The Now

The Now

The Now are a United States ska group. The name has also been used by several unrelated acts in other genres and countries, including a DIY punk band from Peterborough in England, a rock’n’roll four-piece from South Wales, a Slovak punk rock band, an underground indie rock trio from Harrow in northwest London, and an English AOR/hard rock band formed in 1989.

The United States group is a screamo band from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Its line-up draws on members past and present of Hot Cross, A Life Once Lost, Welcome the Plague Year, Neil Perry, and Joshua Fit for Battle. The band releases a single self-titled EP containing six tracks across eleven minutes. It first appears on Robotic Empire, with later editions issued as a CD EP and as a one-sided screen-printed picture-disc LP in a limited run, followed by a later repress on Ohnono! as a one-sided LP. The group’s material is also available for free download.

The name is also attached to a separate DIY punk band from Peterborough, England, who issue two sought-after 7-inch records, one self-released in 1977 and the other released in 1979 on Raw. Their members include Mike McGuire, Steve Rolls, Allen Adams, Giz Butt, Faz Farrow and Joe McColl. After that band, McGuire and Rolls form Sudden Sway; Adams joins Destructors, as do Steve Rolls and Giz Butt, with Butt later joining The Prodigy; Joe McColl later appears in The Name.

Another version of The Now is a three-piece underground indie rock band from Harrow, northwest London, also referred to as The Now UK. A further act, The Now from England, is an AOR/hard rock band formed in 1989, with Rue Philips, Lee Faulkner, Kofi Baker and Malcolm Bruce in the line-up. There is also a Slovak punk rock band and a South Wales rock’n’roll four-piece using the same name.