Send More Paramedics is an English zombie film-influenced crossover thrash band from Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. They are named after a line in the film 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 plays in the crossover style, what they describe as "Zombiecore... a fusion of 80's 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 video for which has recently resurfaced on YouTube. 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
x"
The band briefly reformed in early 2014 to play TDON 10, a one day indoor festival celebrating 10 years of 'Thirty Days of Night Records', also on the bill were; Azriel, Everette, Crossbreaker, Broken Teeth, Martyr Defiled, Grader, Public Domain, Iron Witch, Opium Lord, and Set Astray. They also Performed 2 other shows in a short run. Complete dates as follows:
"Live For Never - 2014"
11th April - Leeds, Wharf Chambers (Secret warm-up gig) - Support from: ATTACK! VIPERS and Iron Witch
12th April - Leeds, Vox (TDON 10)
10th May - Camden Barfly - Support from: Pure Graft and The Dead Anyways
Announced June 13, 2020 was a 'legacy' Instagram page for the band, which is currently accepting photo and video submissions, it read:
"Dear puny humans,
You should check out and follow this unofficial fan-run legacy Instagram page: @sendmoreparamedicsuk
Created and curated by the maniacal mortal Dan P, it seems to be a catacomb for loads of undead images and info.
Oh and do please contribute to the depository - get in touch with Dan on the Instagram page if you’re able to share any live photos or flyers etc!
Medico
x"
The band plans to reunite to perform 3 ‘one-off’ shows to celebrate their 20th anniversary in October 2021.
Dates as follows:
Friday 29th October: Boom - Leeds
Saturday 30th October: Boom - Leeds
Sunday 31st October: The Dome - London
On June 25th 2021 the band announced via their social media pages they had begun work on their as yet untitled 4th album, their first in 15 years.
Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
