian Death, and many others. LAM immediately began to draw large crowds and always had elaborate stage settings including stage props that looked like they came from a Universal Studios classic horror movie. Needless to say, the extreme stage settings attracted as much attention as LAM's music, which began to grow in popularity at a rapid pace. So much so that the original four song demo cassette released in early 1991 was the hottest selling item in Hollywood's trendy Melrose Ave indie record stores, even beating out new releases from Duran Duran and other major label artists. For nearly 2 years the most sought after item Los Angeles area club kids searched for in Los Angeles and New York area independent record stores was the LAM cassette tape. Signs hung in record store windows like Vinyl Fetish and Bleecker Bobs (NYC and LA locations) proclaiming "YES we have LAM's tape IN STOCK". Stores from as far away as Australia ordered multiple shipments of the tape to meet demand.

Sean Brennan released the next full length London After Midnight album called "Selected Scenes from the End of the World" in late 1991, creating as much mania as the first demo release. LAM began to sell-out underground gothic/alternative/deathrock clubs like Helter Skelter and Zombie Zoo and began more frequent live performances at more upscale and established venues like The Whisky a Go Go and Roxy Theatre, where the remnants of the awful Sunset strip rock scene (which LAM was NEVER part of) saw London After Midnight's sold-out concerts and began to try to emulate. This helped turn the dying rock/glam Sunset strip scene into a darker and more alternative scene - several bands, which a few months earlier were glam/metal, suddenly became LAM clones (if in image only) overnight after seeing LAM's success.

Soon, LAM began branching out and performed in Mexico City and Guadalajara Mexico in 1994, where LAM discovered a huge following and the first concert drew 5,000 dedicated fans- all of whom had discovered LAM in underground magazines. In Mexico City police were called and the concert was nearly shut down due to the large overflow crowd pouring out into the street. The promoter had to bribe the police just to get the band out of the building after the show.

In 1995 "Selected Scenes from the End of the World" was pressed to CD by German indie label Apocalyptic Vision (now Trisol Music Group). A version of the same CD was also released in Latin America on Mexico's Opcion Sonica label. Soon LAM's strong underground following in Europe became intense as sales of the CD grew steadily. The live act also made several headlining appearances at festivals in the UK (including the famed Whitby Festival) and Europe.

In 1996 LAM released "Psycho Magnet" with Apocalyptic Vision. The album's title itself is a tongue-in-cheek reflection of the insanity and jealousy that LAM's growing popularity generated in some of the more envious, and less talented, Los Angeles area scene kids, while the subject matter, the lyrics, and music address personal relationships, society's inability to interact in a positive manner, abuse, rape, and more. "Psycho Magnet" went on to become even more popular than the previous releases and led to the live act being booked for several tours which took LAM all over Europe and the UK, Mexico and select major cities in the USA, performing to tens of thousands of people. London After Midnight also headlined major German festivals like the well-known Zillo Magazine Festival which had Siouxsie and the Banshees headlining the previous year. LAM also found itself in all the major European music magazines, on covers in every European newsstand with the likes of Nine Inch Nails and Metallica.

LAM continued to perform at various festivals, and in 1998 LAM co-headlined the Zillo Summer Festival with The Cure performing to about 30,000 people. Earlier in the year Sean Brennan signed a licensing deal with American indie label Metropolis Records, releasing both of LAM's earlier albums as well as new album called "Oddities", a collection of live and never-before-released songs, along with a 30 minute DIY music video titled "Innocence Lost". Apocalyptic Vision also released "Oddities" and the music video in Europe at the same time. All of LAM's albums rated in the top 10 and top 20 of the German DAC Alternative Charts and other independent music charts.

Since 2000, LAM performed several sold out dates in the USA, one of which was filmed by E! Entertainment Television for a special on LA night-life in 2000. This special, which includes a short interview with Sean Brennan, aired in late Autumn 2000 in 120 countries all over the world. The special was actually pretty terrible and only featured less than 2 minutes of LAM, but diehard fans were happy to see LAM get major media attention and a whole new audience was exposed, briefly, to LAM creating a surge of new fans. Read the press release for more.

In the summer of 2001, LAM headlined the Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig Germany (for the 3rd time), playing to about 10,000 people. The live band then toured to South America, Mexico and the USA where LAM played to tens of thousands of fans and appeared on Via X, a popular rock music television channel in South America.

In 2002 LAM co-headlined the M'era Luna Festival with bands like HIM, Oomph, and many others, performing to 25,000 people. In preparation for the brand new LAM album scheduled for release, in March 2003 Brennan re-released the albums "Selected Scenes from the End from the World" and "Psycho Magnet" with Trisol Music Group (formerly known as Apocalyptic Vision) in Europe and Iron D Records in Russia, complete with never before released bonus tracks and new recordings of older songs.

From 2003-2004 London After Midnight headlined and co-headlined concerts in Europe and headlined concerts in the USA, selling out the Roxy Theater in Los Angeles three times and performing at the huge Dour and Zillo festivals in Europe. LAM released a new song called "Fear" on the SAW II motion picture soundtrack (Trisol Music Group Germany) in early 2006, which went straight to number one on the German Alternative Music Charts (DAC).

