Oisin Leech, Vox , Guitar
Ned Crowther, Vox, Bass
Freddie Stitz, Guitar, Vox
Massimo Signorelli, Drums

The debut album by 747s will be released through Ark Recordings in August 2006

The problem faced by many young bands launching themselves upon the populace is, too few of 'em boast compelling enough back stories -you can only spin the tale of four young kids who started a band so far before the readership feels yawnsome.
Not so with 747s. The romantic, grubby-glamorous story of their pre-fame rise (which is still unfolding) would make a great movie, with its sense of adventure and advance, its fabulous soundtrack, and scenes of unwitting aerial terrorism and brushes with the bomb-squad - though its
various international locations would probably break Hollywood's budget.

Ned Crowther and Oisin Leech met in Dublin, where both attended university. Ned hailed from Oxford, where he'd grown up on a diet of soul and reggae, with his parents' passion for classical music and musicals filtering in, until he was as conversant with Gilbert & Sullivan or Noel Coward as
he was Stevie Wonder and Gil Scott Heron. Oisin was a Dublin native, son to a classically trained violinist father and a singing mother, with a grandmother who grew up in one of Dublin's most prestigious music halls ("She was always very critical about singers," remembers Oisin).

Ned had a frustrated history with the trumpet behind him; Oisin, similarly, had tussled with the cello at his parents' urging, hiding in the bushes after his mum dropped him off to his lessons. Both felt more at home on the guitar, meeting each other at a dismal Jazz Guitar lesson.
"I loved jazz with a little swing, a little sex," explains Ned. "Miles, Mingus, Duke Ellington. The teacher was awful, the students were all bored. And I saw Oisin across the room, with green hair anda huge red guitar, playing abysmally, and I thought, 'I like his attitude."
The pair instantly bonded over the purchase of tickets for Morrissey at Dublin Arts Centre. Oisin clued Ned into his deep knowledge of punk rock, from The Clash and the Slits to UK Subs and Eater, product of a youth misspent at 'Punk's Not Dead!' festivals, while Ned waxed lyrical on soul and reggae and jazz. They formed a band, Fluid Druids, a floating 'ark-estra' of similarly anarchic, melodic types. And every day, every single day, they'd busk.
"Every night at 1am, when the clubs would close, we'd be stood underneath the clock at Bewley's,
busking," remembers Oisin. "We'd busk all hours of the day, in heavy coats and with little flasks of
whiskey, an acoustic and a bass amp. And then we went to Italy."