If you have any news about the band please let me know: eric@helmetband.com
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The website is now hosted up at Yahoo! so it should be up indefinitely.

A lot has happened since the last update. Helmet got back together, released a new album, and is currently on tour.

Check out the official Helmet website for tour dates, http://www.helmetmusic.com/tour/tour.htm

Do you know a good singer who is original? If so, my band is looking for a singer, you can check out some rough tracks at http://www.enjoyfeedback.com They can send me an email at eric@helmetband.com We're located in the Bay Area in California.

Helmet is releasing a new best of CD on November 4th called Helmet Unsung: The Very Best of Helmet (1991-1997).

The band will also be touring in support of the new CD however only two original members, Page and Chris Traynor will be on the tour. Page has apparently had a change of heart and will not be calling the band "Helmet" anymore. It's unknown what the band will be touring by at this moment. More to come....

Full story here, http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1477148/20030822/hamilton_page.jhtml

I received this e-mail update from Page Hamilton today!

March 21, 2003

Hi Eric.

This Helmetband.com site is great. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your work in keeping information about the band available to Helmet fans. Thank you.

First I feel compelled to address a partial misquote of my retarded iq option demo between-song banter from a Gandhi (more later) live show in Boston from last summer/fall that was forwarded to me by a friend. (normally I wouldn't give a shit but it has the potential to offend and alienate my former Helmet band mates so......)

A guy in the audience (Jon) asked me about a Helmet reunion and I responded jokingly that Helmet was a band full of assholes and that I was the only asshole in THIS band (Gandhi). Jon left off the last bit ("I'm the only asshole in this band") in his review of the show. I listened to a CD recording of the show, done for my own musical edification, and heard the on-stage conversation AND was reminded of the joke by the guys sharing the stage with me that night. No disrespect was intended or implied as far as I'm concerned but not everyone shares my sense of humor. That's fine with me as long as my lame chatter is shared accurately.

After 9 years, 3 world tours (1000, 1100, 1200 shows??), 5 albums worth of music etc. with John and Henry (portions of which were shared by Peter, Rob and Chris) I wouldn't want them believing that I had anything but respect for them as musicians and dedicated human beings.

As to the rumors of a Helmet reunion I have never ruled out the possibility. We've been thinking about a Helmet "live" album for a long time. It'd be great to do a few live shows around the release of a live record but it's nothing we've discussed.

John is happy in Tomahawk (great band with Patton, Denison and Kevin from Cows/Melvins) and Henry had his band The Moonlighters up until recently (I haven't heard them). Henry is going to move to Hawaii to study lap steel (Henry plays bass, drums, guitar, lap steel etc. you name it) with the masters.

As I mentioned above I have a new band and for now I'm calling it Gandhi. The east coast version has been dissolved as I am spending more time on the west coast now. I'm playing with John Tempesta (White/Rob Zombie, Testament) and Rob Nicholson (Rob Zombie/ Prong). Charlie Clouser (Nine Inch Nails) has been involved in much of the writing, buttless chap fashion and sonic genius. We recently recorded 3 songs with Jay Baumgardner at his studio in Los Angeles and are looking for someone to put out an album this year. I met Jay through my friend Rene Mata (Reach 454 from New York) and had a blast working with him and his NRG family.

We will start trying out guitar players in May here in LA and should be playing shows (I hope) by early summer. As for Helmet songs..... I wrote Helmet songs, I like Helmet songs and I will play Helmet songs with my new band and I will continue to talk about Helmet when asked (or not)........I'm hungry. Bye for now. Thanks again.

Page

www.helmet.org returns as www.helmetband.com.

Well I've finally gotten the website backup. Unfortunately I lost the domain name helmet.org but helmetband.com seemed like the next best thing. Please email me with any links, news, videos or other info you have about the band and I'll get it put up asap. Also be sure to check out the new discussion boards compliments of Ezboard.

Rumors have been flying around that Helmet will return to the studio this year to record another album. We can only hope. More news on this as I hear it.

Here's an update on Page. He's written an albums worth of songs but continues to write, he's putting together a new band (unnamed as yet),k we're planning on his record being out sometime early next year (Feb / march probably) and he'll likely go out and do some small club shows later on this year to warm things up. You probably know he played live guitar for david bowie on the last set of dates david did to promote his "hours" album. Page will be chatting on the bowie website sometime later this month, I'll confirm as soon as i know the date.

