The Go! Team Biography

The Go! Team is a six-piece group from Brighton whose sound is a stunning blend of indie rock guitars, police show themes, hip-hop beats, and schoolyard chants built on samples and then augmented by live instrumentation. The founder and leader of the team is Ian Parton, who provides guitar and sculpts their sound. The rest of the group includes Sam Dook on guitar, banjo, and drums, Chi 'Ky' Fukami Taylor on drums, Jaime Bell on bass, Ninja on vocals, and Kaori Tsuchida on drums, guitar, keyboards, and melodica. Their first release, 2000's {'Get It Together'}, was primarily a solo effort by Parton that gained support from John Peel and others, but legal problems prevented a timely follow up. By the time of 2003's Junior Kickstart single, the group had been assembled (and included Silke Steidinger, who was left in fall of 2005) and signed to Memphis Industries. Thunder, Lightning, Strike was released in 2004 and quickly became a sensation in the U.K., where it was nominated for the Mercury Prize, and in the U.S. where the band became an MP3 blog darling. A bidding war ensued in the U.S., with Columbia winning, but before the album could gain release, many of the samples had to be replaced (which didn't affect the quality of the record at all). The group followed up the album with two U.K. singles, 2005's Bottle Rocket and 2006's Lady Flash, and extensive world touring.