Blood Red Shoes are an English alternative rock duo from Brighton consisting of Laura-Mary Carter and Steven Ansell. They have released six full-length albums, Box of Secrets (2008), Fire Like This (2010), In Time to Voices (2012), Blood Red Shoes (2014), Get Tragic (2019) and Ghosts On Tape (2022) as well as several EPs and a number of singles. In 2014, they founded their own label, Jazz Life.
Overview
Formation
Blood Red Shoes formed in late 2004, after Steven Ansell and Laura-Mary Carter's previous bands (Cat on Form and Lady Muck respectively) broke up and they decided to "have a jam". In an interview in Berlin, Carter explained that the band's name was taken from a Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire musical, in which Rogers had turned a pair of white dancing shoes red with blood due to the amount of dancing she had done practising for the role.
Early singles
Blood Red Shoes released their debut single "Victory for the Magpie" on 18 July 2005, followed by the double A-side "Stitch Me Back / Meet Me at Eight" then "A.D.H.D", both released on Try Harder Records, and "You Bring Me Down" on Drowned in Sound / Abeano/XL in 2006. After playing over 300 live shows around the UK, they were signed to V2 in April 2007 with whom they released the singles "It's Getting Boring by the Sea" (11 June 2007) and "I Wish I Was Someone Better" (29 October 2007), as well as the singles compilation album I'll Be Your Eyes on 25 June 2007.
The band featured on both days of the 2007 Camden Crawl, playing the Purple Turtle and the Earl of Camden respectively, and were one of four bands to play the NME New Music Tour 2007, with the Little Ones, Pull Tiger Tail and the Rumble Strips. The summer of 2007 saw the band playing several festival spots, including T in the Park, the inaugural Underage Festival, and the Electric Gardens festival. They also supported a wide range of bands, such as Biffy Clyro and Maxïmo Park.
Box of Secrets
Following the sale of V2 to Universal Music Group, the band's debut album Box of Secrets was released on Mercury Records/Universal on 14 April 2008. It was leaked to private torrent trackers in November 2007, several months before its retail release date. The band have commented that although they have no issue with file sharing and downloading free music, having their debut album become available outside of their control and without the intended artwork and lyric booklet was a disappointment. Laura-Mary Carter from the band has designed the record sleeve for every release by the band.
They played a nine-date tour of the UK, in support of the album, followed by dates across mainland Europe and Japan. They played major international festivals including Glastonbury festival, Reading and Leeds, Summer Sonic, Pukkelpop, Lowlands and Melt!.
Fire Like This
After their autumn-winter tour of 2008, which covered over 12 countries, the band took a performance stop in the first months of 2009 to write songs for their next record. They began touring again in March 2009, introducing new songs at every gig, sometimes including unfinished songs or those without lyrics. They opened for Foals in Brighton in 2009 to road-test some new material by playing all new songs except for "It's Getting Boring by the Sea" and "This Is Not For You". On 17 May 2009, the band played All Tomorrow's Parties (ATP festival), having been invited to play by the Breeders. The band recorded their second album with Mike Crossey at the Motor Museum studio in Liverpool. They also contributed an instrumental track called "Carry Knots" on a compilation CD for Audioscope, in aid of the homeless charity Shelter, which was released in October 2009.
On 25 November 2009, the band made a new track, "Colours Fade", available to download from their website. Independent music webzine The Music Magazine commented that the band's sound had been boosted. Author Jamie Smith wrote: "It takes the tried and tested BRS formula and as they say, turns it up to eleven. It’s seven minutes long. It pretty much defines epic. It sounds HUGE."
The album's first single "Light It Up" premiered on 5 January 2010 on Radio 1 by Huw Stephens filling in for Zane Lowe. The single was released on 22 February, one week before the release of their second album Fire Like This on 1 March 2010. Further singles "Don't Ask" and "Heartsink" were released in May and August respectively, which was followed by a European and North American tour in October. In September 2010, the band recorded a few new songs which they hope to release as an EP.