The history of the band - By Luke Russe
We started off in year 8 as an idea. Alex Taylor and Andrew Taviner wanted to start a band (more of a laugh then anything) they then went to Jordan Kelly who at the time couldn’t play bass but he was enthusiastic to learn. The next step was finding a drummer which was tricky as there was only 2 drummers at the time; Tom Corbett and Luke Russe, Tom was there original choice but his attitude was a bit of a problem so they settled for Luke Russe (who was Jordan Kelly's first choice). Okay so they had a band but how could they practice, we each new about Rock School from the currently popular school band at the time, The Decoys, so we went to speak to the runner of Rock School, Martin Miles, who gave us an audition and accepted us for a Thursday slot. We started straight away but only doing an hour a week because of the short notice. After the school broke up for two weeks we were back exited to be doing the full 2 hours of Rock School. The first song we played was a typical first song for most bands it was 'Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple', it didn't sound great but we didn’t care we was playing as a band and that's all that counted. Not long after that we moved on to a different song 'Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love - Van Halen', this song was quite a success for us and we practised and practised until we got it right. Pleased with the success of this song we did a recording, which wasn’t of the best quality, but none the less it was something to take home and show our friends and family. Fast forwarding to a little while later Jordan had quit playing bass and adopted the role of Rhythm Guitar while martin played Bass. But the big news was that we had been given a slot at the school’s Spring Concert. We were to play 'Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love' to an audience of around 100. We had the shortest spot in the show but it was still our first gig and the audience seemed to like us. I had a few comments regarding our playing which was a real boost. Fast forward again to the point where we had found ourselves a bassist. His name was Jason Skinner and he was in year 11 (bearing in mind we were year 8's). He played with us for a while mainly playing our own-made song 'Death slide', but unfortunately this was quite short lived as he left on year 11 leaver’s day, so martin came back playing bass. Moving on once again, after the 6 weeks holiday, we were back in school and once again looking forward to Rock School. The next big song we played was a cover of 'Iron Man - Black Sabbath'. This was the next 'Ain't....' so we pretty much did the same, first we did a recording which was of a considerably better quality in both sound and performance. This latest song proved to be quite a success and people liked it. With this small but significant success it was time for the spring concert again. This time it was still 1 song but we had a little more recognition, which led to a bit better show. Once again we were a hit with the audience and it really felt great, we were feeling like a fully-fledged band for the first time. From this point on until the end of year 9, not much happened apart from we learned a few songs. They were 'Crazy Train', 'Slither' and 'Purple haze'. We went back into year 10 basically doing the same. A term or 2 later, Jordan announced that he wants to go back to playing Bass which to be honest was the most sensible thing I've heard him say, as he was (and still is to this present day) more suited to bass then he was to Guitar. This way we didn’t have to rely on martin to play bass. For a while he played a school Bass, the Ibanez was his favourite. The next major song we played was 'You Give Love A Bad Name - Bon Jovi' this song was actually the song we wanted to play when we first signed up for Rock School, but at the time we didn't have the skill. This was Jordan's first song on Bass and I think he picked it up pretty quickly. There was a great feeling with this song, being able to finally play it. From the moment we started playing there were huge smiles and rocking heads. The pure energy coming from the song was awesome it was almost like a rush. There is a moment I always remember and will continue to do so when me and Jordan, at the exact same time, looked round to each other, smiled, nodded our heads and kept on playing it’s as if we could read each other’s minds. After this song we learnt a few others but kept coming back to it again and again, it was like a trade mark song. Anyways, a few months later, just before Christmas, Mike Pearce contacted us wanting to be our singer so we tried him out. After an audition we decided to accept him. He wasn’t perfect but we thought that with some training he could be ok. So with our latest edition to the band, we taught him some of our songs like 'You Give Love...', 'Iron Man' and 'Crazy Train'. But this was cut short as we were asked to do a song with Junior & Senior Band and the Male & Female Choirs. The song we had to play was ‘Jingle Bells’. This involved them doing a traditional version with us finishing it off with a hard rock version and then the choir joined into our version near the end and when we finished everyone had party poppers, apart from us of course. It was very well planned, everyone (apart from drums, obviously) went up on a big platform that was hidden by a projector screen. When it came to our part, the screen went up revealing the guitarists (and Mike, who was equipped with some jingle bells, seeing as there were no vocals). It gave an awesome effect and meant the show really did go out with a bang. I think it was the best performance of our lives and would love to be able to re-live it. Once all the commotion of the Xmas concert was finished we went back to teaching mike. Around about that time Andrew Taviner (The Keyboardist) quit the band. Some say it was because of the £30 a term rock school costs, some say it was because he didn't like singer Mike Pearce. But he was gone and we got over it, pretty quickly. After about 2 or so months later we started learning 'Welcome To The Jungle - Guns 'N' Roses' which went quite well and is still the song we play the most. It may of not been the most fun song we've done but it was certainly the most challenging. It took awhile to learn, but when it was done we had a feeling close to the feeling from 'You Give Love...' although there was no strange physic moment between Jordan and me. Not long after that we started making our own song that was simply named 'The Composition' which is still one of our favourite songs to play. It's very relaxed and features a beautiful dual guitar harmonic part from Alex and Martin. We like to use this song for warm ups and wind downs because of its relaxed playing style and the fact there is quite some room for improvisation. Near the end of the year we were asked to play for the Yr. 11's on their leaver’s day, which was the most difficult gig we’ve had to date. The Yr. 11's are notorious for booing and stuff like that. In preparation for this we had a 4 hour rock school session from 1:30 - 5:30 to make sure all our songs were up to scratch. But when we did a run through, we had a bit too much time left over, so we learnt a song in 10 minutes to play as a 5th song to give us a couple more minutes. The song was 'Highway to Hell – AC/DC' and for a song we did in 10 minutes it was sounding good. The next day we were all set for everything year 11 had to give, the time came round when they had to be sat in the hall, rowdy and shouty just as we expected and they had to listen to a speech, then a solo singer and then us. The performance went ok, a few people got up and left to get their photos taken or something like that, but there was no booing and only good comments back, so in my eyes anyway, we conquered the yr 11's. we then brought on a new singer, Sunny Turner, and a new rhythm guitarist, Emma Shoosmith. Who started with us in year 11 but it soon came apparent that it wasn't for them so they left the band. The band then took a more metal side of music and learnt 'Enter Sandman' by the famous Metallica, this was an amazing success for the band and once again Jordan and Luke had the look as if to say 'dude this song is going is perfect for us' around about this time martin, who used to be an instructor, became our singer after realizing were no longer little kids so we don't need instructing and he's not much older than us anyway so it just seemed to work. Were now glad to be back as the original members as were all friends and are happy with who we've got. We are now looking forward to an outside gig in Mardons Social Club in Norton some time in January 2011.
