- Introduction
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- ***
- The Bollweevils story
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- Formation
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- The Record
Deal
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- It starts to go
slightly wrong
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- It goes very, very
wrong
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- Aftermath
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- ***
- Press
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- ***
- Recordings
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- ***
- Downloads
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- A
gigging band
- Mark and
Ray were introduced to Sarah Griffiths, a singer in local
goth outfit The Reptiles. With Mark on lead guitar,
Dave Lloyd on rhythm guitar and Sarah singing
The Bollweevils started to play live. No
drummer could initially be found and when they came to
play their first gigs in early 1988 a drum-machine had to
be used.
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- Initially Ray acted as manager to the
band and continued to write songs with Mark. It was at
this time that live favourites like "That Little
Red-Headed Girl" and "Bubble of Passion" were
written.
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- Another
friend, Paul Lester, was pursuing a different path in the
music business, determined to become a rock journalist.
The Melody Maker published his first piece
of writing, which just happened to be a review of the
first gig played by The
Bollweevils. Paul's ecstatic praise, claiming "This
is what electricity tastes like," made a few people in
the industry sit up and take an interest in the band.
Publicity and promotion was made much easier by such a
positive and prominent review! (Paul Lester eventually
went on to become editor of the Melody Maker.)
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- For
perhaps 18 months the band gigged constantly, travelling
around the country, persuading larger venues to give them
support slots on the strength of the demo tapes and
reviews. Reviews in local and national press were all
positive, likening their live sound to that of Blondie,
amongst other bands. The whole experience was fun, with
well-received gigs, and the obligatory catalogue of
misadventures. One low-point was getting stuck in St
Helens on bonfire night , with all the band equipment
locked in a multi-story car park, and no transport home.
High points were gigs at packed local venues such as The
Hallamshire and the late lamented Take Two.
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- During
this time the band honed their sound and learnt which
songs were getting the most positive reaction live and on
tape. One song, "That Little Red Haired Girl" had to be
dropped from the live set when Chris joined because it
was discovered that the manic drum-machine program for
the song was unplayable by a real drummer. Mark and Sarah
were writing some powerful new songs, though: the
power-pop "Turn Your Head" was soon followed by the
driving "All the Same", "Nothing Now" and "Carry
On".
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- The next page: The
Record Deal
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