Former Amorettes and Tequila Mockingbyrd stars launch new band The Hot Damn!

Also featuring Laurie Buchanan and Lzi Hayes

The Hot Damn!
Author: Scott ColothanPublished 23rd Nov 2020
Last updated 23rd Nov 2020

Former Amorettes singer Gill Montgomery and Tequila Mockingbyrd drummer Josie O’Toole have joined forces with Laurie Buchanan (Aaron Buchanan and the Cult Classics) and Lzi Hayes (Sophie Lloyd Band, New Device) to launch the new band The Hot Damn!

Following a series of seismic line-up changes in late 2018 and early 2019, The Amorettes and Tequila Mockingbyrd’s remaining members merged to effectively become each other last year to honour all their upcoming touring commitments.

Guitarist Laurie Buchanan joined them for their 2019 live shows and at the start of 2020 they recruited bassist Lzi Hayes in place of the departing ex-Tequila Mockingbyrd member Jacinta Jaye.

Newly renamed The Hot Damn!, the quartet have spent much of this turbulent year writing and recording new material that’s been inspired by a diverse array of artists including Queen, The Struts, Blondie, The Darkness and Blink-182.

The Hot Damn! have today premiered a 45-second trailer about their new venture and have promised to make a further announcement during a Facebook Live Q&A session this Thursday (26th November) at 8pm.

Enthusing about the new musical venture, Gill Montgomery said: “The best thing to come from 2019 was meeting these amazing girls, which made everything fall into place with great ease and excitement. MERGE? YEAH! Feeling we had possibly outgrown our collective communal shoes, a fresh start seemed enticing.

“A lot of people think we are mad to do it... but we've been beavering away behind the scenes and we are so excited about the new sounds. We absolutely can't wait to share them with everyone!"

The Hot Damn! are also giving fans a unique insight into their songwriting process and more via weekly ‘Film Fridays’ on Facebook.

Josie O’Toole explains: "It's a funny time to launch a band - we can't just jump in the van like we usually would, but we couldn't sit still any longer.

“There's so much that goes on behind the scenes so we're trying to share as much of that as possible - from the actual song-writing process, to culinary concoctions on studio road trips - it's all part of the journey and hopefully means people will have a good idea of what we're all about by the time we can finally hit the stages again."

Listen to Planet Rock on DAB nationwide, on our free app, online, via your smart speaker (“Play Planet Rock”) and on Freesat.