Chris has his own band called The Americans. They will have an ep out soon on the indie grape0S label.

Henry has his own band, the moonlighters who put their debut album out independently not so long back. it's definitely in the country / hawaiin vein.

John i havent seen or talked to for a few months so i'm not sure what he's up to. last time i saw him he was thinking about moving to LA.

Page apparently worked on the NIN album, The Fragile. His name is listed in the special thanks section.

This was sent in by Matt:

I believe henry plays on one or two songs with Hank williams III on the new Melvins album, the crybaby.

I received today an e-mail from Charlie Clouser who confirmed that he was in studio last week with Page Hamilton in New Orleans .

Charlie and Page co-wrote and recorded almost ten songs!!! Some tracks will be released on P. Hamilton's forthcoming solo album and the rest should be available on the Tapeworm album (Nine Inch Nails side project feat. also TOOL / HELMET / PANTERA members...)

I received this from Anthony regarding John Stanier:

John Stainer has offically been working with the mark of cain playing live gigs with the band.

I received this from Luke regarding John Stanier:

OK here it is all, the moment you've been waiting for. I've heard a rumour from a pretty reliable industry source that John Stanier will be teming up with aussie group The Mark of Cain (now a two piece made up of brothers John and Kim Scott since their latest drummer has left the line-up) to play drums on their new album which should be released by the end of the year. While John is not playing with them at the moment and it is unclear whether he will have any more involvement after the album it's great news. The Mark of Cain's last album release "Ill at Ease" was produced by Henry Rollins and the boys from Adelaide, South Australia who have been together for over ten years have impressed and earned the respect of many performers worldwide.

I received this from Helmet's management company:

we wanted to keep you and helmet fans updated on the helmet front, as much as there is to tell. Page is currently writing and will have an album out on Interscope at the earliest late this year, more likely early 2000. it's too early to say who will be playing on the record and who he will tour with. He contributed guitar on 2 tracks and voice on 1 track on the Ben Neil record "Goldbug" released on Antilles / Polygram. He wrote and performed the theme to the film "Chicago Cab" released on Loosegroove Records, and he's scored some music for 2 other films "In Dreams" and "3 Seasons", neither soundtrack nor film have been released yet. He also played guitar on 1 song on the new NIN album, though I'm not sure when that's being released. Chris Traynor is in the process of writing and putting together a new band, we're hopeful he will have a record out by the summer. It's too early to say which label Chris will sign to. John has been doing some drum n bass stuff (nothing released) with a freind and d.j ing around NYC. Henry has his own band with a couple of freinds called, I believe, The Moonlighters. They've not recorded anything yet and I'm not sure if he wants to get back into the record company / touring cycle mill. I haven't heard anything but it's radically different from Helmet, incorporating elements of country and hawaiin music with female vocal.

I received this from Stel:

um... last weekend i went to see Page play with Ben Neil and Jim Mussen in London. Page has played on Neil's latest jazz/pop/ambient/jungle album and the trio were playing in support of a Glenn Branca symphony premier. I talked to page quite a bit before and after the show and got some info on the state of the band, his career, and generally anything your average die-hard helmet fan would appreciate. the band is officially broken up. henry is doing 'some country' thing, and page really doesen't know what the others are up to. he said he was planning to call john up sometime as he would like to work more with him on his first solo album which he hopes to have out sometime next year (this is probably out on interscope). the direction for this is a mixture of stuff (like the joe henry, some hardcore etc...) probably not like his last solo album with caspar brotzmann.... upon asking 'WHY?' he said 'things weren't like they used to be'. performing was still fun, but it had turned into a job for the others and it was time to let go' as far as i can remember... basically he is (as you probably know) just going around playing on different stuff (as usual) not really sure about where he's gonna setlle or if he is at all...

Here is a link to an article regarding the bands breakup

http://www2.rocktropolis.com/allstar/database/news/9811/10/story7.asp

I received this from Jason:

"Page has extended his deal w/Interscope and is going to be doing 3 more records". I don't know if it's three more Helmet albums or three Page albums. What I wrote is exactly what he sent. Also, I can't believe I forgot to add this, but after reading Dave's letter too me he mentioned that he had been touring w/Joe Henry and that he (Dave), had just completed( more*) music to a upcoming film by Neil Jordan called "In Dreams". He said he didn't know when it would be out,and I've asked him to let me know as soon as he can. The reason didn't add it to my first letter is because I thought Dave was referring to working with J.Henry on the film, and not Page. Re-reading it, I saw that "more" film music, was referring to his work with Page on the movie "Heat". So, he's doing the film w/Dave, 3 more albums and work w/Jim Coleman, completed NIN work. You know, he still doesn't have Bill Laswell beat!