In autumn 2007 LAM released "Violent Acts of Beauty" worldwide in Europe (Trisol Music Group) and the USA/Canada (Metropolis Records). In December 2007 the CD was released in Russia (Iron D Records). The ground-breaking album was a hit with new and old fans alike and has been critically acclaimed by the press, with Germany's Orkus music magazine saying "Violent Acts of Beauty is a masterpiece of sound and lyric".

In October 2007 LAM headlined the Orkus Music International Festival that took the band through Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, and Greece. From May-July of 2008 LAM toured from Germany to the USA, headlining the Wave Gotik Treffen in Germany to over 12,000 people, and then doing a full month long headlining tour of the USA. In autumn 2008 the live band toured back to Europe and performed in Russia, Finland, Poland, London UK, Greece, Germany and many other countries.

In early 2008 Metropolis Records (USA) re-released LAM's past three albums (Selected Scenes from the End of the World, Psycho Magnet, Oddities) which now featured the same remastered audio tracks as the Trisol 2003 releases.

Sean Brennan

From 2008 to 2015 LAM toured from Europe, Mexico, Russia, Poland, Finland, and the US selling out headlining or co-headlining concerts at Germany's Amphi Festival and Wave Gotik Treffen, Castle Party Festival in Poland, and selling out the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles and Irving Plaza in New York City.

During these concerts LAM began to premier new songs destined for a new LAM album. In May 2015 LAM co-headlined the Wave Gotik Treffen performing to about 10,000 and teased audiences with a short video clip promoting the forthcoming new LAM album.

From 2015-2019 LAM headlined major festivals around the world, including Wave Gotik Treffen multiple times, and many other events.

In 2019 Sean Brennan started his own record label, Darkride Records, and released "Selected Scenes from the End of the World: 9119", the original 1991 album remixed from the original master tapes. This new mix restored missing audio tracks and includes a never before released song from the 1991 sessions. The album was released digitally, on CD, and 12 inch double vinyl. In 2020, during the worldwide lockdown and pandemic, LAM recorded a "live" album titled "Live From Isolation" as a stand in for an extensive world tour that had to be cancelled, also released by Darkride Records.

In 2022 LAM resumed live performances with a double weekend engagement at the massive Cruel World festival at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (with Blondie, Morrissey, Bauhaus, and many more) and a headlining concert at the Amphi festival in Germany. In Autumn of 2022 "Oddities Too" was released, featuring 5 never before released songs, several recomposed classics and the 1998 "Oddities" album remixed from the original master tapes. "Oddities Too" charted in the top ten of several European music charts, reaching number one on the German DAC alternative music charts where it remained for 6 weeks - spending a total of 8 weeks in the top ten.

LAM will release an all new album with Darkride Records in the near future. A complete remix of "Psycho Magnet", remixed from the original master tapes, is also underway.

Brennan says "LAM is always evolving, trying something different and new, and I'm never content to be just another music project". Often classified by the press as dark-wave, industrial, deathrock or gothic, LAM break all the "rules" of those scenes and create a unique and strong identity and sound, while rejecting any one label and embracing all music. Songwriter Sean Brennan's influences and musical passions are far ranging and varied. He takes pride in the fact that London After Midnight does not fit into any musical category but attracts fans across multiple genres. London After Midnight is simply London After Midnight, and that seems enough for LAM's fans.

This discography does not include a full listing of compilation CDs.

London After Midnight, 1990 cassette:

Selected Scenes from the End of the World, 1991 cassette:

Ruins, 1994 cassette:

Ruins, 1994 video:

In Goth Daze, 1995 CD:

Gothic Rock 2, 1995 CD:

What Sweet Music They Make, 1995 CD:

Selected Scenes from the End of the World, 1995 CD (also released in 1998 on Metropolis Records USA with new art):

Psycho Magnet demo, 1995 cassette:

Kiss single, 1995 CD:

Psycho Magnet, 1996 CD (also released in 1998 on Metropolis Records USA with new art):

Selected Scenes from the End of the World, 1996 CD:

12" Picture disks, 1996, vinyl:

Various Compilations, 1996-1998:

This is a partial list of compilations that were released in Europe by EFA distribution and various magazines. There are MANY more compilation CDs with LAM songs out there.

Innocence Lost limited pressing, 1997 video:

Oddities, 1998 CD:

Innocence Lost, 1998 Video:

Oddities 12" Picture disks, August 1998, vinyl:

Selected Scenes from the End of the World, 2003 CD:

Psycho Magnet, 2003 CD:

SAW II soundtrack, 2006 CD:

"A Life Less Lived: The Gothic Box" compilation, 2006:

Violent Acts of Beauty, 2007:

Selected Scenes from the End of the World, 2008 CD:

Psycho Magnet, 2008 CD:

Oddities, 2008 CD:

Selected Scenes from the End of the World: 9119, 2019 CD/vinyl/digital:

Live From Isolation, 2020 CD/digital:

Oddities Too, 2022 CD/vinyl/digital:

Darkride.MySpreadshop.com

Apple Music

LAM store