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School rock band inspired by all the usual suspects, focussing on anything involving Ritchie Blackmore, Angus Young or Phil Lynott. I was
initially allowed to join the band after their first gig in someone's back garden (police called & everything...) so that we might
sound like Thin Lizzy. All our own stuff. Split up after leaving school.
During my years of not doing Chemical Engineering at Poly of Wales, I found some local musicians via ads in Cardiff music shops. After various excursions (why was it always raining in Wales!!) to phone booths, letters, missed calls and conversations with their Mums we eventually got together to rehearse in a St John's Ambulance hall with an impressive bunch of fans regularly turning up to watch us. It turns out that this was mostly because the kids in Pontllanfraith & Maesycymmer (and some other villages I can't spell) had little else to do on a Saturday morning but we had a solid fan base approaching double figures even before our first gig. The gig itself was our first (and last, as it turned out) taste of real success and adulation, this was an outdoor "Rock Barbeque" at a local pub. On a beautiful, warm summer night our set consisted of mainly our own heavy rock material with a few covers such as "Doctor Doctor" (UFO), "Tie your Mother Down" (Queen), "Starstruck" (Rainbow) and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" (Van Halen). Dozens of fans sought us out to buy us drinks and tell us we were great. Word had spread about the band and someone even brought a video camera to film a rockumentary of whole evening.
Such was the phenomenal success of the gig that another was hastily arranged and the Landlord (imagining Reading festival-style hordes of
rock fans) hired an adjacent field. This time however it pissed down with rain and the PA system (which was sited precariously on some
kind of flatbed truck) started to give our singer alarming jolts of electricity before somehow losing most of the power at the same as the
amps started to sound awful. The singer was rapidly handed some "safety" garments (i.e. leather gardening gloves) before it
quickly became ridiculous and we stormed off the uncovered "stage" to try and find out where all the audience had gone. We overcame this
disappointing end to the summer to record a few demos one of which, "Blind Fury" appeared on a compilation album on vinyl along with
embarrassing photos featuring long hair, tight trousers and ripped T-Shirts. The next taste of minor success was getting through a round of the
local Battle of the Bands competition which was ultimately won by a band called Diesel Pig.
Three quarters of Mirage relocated to Birmingham (where I lived) with serious intentions of establishing a base and moving up to London
to become rich and famous. Our new bass player was someone who had had some minor success with a band called "Cutting Edge" and even
had the brief taste of real fame following a performance on Crackerjack and the recording of a jingle for Radio One DJ, Mike Read. We got
side-tracked with getting a "good sound" in rehearsals and so set up the "High Society Studios" as a business in the Jewellery
Quarter of Birmingham; we bought an Ensoniq Mirage keyboard/sampler, Atari 520ST with C-Lab Creator software and a 4-Track recorder which allowed
us to create an eclectic mix of music which was never actually recorded properly by the band. We performed a small number of very well-received
gigs before giving up for various unpleasant reasons and moving on to other things (i.e. getting proper jobs).
After a few years of civilian life I was asked along to try out as second guitarist for the band. Shortly afterwards I became the only guitarist.
This was easily the most dedicated gigging band I'd been in so far. Thanks primarily to the enthusiasm and coercive talents of singer &
band maestro Richard Batsford we played regularly at most of the local venues and the Rock Garden in London. The music was influenced by Suede,
Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins amongst others. We financed our own promotional CD and even had the honour of record company A&R people saying
they were coming to see us. None of them did of course but the gigs were otherwise well attended and not only because of beautiful blonde bass
player, Judith.
After settling down again to a career of some kind & raising a family for 8 years or so, I got a job at ITNET and got chatting to Neil.
He'd emailed the division about the farewell Love Commandos gig for guitarist Jon Attfield who was moving to a better life in a far off land.
I still had a guitar or two so asked if they were looking for a replacement and was invited along to a rehearsal. After hearing the inspired
performance of "Baby one more time" and the deafening sounds of Jesus playing drums to a whole bunch of songs I'd never heard of
before, I knew this had to be the coolest band of 30-somethings in Birmingham and I needed to be in it. Despite the fact that I don't play
video games, I got the gig.