The name "Gracious Bears" was first uttered in early 2005. During a heavy drinking session in Wallasey, Merseyside. Two young lads named James 'J-Cray-Z aka JCZ' Mannings and Chris 'Krusty G aka K2G' Gent thought up a Gorillaz-style band concept consisting of 9 imaginary members. The name given to this project was .... Gracious Bears. No one knows where this name came from, or which one of the lads said it first, but its a great name innit ey?!? After forgetting the project entirely by the next week, the time passed, until August '05, when it was decided that the band should change from an imaginary 9-piece, to a very real 2-piece. James and Chris sat down on a warm August night, the 15th, if I'm not mistaken. That date, 15/08/05 would soon go down in history. The lads started writing lyrics and music from scratch at around 11:30pm and by 8am they had recorded all the music. They went to bed, got up around 2pm and recorded the vocals. And that was it. In 17 hours, their debut EP, 'Too Much To Bear', was written, recorded and burned to CD. Following the success of the EP, Chris decided he would put on a live show to be named 'Krustfest' which would open with a set from the Gracious Bears so that the two Bears could end it all on a high note. Before this event though there would have to be a test run. On the 23rd of December 2006, the Bears performed live for the very first time. The response was incredible. Pushed by the love they had been shown they decided that it was time to get themselves into the studio at least one more time to show the world what they could really do. Work began on their full feature album 'The Picnic' in February 2007 and would take three years to complete with an eventual release in early 2010. Meanwhile J-Cray-Z, who had been experimenting with rap music since 2001 had been compiling lyrics for some time and visited Krusty in Manchester to record. In one single night the 16 track Mixtape 'Dubniverse' was recorded and mixed. In October of 2007 they released a brand new EP containing new and original music entitled 'The Rebirth'. The response to the EP was very well recieved so with that in mind they took to the stage again. It had been nearly a year since their last performance but they knew that they would "bang that shit!". On the 17th of November 2007, the Bears performed live for the second time. The love they were shown was even greater than their first performance. Records were bought and beers were given to them so with this encouraging push they moved ever forward with their recordings and the next year Krusty was to release his debut solo demo simply called 'Promo 2008'. 2008 also saw the Bears return to the stage. This time for a tribute show for their dearly departed friend, and Krusty's former band mate, Tom Dibble. The show was a great success and saw the Bears perform their longest set to date at 40+ minutes. Since then they have continued to write and record music with two more releases; The Gracious Bears own 'The We Be Boating EP' which was entirely written, produced, recorded and mixed on a week long narrowboat trip and J-Cray-Z's EP 'Rosie'. With already ten releases behind them it would seem that the Gracious Bears are truely here to stay. In more recent times J-Cray-Z picked up the award for Best Director for a Music Video at the Wirral International Film Festival 2009 for Krusty G's video 'Ten Thousand Words' from his upcoming solo Mixtape 'KrustFest'. Which reminds me. Chris's live show 'Krustfest' never came to fruition. Maybe one day ey? The Gracious Bears EP 'The Rebirth', the Gracious Bears Mixtape 'Before The Picnic', J-Cray-Z's mixtape 'Dubniverse' & Krusty G's 'Promo' are all available for free download at www.datpiff.com You can also find them dotted all over www.youtube.com