ABOUT

We are independent! It all started back in 2005, when music enthusiast Ana Galhardo aka Cherry Fuzz decided to found a record label right in the heart of Nottinghamshire. True to its principles, it would release debuts from unknown bands within the scope of garage rock, surf music, rock’ n’ roll and all its related sub-genres, from around the world. It wasn’t (still isn’t!) an easy task, but we manage to slowly keep going. Check out our releases!

In 2009, after putting on a ton of local gigs to promote the niche of international garage rock music scene around the Midlands, we ventured into throwing a bigger party. With the help of Leicester’s Lava Lounge crew we managed to take Blast Off Festival! to another level, having The Gories, The Oblivians and The Ghastly Ones, all three directly flown from the US, as the main headliners. Yes, we managed three days of total insane music, debauchery party! Also on board there was an array of fantastic bands from around UK and Europe, such as The Cosmic Vampires (our own debut release), Los Chicos, both from Spain, Thee Eviltones (lads from around here!), Les Bof! (very French indeed), Le Chat Noir (no not from France…but from the West shore of Britannia), amongst other incredibly cool bands. We could indeed write extensively about it, but for now have a look at the events photos gallery and you will certainly recognise some of these incredible bands!

Blast Off! Festival returned to the City of Nottingham in 2011, this time with the help of a very small crew, and we had the Bambi Molesters from Croatia ( Lux & Ivy favourite surf band), Wild Evel & The Trashbones, from Austria, who dressed to honour Nottingham’s very own Robin Hood (yes… from Sherwood Forest only a few yards away!) plus a ton of magnificent bands! We even had a whole day to celebrate our own compilation “No Way Out!”, where the bands who took part, performed and shown their awe-inspiring talent – Electrisixties (Argentina), GoGo Cult (UK), Exploding Rubber Band (Norway), The Smoggers (Spain) and loads more. Well… you’ll need to check out this compilations for sure, if you haven’t yet! And keep an eye out for the upcoming ones!

Plans were to keep going with the festival every two years, but with a small crew, tight money and the ridiculous amount of work that needs to be put into throwing in a big party, we decided to give it a few years gap which gave us time to focus in our mailorder. So, in 2017 we saw Blast Off! Festival returning to the humble City of Nottingham with The Pretty Things and Kaleidoscope as main headliners – a travel back in time to the 60’s! But it didn’t stopped there and the stage was shared with a ton of amazingly cool bands, such as The Courettes (Brazil/Sweden), The Fuzillis (UK), The Launderettes (Norway), Hangee V (Italy) and loads more dazzling acts! Not to mention the cool, international all-girl DJ crew, that blessed the decks with the grooviest music you could ever hear off!

Nevertheless, we would like to send a huge Thank You to you all music freaks that keep supporting Dead by Mono! We hope to keep providing good music to your ears and good art to your eyes! Be independent!