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| Biography |
In
the late months of 2002, in a high school in Warrington, 3 young men
realised
that their pop punk garage band needed something extrasomething
specialsomething
like Tom Rotherham. Drafted into the band so that Joe Timmons
didn't have to play tricky 3 chord covers and sing at the same time,
the
initial line up of SurlyBusDriver was formed. Drummer Robin Turner
has fond
memories of the germination of the band, "I remember our first
practice
it was crap 'cos Joe didnt show up".
Unfortunately Joe did show for the next rehearsal and the band
cracked on with
banging out Blink 182 and Alkaline Trio covers badly, a formula they
were
to use for the next few months. After taking a long, hard look at
the direction
the band was going a decision was made that SurlyBusDriver would
attempt
to be good. "We all had a vote", recalls Joe Timmons,
"We unanimously
decided that it would be better if we didn't suck". With this
new found
direction the song writing trio of Turner, Timmons and Rotherham
sprung
into action.
It may well be argued that initial attempts to produce the sound,
now recognisable
to literally tens of people, were hampered by a lack of
enthusiasm
by Tom, "I wasn't arsed really, I just wanted to tell girls I
was in
a band". A lack of experience in both song and lyric writing
enabled the group
to happily rip off a few riffs from more established acts and piece
together
some vague, mindless lyrics which became the ever popular
"Chain Letter".
Recorded at Frog Studios, alongside a more reflective "Cold
Hands" and
powerful "No Need", these three tracks, mixed in with a
lot of filler, became
the basis for SurlyBusDrivers initial foray into the buzzin live
music
scene of Warrington.
Lining up as Joe, Tom, Robin and Chris, the band embarked on the
toilet gig era,
playing in high-brow venues such as the White Heart, on one occasion
to literally
no people. With these initial successes under their belt,
SurlyBusDriver
accumulated a reputation around the town, proving themselves
to
be a definite hit with the female audience, "What them moshers?
Alright if
you're into that sort o' thing like" commented one massive fan.
After a few
more shows the second EP, What If, was recorded, again at Frog, with
the band
in a more experimental mood and having a decidedly darker sound than
the
"Chain Letter" recording.
With
a whole 6 songs written, and many more of other peoples gigs ruined
the band
fell into a transitional phase. Bassist Chris left due to,
"irreconcilable
facial hair differences" and, in the interim period, scouse
boy
Mark McGlashon was drafted in to perform what were really rather
good gigs
in Manchester at Bar38 and the Roadhouse. Looking back over his time
spent
with the band it is clear that Mark felt the spirit that binds
SurlyBusDriver
together, as well as their song writing prowess, "I fuckin'
hate
scene kids..." Eloquent. Mark left the band due to musical
differences after
the gigs, mainly revolving around him being a metal head wanker, and
emo
boy Ben Dunne found a permanent place in the rhythm section.
After
the successful release of "44" on Chromium Records the
band are now stronger
and sexier than ever and are set to re-enter the studio shortly to
once
again prove to their doubters that there is still room for one more
generic
pop punk band.
11
April 2016
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