Writers - Steffi & Dave
Editor - Toni Michelle

Fightstar formed in late 2003 after an impromptu jam session at a party at
Charlie Simpson's girlfriend's London home which she was sharing with Al's
sister.

The party got into full swing with Charlie and Al covering Rage Against
The Machine's 'Killing In The Name' with Omar drumming along to them on the table.
Simpson, impressed by each of their abilities, soon asked the members to join a band. After
moving in together, Charlie and Al regularly went to gigs and came home buzzing
with ideas, then they would write songs whilst strumming on their acoustic
guitars until dawn.

After a few songs had been written Charlie, Al and Omar booked a rehearsal studio to tape their songs, for a laugh. They then recruited
bassist Dan Haigh - a school friend of guitarist Westaway and who is known
as being 'metal through and through'. When they met Dan he didn't know who Charlie
was or who Busted were, "Charlie put on an Elliott Smith album so Dan knew he wasn't all that bad!"

Rehearsing and playing as often as Simpson's schedule would allow, things
soon became more serious and it became apparent that a decision regarding the
band's future had to be made and for it not just to be a side project. Simpson ultimately made the decision to leave
Busted, with the group officially calling it quits in early 2005 and looked
eagerly ahead to a life with Fightstar. The name 'Fightstar' was created when
bassist Dan Haigh came up with the name 'Evenstar' and Charlie thought of the
name 'A Time To Fight' - these names were combined to give the name Fightstar.

Fightstar's début EP, 'They Liked You Better When You Were Dead' was released on
February 28 2005 following a rapid promotional tour of the UK. The release was
deliberately constructed to be made ineligible for the British music charts —
Simpson's first attempt to clearly leave Busted and its teenage fanbase behind.
The release proved popular enough to warrant a reprinting on March 23 2005. The
first track, 'Palahniuk's Laughter' enjoyed heavy rotation on music video
channels and spent many weeks in charts based on video and radio requests. The
track was originally entitled 'Out Swimming in the Flood' - a line from the
Elliott Smith song 'Baby Britain', but was renamed out of respect after the 2004
tsunami.

The band are heavily influenced by the author Chuck Palahniuk, with the band
naming a song after him (Palahniuk's Laughter) and including a drawing of Edward
Norton's character in the film adaptation of Palahniuk's début novel Fight Club on
the reverse side of the EP cover.

Initially, the band faced criticism from much of the British music press
because of Simpson's past career - NME magazine invited Charlie to
their awards show as part of a plot to ridicule him. The plan was
thwarted and Charlie didn't go. Most vocal in the early days was Kerrang!
magazine, however the magazine quickly became one of the band's biggest
supporters, giving strong, positive reviews to early gigs and to
the EP, as did RockSound magazine. Along with Kerrang!, RockSound are one of Fightstar's
biggest supporters, regularly featuring in-depth interviews.

Reviewing their debut Kerrang! editor Paul Brannigan wrote "Grand
Unification is one of the best British rock albums of the last decade". Even NME
magazine who had previously doubted the band's talent and integrity had to admit
they had been proved wrong and that not only were Fightstar good... they were
very good. Fightstar were also nominated two years running at the Kerrang!
awards for 'Best British Newcomer' and 'Best British Band', narrowly missing out
in 2006 to LostProphets, although they say it was an honour just to be
nominated.

The band's début single "Paint Your Target" was released on June 13, 2005 in
the UK, peaking at #9 in the singles chart. The video for "Paint Your Target",
which was produced by Dan Haigh, was banned for being 'too
controversial'. The band didn't agree stating that "...We see worse on the news and
in the papers what's the difference?", however the band relented and remade the
video, only releasing it to public view on the DVD that was released with the
single. Their second single, 'Grand Unification (Part 1)' was released on
October 31 2005, and peaked at #20 in the UK singles chart. Another video to
this song was made containing footage from Dragonballz, a favorite cartoon of the
band and is regularly viewed on YouTube.

A new version of the 'They Liked You Better When You Were Dead' EP was released in
early 2006 through Deep Elm Records in America and in March 2006, they were listed by the US rock magazine Alternative Press as one
of the 100 bands to watch out for.

A week before the release of their début album, Fightstar released their third
single, 'Waste A Moment' which peaked at number 29 on the UK singles chart, staying in the UK Top 40 for just one week.

The video for the single was filmed in
an abandoned Aldwych tube station in London Underground - this tunnel was the
same one used by The Prodigy for their video for 'Firestarter' - and was based
on the 1970s classic film 'Don't Look Now'. This video was also banned for
being too scary and controversial, and was only played on
Kerrang! after 11pm. Once again the band were not happy, with Charlie Simpson
stating "TV stations could have a problem with the kid's face but it'd be a
shocking state of affairs if a scary face can't be shown on television!" A
week later, Fightstar released their début full-length album on 13 March 2006
through Island Records, entitled Grand Unification, a concept album based on the
Japanese manga cartoon 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' which contains not one but two
musical evocations of the apocalypse. Produced and mixed by Colin Richardson
(Bullet for My Valentine, Machine Head, Funeral for a Friend), the album entered
the midweeks at #11 and ended up débuting at #28 in the UK charts. Grand
Unification was released in America in March 2007, along with a full US tour.

