I was 16 when I played my first ever gig with Bis. I was still at school and working part-time in the Safeway bakery in Giffnock. I would rush out after work in a spangly dress to do a gig! It was always a surprise for people in school to know I was in a band as I was so renowned for being shy. I was so determined to play music that I wanted to get over that. By the time I was 18 I had a record deal, a publishing deal, and had appeared on Top of the Pops twice (Kandy Pop got to number 25)! It was so amazing! Sadly I now realise how young I actually was to take it all in. We (Bis) were so popular in Japan that we sold 100,000 of the album The New Transistor Heroes in 2 weeks, and played 3 nights in a row at a 900 capacity venue in Tokyo as part of the tour! I love Japan and wish I could remember more of what happened.
We released Social Dancing as the second album. Eurodisco was a single from this and reached number 37 in the UK singles chart. Sadly, this was the only great success after all the excitement in 1997. We later got dropped by Grand Royal in the USA, our publisher Universal in the UK, and Wiiija our UK label changed the founding boss so it was pretty much downhill from there. We thankfully found Spinart Records in the USA and Artful in the UK to release our 3rd album Return to Central. With the strong 'image' of the 90's, we found it hard to be taken seriously and for people to realise we no longer made music like Kandy Pop. In 2003 we decided to split as Bis but continue working together in some way.
John, Steven and I had previously recorded the theme tune to the Powerpuff Girls on Cartoon Network. This was very successful. As a result, we later got asked by the BBC to write music for the cartoon BB3B. We appeared as characters and provided a tune per episode for them.
This was fun, but it wasn't the kind of music we wanted to make. We decided to start a 'proper' band with a drummer and bass player. We asked long-time friend Graham C to drum, and Stuart Memo (who was in the band Multiplies I managed for a while) to play bass. The songs were great and it was so much fun to play gigs again. However, after a year nothing had changed and not a single record label showed interest. We found it hard to afford van hire and petrol to get around the UK to play, and Graham had a full-time job which was hard to get time off from. We decided we couldn't stand our frustrations any longer and played our last gig in August 2006.
I'm very impatient, so I have now decided to start my solo project. I know it will never be the same as Bis or Data Panik but I feel I have to give this a shot. I don't have the programming skills of John and Steven, but so far I'm thoroughly enjoying what I've recorded. I just want to have fun again. I don't want to have any regrets and have never tried this. So here I am!
