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Elliot Minor biography

Elliot Minor (formerly The Academy) are a classically influenced pop rock band from York, England. The group consists of Alex Davies (lead vocals, guitar), Ed Minton (vocals, guitar), Dan Hetherton (drums, backing vocals), Ed 'Teddy' Hetherton (bass), and Ali Paul (keyboard).

History and formation

Elliot Minor started as a duo, Alex Davies and Ed Minton, who met at Uppingham School in 2000. They started writing music and recording together, and performed acoustic covers at the school. In 2005, after leaving Uppingham, both Davies and Minton took a gap year from their studies to concentrate on writing and recording their own songs. Later that year Davies ran into childhood friend Dan Hetherton at the the Minster School in York, where they were both picking up younger brothers, and invited him to a band practice. Hetherton joined as the band's drummer. They also recruited Dan Hetherton's brother Ed to play bass. Davies kept in contact with another childhood friend, Ali Paul, a keyboardist, and from time to time sent Paul piano parts to their songs. Paul had been watching the band's progress on MySpace and was half-learning the songs while showing up to a few gigs to play keyboard for them. Paul officially joined the band shortly after. They named themselves 'The Academy', although later on changed their name to Elliot Minor for legal reasons. Davies built a simple recording studio at his home, called Mavehole Studios, in which they started to record more songs.

In 2006 Elliot Minor won a competition hosted by McFly through MySpace, and had the opportunity to support them in Newcastle upon Tyne to an audience of over 13,000. They signed to Repossession Records, an indie label run by their manager, Gary Ashley, although later signed a deal with Warner Bros. Records. The band recorded their début single, "Parallel Worlds", in 2006 in Los Angeles with Jim Wirt, producer for Hoobastank, Incubus, Something Corporate, Jack's Mannequin, and others. The single was released in April 2007 and reached #31 on the UK Top 40. Subsequent singles, "Jessica", "The White One Is Evil" and "Still Figuring Out" all reached the Top 30. "Parallel Worlds" was reissued, and followed by "Time After Time".

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