Fourth single 'Hazy Eyes', backed by a cover of Funeral for a Friend's 'She
Drove Me to Daytime TV' was released in the UK on June 5 2006. The single only
got to number 47 in the UK singles chart.
The band also headlined the Sunday date of Welsh rock music festival The Full Ponty
under Biffy Clyro and Funeral for a Friend, in May 2006. Fightstar toured with Funeral for a
Friend for three months in 2006 covering such places as Australia, Japan and the
United Kingdom. The band soon had made a reputation and played many
festivals, playing festivals in Japan with the likes of Bullet For My Valentine and playing the Main Stage at Reading and Leeds. They have
also made appearances playing the Snickers Stage at the Download Festival and
played 2 consecutive years at T in the Park; first opening the NME stage at the
2005 festival and then the following year playing the Main Stage.

Fightstar have also recently covered Metallica's 'Leper Messiah' and Deftones'
'My Own Summer' for Kerrang! magazine free CD giveaways during 2006. They have
covered Deftones' 'Minerva' acoustically, which is available on the 7" vinyl
version of the 'Waste A Moment' single.

Kerrang magazine reported that Fightstar had set up camp on a farm in
Northamptonshire (Al's Barn) to begin work on the follow up to their 2006 début
album 'Grand Unification'. According to Charlie, Fightstar have already written
four songs for the next album. He has also said that the band is a fan of Muse
and Deftones in the way they push boundaries and aim to do the same.

The band hit the road for an extensive tour beginning at Glasgow Barrowlands on
October 8 2006 with a supporting cast that they personally hand picked,
including Mancunian prog-rockers Oceansize, rising US post-hardcore stars The
Receiving End Of Sirens and Arizona rockers Scary Kids Scaring Kids.

On 8 September 2006 it was reported that Charlie Simpson had torn up his
contract with label Island Records after the music bosses tried to force
him into returning to a pop sound for the next Fightstar album. The former
Busted star has struggled to be taken seriously — and he has no
intention of turning back now. Simpson is even considering a complete new
start in America with the band, where he hopes he can tap into the ever-growing
emo-rock market. He says, "Earlier this week we decided to tear up the contract.
"They wanted a pop album and we didn't. I've put so much into this band I don't
want to start compromising now. We're thinking about going to America. The
market for our stuff is much bigger over there."

The band have now signed to Institute Records, a brand new imprint of Gut
Records and TrustKill records in America. They will be recording the next album
in LA with producer Matt Wallace who has also produced the likes of Faith No
More, Satchel, Deftones and Sugarcult. The album is set to be released September
2007.

On 4 April 2007, Kerrang! Radio débuted a new Fightstar song called '99'. After
being aired on Kerrang and Scuzz TV for two weeks, the video for '99' was finally
playlisted on Kerrang TV on 4th May 2007. Fightstar also launched a microsite
for the download-only single on which you can download the single and the
video for free. www.fightstar99.com

The band released 'Grand Unification', in the US and Canada on
April 17 2007. The release differs from the British and Japanese versions by
including the 'Hazy Eyes' B-side, 'Fight For Us' as the final track.

They headlined the 2007 'Give It A Name' Festival in April along with the likes
of AFI and Enter Shikari for three sold out dates in London, Birmingham and Glasgow.
They also recently covered Judas priest song 'Breaking The Law' for Kerrang's
'Higher Voltage' CD - a cover that showcased Charlie Simpson's screamo vocals and
one that probably hasn't won him any hard-core fans' respect. Talking about the
cover he said "When we recorded our cover of Deftones 'My Own Summer (Shove It)
for the 'High Voltage' CD, I was pretty intent on not changing anything. With
'Breaking The Law', we thought we would fuck around with it. When you do a
cover, sometimes you have to make it completely your own. This time, I didn't
give a fuck. We love the song, we love what we've recorded and that's all that
matters. It'll always offend the hard-core fans, no matter what you do."

On the 23rd May 07 release of Kerrang! Magazine, the band at last confirmed the
title of their second record to be 'One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours',
scheduled for release on 17th September, which is an album, Charlie says, they
vented a lot into as a band as it was very therapeutic to make (the album relates
to their feelings and their lives at the time of writing and is not a concept
album like their début) and is also very personal and close to his heart
(because at the time of writing he had just come out of a seven year relationship
and the album is based on this and conveys the emotional turmoil he was going
through). The article also mentioned the official first single from the album
will be the track 'We Apologise For Nothing', to be released 10th September.
Other tracks on the new album include

'I Am The Message','Amaze Us', 'Our Last
Common Ancestor', 'Deathcar', 'Floods', 'Ceilings', 'The Turn', 'One Day
Son,This Will All Be Yours' and 'Stomp The Ground' and 'We Apologise For Nothing'.

