V Transmission – The Final Countdown

Welcome to the third and final part of our V Transmission trilogy! We now find our frontman and singer-songwriter Andy Boucher along with his song writing partner and lifelong friend guitarist John Anson embarking on another chapter of their combined musical careers – as part of the band V Transmission.

V-Transmission now fully installed as an independent four-piece combo hailing from, as George Orwell described, “The dark industrial belly and guts of the North that is Manchester”, they have now been around a respectable time predominantly as the song-writing project of duo Andy Boucher and John Anson (formerly of Out of The Blue, Cobra Verde). It was only in 2016 with the addition of Mat Thorpe on bass guitars, Mick Bedford (The Wedding Present, Chumbawumba) on drums and with the addition of percussion, that a new live energy and the abstract image brought the band to life. The formation is now complete with the inclusion of musicians with similar tastes and influences.

The name of the band is in reference to a favourite poem of Andy Bouchers, The Agrippa Files by William Gibson, now citing influences from one of his favourite fellow Mancunian legends the band Joy Division. Originally called Virtual Transmission, the band shortened their moniker to V Transmission to make more of a visual impact on their merchandise. It also brings the band bang up to date as the shortened version fits in perfectly with todays ‘text speak’ and todays society living virtual lives through all the various social media platforms, a very Orwellian prediction indeed from Andy himself.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3sFsSTD9sUkcLTiRVbvpj8?si=2cc89396a77f4318

It was all steam ahead for V Transmission at the start of 2020, with gigs and festivals planned and an album, Coma which was dedicated to the memory of Woody, ready to go. We all know what happened next…..the fateful Covid pandemic hit and all live gigs, festivals and planned touring was dramatically halted. The band dabbled with online virtual gigs, but their stadium rock sound and the complexity of elements that go into their music, meant that it just wasn’t right for them and just didn’t do the sound any justice, true Rock and Roll bands need a stage and an audience to feed off to perform to full effect.

With a year chocked full of planned live performances, the band had sunk over £1,000 into merchandise to sell at the gigs, and suddenly found they had no avenue to showcase any of it! Enter Twitter! While the band did have an account, it lay dormant and forgotten about until now, but after a total reboot, the followers starting flooding in, and the merchandise began to sell. With over 7,000 followers, they soon sold all of their merch and CDs completely to an army of new and keen followers and supporters.

(V Transmission live at Gullivers, Manchester, pre Covid)

A record and management promotional deal followed but was sadly short-lived. A rather dubious record label from the states seduced the band and signed V Transmission at an upfront heavy cost on a two-year contract but failed to plough their money or efforts into publishing or promoting the band and failed to deliver what they had promised, an all too familiar story for so many other unfortunate bands and artists. The lads now found themselves unable to promote or release any material due to the politics and stalemate print in the contact, and they weren’t alone in that label camp, Andy recalls this as a very disappointing, frustrating, and draining negative experience personally and for the band’s development or lack of it. However, Karma did her job, and before long the unspoken label stitch up nightmare was over and the band were free again. This proved to be a harsh lesson learned and timely move which led to better things for V Transmission.

It was thanks to Twitter during the height of the Covid pandemic that the band signed another promotion contract, having been spotted and contacted on Twitter by Steven Morgan saying he absolutely loved their sound and wanted to sign them up to his well respected and professional Royale Music and Promotion Label. What followed was a very successful re-launch and re boot which saw the band’s tracks being carefully and thoughtfully marketed on Spotify through Stephen Morgan and the Royale Music Label and promotion network. Huge listening figures quickly amassed, with the re-release of ‘Silence the Guns’ streaming over 47K and the current single, Red Cherry Smiles running a close second at 41K and both still rising to date and soon to be followed up by the full COMA album release.

The road to musical absolution now seems assured for V Transmission, with new material in the offing and live gigs on the agenda, they are hoping to finally cement their sound and brand in the coming year of 2022!

V Tranmission are:

Genre: Post punk/alternative rock.

Andy Boucher, Vocals, guitars and keyboards.

John Anson, Vocals, lead guitars.

Mat Thorpe Bass guitars, vocals.

Mick Bedford, Drums and percussion programming. For more information please visit http://www.vtransmission.com and follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Lauren Jayne