How Flat Spells can form a Band.
Note from Jon: Hmm, I seem to remember it all started when I nicked my sisters mates guitar, but maybe the drink, drugs and rock'n roll scrambled my brain....
How flat spells,long winter evenings and an amazing knack of being a doley can do strange things to a surfer.
Back in the days when we had left college, and our parents had started to despair about how little we were trying to find employment, a life changing avenue became available for exploration. A guitar one afternoon snuck its way into the loving hands of a new master. A young man who had bedroom ambitions of stardom but no previous playing experience started to explore his new toy (No,not that one!) The learning became an obsession as well as a pleasure.
Craig, who was that young man, gained some help from various sources. He contacted Jon at uni and as Jon had discovered tablature on the net, began sending excessive amounts of said "tab" back to Craig. Craig had by now bought himself an amp and was annoying the neighbours with various Nirvana or homemade riffs and was expressing an interest in forming a band. He had even jokingly said he would play in the local band Mecca THE PIAZZA AAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jon not wanting to miss out or be left behind had purchased a second hand beauty himself and had set about catching up to the level that Craig had already progressed to .It didn't take long before they were playing along together to Nirvana and the usual Oasis Wonderwall for friends and family. Craig's older brother Billy also got the guitar bug and purchased a little gem himself. Now most bands struggle with one guitarist,but three? Billy being the furthest behind set about catching up but after learning the basics decided to launch himself into the Bass guitar instead. As he was now the unchallenged Bass master, three guitars now formed the majority of the band.
All that was left to be decided now was who was going to drum and who was going to be frontman/singer.After singing along to a couple of songs, I decided that I could do it if they wanted me to but I think that I had more faith in myself than they did. As myself and Dugs were left without jobs we talked about the options: No1.drums cost cash, I haven't got any so you can do it,but shit I cant sing. oh you've bought some drums already,bollocks!
And there it was,decided the band line-up,all we had to do was to learn how to play.Mmmmmmm!
Unknown to us at the time,a group of friends who we knew from old school days were also midway into there own band thing. They had been offered a gig at a local Brixham pub, "The Long Bar", and after finding themselves in such a similar situation as us agreed to let us gatecrash alongside them. We basically talked up the gig to anyone that we could, verbally filled the pub a month in advance and only then did it sink in that we were actually going to have to do it.
The weeks bloody flew past. We practised and practised, and had about eight covers that we proudly took to the gig with us. To say that we weren't nervous would have been a lie, I could have counted maybe more than 50 trips to the bogs beforehand. The other band had been unsure of a name and called themselves "Whatever" at the last minute. We were billed as the "Screaming Lightweights", a name that had been with us since those early days of Karaoke at Claire's nightclub when we were asked for a name we just thought that it would be funny,and it stuck. "Whatever", like us, had learnt a handful of covers which were fully appreciated by the crowd, and they went down to huge applause. This was great as they had left the crowd on a high, but that was also slightly concerning as it left them expecting alot from us.
Thank god for alcohol as it was readily available to the crowd, thus numbing their hearing, and also to install fake confidence in ourselves. It worked. We went on, stormed roughly through our set and left them wanting more! We replayed a couple of tracks as an encore, and found ourselves being accelerated rapidly in the "local celebrity" world. Wow,local popularity,I want some more!
After our first gig, we rehearsed more, learnt more songs, and were invited to play alongside another local but slightly more established band "BeggarManThief". We played in another Brixham pub, "The Bolton"and after again going down well were given our own dates in the pub and invited by "BMT" play at "The Piazzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!We obviously accepted but as far as we were concerned we were playing Wembley.
The week passed and the date was upon us. We had brought as much of a crowd as we could, and proceeded to play our little hearts out. We thought we were great, even if our point of view was a bit biased. We had achieved the goal that was in our world unachievable. We had played "The Piazza" and now we were being offered a gig there on our own merits.
After these achievements we stayed together, as a band, for i think about two years and in that time we did a hell of alot for a bunch of homs with no idea. Our finest hour was probably winning a local "Battle of the Bands" competition held at the "Piazza"where we beat about 10 bands to a recording prize. We unfotunatly never used it so dont have anything but our memories of our three original songs that we had written as the band.
Our biggest gig was undoutably played at the local "English Riviera Centre".The gig was a celebration of the birthday of the centre, and we were one of three local bands to play.The night was a good one although a capacity crowd would be over a thousand but only a monstrous hundred or so were sold! We departed the band still as friends and gradually drifted into other ventures. Dugs, the drummer was the only one to give it up completly. Jon, Craig and Billy formed "Paolo Tendes",which have reverted to "Paalo"recently ,and then Craig also with "Dragonfly Spies" with Phil as a sub project, which has now deceased.
I went on to join a band with a bunch more homs as i have obviously not learnt my lesson, and we are called "The Soft Toy Heroes", and we all still play locally.It will always bring a wry smile to my face thinking of some of the things that we did but mainly when i think back, how the hell did we get away with all of that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Paolo died a death due to musical differences. Throwing mics at Craigs head probably didn't help much either. But Rup's band Soft Toy Heroes goes from strength to strength, appearing in Smash Hits Magazine (rockn'roll!) and on Steve Lamaq's Evening Session on Radio 1. That sounds like such bullshit, but it's true!
Check em at www.softtoyheroes.com or download 'em off Kazaa like eveyone else.
By Rup.