Fightstar to date are also completing a 5 date mini tour of small venues in
August. They have recently been confirmed to play the Kerrang! Day Of Rock 2007
on the 20th August at the Barfly in London, and they will also be completing a
13 date album tour in September and October before returning to the USA in the
fall to continue promoting 'Grand Unification'

Fightstar have just released the first EVER Vinyl/CD single format for there new
Release of Deathcar. The single was inspired after a dramatic fall out with his partner
After he found she was seeing someone else, The lyrics for Deathcar was a fuel of Charlie's
Anger and this led to the true Lyrics of Fightstar and what there really about.
This Lited edition of 4000 copies will be available on the 3rd of December.

As of now Fightstar are touring the UK for the Kerrang Relentless tour 2008 with
the likes of COHEED AND CAMBRIA, Madina Lake and Circu Survive.
Fightstar are also due to release there 3rd official single release of of there new Album,
One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours,
The New single is called floods. And comes with exclusive behind the scenes video footage into the making.
The song is inspired by Mr Al gore's documentary called an Inconvieniat Truth .
The single is due to release on the 3rd of March.

On release of Floods fightstar had decided to contribute towards oxfam and teamed up with both them and Lowlife,
A secret gig was in the light for a select few lucky fans that would be able to purchase them, The tickets sold out almost
Instantly,
The tickets were limited to approx 300 and the aftershow party to about approx. 200.
The night went down with a bang and the aftershow seen with Charlie dancing to Michael Jackson on the dance floor.

Fightstar are now schedule for a May tour with Charlies brothers band BRIGADE and support act from We are the Ocean.
Please see tour section for more details.
The tour is called an impressive DEATHCAR TOUR, giving the tour a name never to forget.

The boys have being a a massive journey so far and then came Download festival, They got asked to play centre stage around 1pm after another band had pulled out, coming out playing an awesome set and getting the best reception Fightstar could even dream of, after the previous year fightstar played the second stage and got bottled.
Charlie also presented Scuzz at download and was his usual self with band mates Al, Dan and Omar going around site creating havok.

Fightstar have just gone back into the studio to start work on their third full length studio album. Simpson said in a recent interview, that they would be co-producing for the first time with Producer Carl Bown (Guitarist of UK rock band Laruso).

Fightstar's third full length offering is expected to be released in March 2009. The first single to be taken from the album will be called 'English Way'. The video for 'The English Way' was shot in Leeds on the 26th August. Other titles from the new record confirmed by Simpson in a recent interview include 'War Machine', 'Mercury Summer', 'Calling On All Stations.'
The band recently set up a new company with Triston called 'Search And Destroy' after previous company Gut recordings went bust.
This is now offering the band many new oppotunitys with singles being sold worldwide and the potential of the band touring Europe in the up and coming future.

Fightstar have been confirmed to support Feeder at the end of 2008 on their UK tour.
Fightstar started touring supporting Feeder in late October in coisidence with promoting the band's new single the English way.
Playing new Tracks "The English Way" and Album Demo "Colours Bleed".
The tour is looking promising for fightstar and The English way is the first release to hit number 1 on the MTV2 charts and topping most requested for three weeks on Scuzz and Kerrang.

The English way single which were due for release on Monday 3rd of November had Vinyl issues and didn't make it into shops as a set officially until the 10th of November, But hardcore fans of the band won't be dissapointed with the sheer riffs and melodys that fightstar have to offer on this beast of a single.

English way see's fightstar in a 3 room set up consistant of a blue, Red and white room setup with added chior and awesome fluffy riffs.
As where Colours Bleed gives us all a glimps into what to expect on the 3rd album. With chunky choruses and mild verses and an awesome breakdown on the end, it seems fightstar are turning in new directions.

And with the Album in full swing of a promised release in March with a months tour, Fightstar seem to be moving at an exessive rate.

They have completed the bands 3rd full length album entitled 'Be Human' and with only days until its release the new album is set to be the most successful yet.
Mercury Summer the bands 2nd single off the third full length is set for release next week (6th April) and has hit number 1 in its first week in the Mtv2 charts knocking You Me At 6 down to 2nd place, also for the first time Fightstar have reached the A-lists on Radio 1 making them get more air play. congratulations.

With an impressive 'Be Human' Tour set for the end of April begining of May period the band are dying to hit the road again to promote some more of their new offerings.

More updates soon..