I received this from Garth:

From allstarmag http://www.allstarmag.com March 25, 1998

Is Helmet over and lead singer/guitarist Page Hamilton going solo?

Well, according to the band's management company, New York- based Real Time, it seems a bit unclear. "The band is officially not broken up, but Page doesn't know what he's doing," says the source.
"He's written some songs for himself, which may or may notmean that Helmet will break up or that he will be doing a solo project in addition to Helmet." But if he did do a solo album, it would be on Helmet's label, Interscope, according to management.
As previously reported in allstar, Hamilton has already started on his solo career by contributing a song, "Underscore," to the Chicago Cab soundtrack under his name alone. The soundtrack is due in June on Loosegroove Records, along with tracks by Pearl Jam, Supergrass, Brad, and others.(allstar, Feb. 3)

Check out Pitchfork's review of Aftertaste here

I received this from Daniel: "Yes its official John and Henry have decided they had enough. Check out this month's AP magazine, Page is still writting music, but he would still like to work with John and Chris in the near future."

I have received several reports that John Stanier has left the band and Helmet has broken up. If anyone has a reliable source and can confirm or deny this, please send me e-mail.

Here's a transcript of the Helmet chat session that SonicNet hosted on September 22, 1997:
Helmet Chat Transcript

Susan sent this in.

I just saw a special about Helmet on telly .They showed some live stuff(recorded at the Live Music Hall in Cologne last year).They played some stuff from Strap It On the the first Aftertaste single and Wima's Rainbow.Page used picks with the Playboy logo on.He also introduced the songs in fluent German.In the interview they talked about the Aftertaste record and how Chris fits into the line-up. Page said that Aftertaste is like the ultimate Helmet record it contains everything Helmet is about.Here's an original quote"don't look at the crap you made in the past because there is more crap to come" Chris told that he would really like to write some songs because he also wrote all the songs of his former bands but he's lucky with what he has got.He just adds a new flavour to the songs when they are playing live and so it will be on the next record.And he also mentioned that in the 1.5 years nhe has been in Helmet he played more live shows than with all the other bands together he has been in. That's all I remember from the interview.I also watched the first ever Matchbox20 concert in Europe the same time. That's all for now

Huneybuket sent me this.

if you haven't heard already, Page Hamilton has recorded a song for the soundtrack to the upcoming movie Chicago Cab. It was mentioned in Addicted To Noise, in some article about Pearl Jam last week.

James sent me this info about a Real Audio archive of one of Helmet's concerts.

I found a nice treat i'd like to share with my fellow HELMET fans. I found a site with a real audio concert of HELMET at the Troubadour here in Los Angeles last July. It's at L.A. LIVE. Probably nice for those who missed the tour. Just thought you'd like to know, James

This is from A.P. Magazine, Oct. '97 isssue:

LIGHTS, CAMARA, HAMILTON!

HELMET GUITARIST SCORES FILM

On his days off between shows on the Aftertaste tour, Helmet guitarist Page Hamilton has been working on the soundtrack to HELL CAB, a film starring Paul Dillon. The film's producers liked Hamilton's guitar work on Joe Henry's 1996 album TRAMPOLINE and approached him for the job. "It's been a really great thing," Hamilton says of the film score. "I'm totally paranoid that at any minute Daniel Lanois could see the film and say, 'Oh, I'd love to write music for this movie,' and (the producers) would boot my ass back out the door!" Helmet will be touring the States through the summer before leaving for Japan, Austrailia and New Zealand.

Hear Helmet live today, September 22, 11PM EST!

Check out SonicNet's webpage for more info.

Chat with Helmet this Monday, September 22, 7PM EST!

Check out SonicNet's webpage for more info.

Wilma's Rainbow
The new Helmet Internet mailing list

To join, go to http://www.coollist.com, go to the bottom of the page and subscribe yourself to listname: wrainbow

To send mail to the list, send it to wrainbow@coollist.com

I saw Helmet at Slim's in San Francisco on July 18 and they were awesome!

Helmet is on the final leg of their tour which ends in October. Check out the Tour Info page for the current tour dates.