There are at least 2 artists by this name: 1)Die Laughing was born in 1992 when John Berry (guitars) teamed up with Rachel Speight (vocals) and formed the songwriting nucleus of the band. Within a few months, bass player Dave Shiner, keyboard player Ruth Tyson and drummer Tom completed the line up. The band recorded their first demo Poems Of Your Life at Cage Studios in Sheffield. The original drummer disappeared soon after recording. After purchasing a drum machine and a crash course in drum programming, the first live gig was on 12 February 1993, held at the famous Narrow Boat public house on Canal Street in Nottingham. The band's second demo Love Amongst The Ruins was recorded in March 1993. The demo contained four brand new tracks highlighting the band's writing capabilities and received excellent reviews from fanzines and underground publications around the world, pushing the band to new heights within the scene. The band continued writing in between a hectic gigging schedule around the UK and late 1993 saw a return to Cage Studios for a self-financed single Nemesis. Four tracks were recorded with the addition of a live session drummer, but unfortunately touring and studio costs took their toll on any finances the band had. The single was shelved until October 1993, when the tape was released as the Nemesis EP. Heavy touring around the UK during the summer of 1994 urged the band to bring in another guitarist, Ian Holman. Following the success of the tour, it was decided Ian should become a permanent member and contribute to the writing of the songs with John and Rachel. October 1994 saw the release of the Shadows & Silhouettes cassette which featured a new recording of Nemesis (back with the drum machine) and two new tracks. Ian made his recording debut with Die Laughing on the band's final visit to Cage Studios in 1995 after the band had been approached by independent London label Grave News Ltd and 'Gothic Rock's Mick Mercer. Following impressive reviews and gigs the band were asked (and paid) to record two new songs, Harlequin for the Dreams In The Witch House compilation (Grave News), and Safe Little World for Mick Mercer's Gothic Rock 2 compilation (Jungle), both released in 1995. Die Laughing were now getting worldwide attention and Nemesis was receiving lots of airplay in the clubs of New York, and with this came mail and fanzine interest from the United States and Europe. Things were looking good and the band was signed by Grave News to release a seven-track mini-album Glamour & Suicide. The band chose to record the album at Purple Studios in Great Yarmouth rather than return to Cage in Sheffield; this enabled the band to live-in for the whole week working throughout the day and into the early hours rather than having to keep going home each day as was the case with Cage Studios. Shortly after the album had been recorded it was announced that live keyboard player Ruth was to leave the band due to work commitments so the band chose to sequence the keyboards for ease rather than find a replacement. Glamour & Suicide sold out on pre-orders alone and had to be re-pressed before it was even released. The album sold so well, the band were signed for a second full length album to be released in 1996. By the end of 1995 the pressure and workload had taken its toll on bass player Dave, and he too left the band. In January 1996 the band returned to Great Yarmouth to record Heaven In Decline. The band spent one week recording the 13 tracks but opted for a month break before returning to finish and mix the album. The album was released in May, and found such success in imports that a license was purchased by a Japanese label to manufacture and distribute the album for the Japanese market. The band continued gigging throughout 1996, but still found the time write a new single Queen Of Swords, which made its live debut in August at the Sacrosanct Festival at Londons Astoria. The Temptress EP was recorded at the Vestry in Ealing, West London over the Christmas & new year period 1996-97 but the recording was interrupted briefly when Rachel was hospitalised. The EP was released later in the year as a 6 track CD (3 studio & 3 live tracks) and also a vinyl 7 inch. The album Caged was released later in the year, and was a CD compilation of the band's discontinued demo tapes recorded at Cage Studios from 1992-1994. This release enabled new fans to enjoy the band's earlier material and proved to be very popular. In 1998, the band was approached by U.S label Cleopatra Records to release a compilation of Die Laughing album tracks together with 4 new unreleased tracks from the third album which the band had started to write. Incarnations (A Retrospective) became the final album the band would release in the 1990s. The album was a collection of songs put together for the US market from the bands three previous recordings. The four new tracks were recorded at Nottinghams Confetti studios with most of the engineering and production being done by the band. Die Laughing played their final gig at London's Borderline during the summer of 1999, ironically the same venue at which they had said goodbye to Dave only 4 years earlier. Die Laughing may have drawn to an end just before the millennium, but the music continued to reach new fans all over the world in the years that followed. John moved on and founded In Isolation, Rachel became a successful fashion accessories designer and member of Pretentious, Moi?. Ian continues to write music. In 2012 the core songwriting partnership of John Berry and Rachel Speight (Iden) reunited to bring the band back to life to celebrate their 20th anniversary. With new material planned for release in 2012 they were joined on stage by new members Mike Uwins (bass) and Bob Malkowski (guitar) to play their first anniversary show at Whitby Gothic Weekend on 28th April 2012. The show was quoted by a number of old fans as ‘their best ever’, and won them many new fans with the ‘Tangled’ limited edition single selling out within an hour of the performance. http://www.facebook.com/dielaughingofficial 2) Die Laughing is a hardcore punk band from the state of Georgia, USA in 2025 following the long-term hiatus of Machinist!. The lineup consists of Jeff Hill and Drew Clegg. Their music can be purchased from their official Bandcamp page, https://dielaughing.bandcamp.com/. Discography: -Fingers Crossed (2025 EP) <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Die+Laughing">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.