Music:
Member Since: 03/02/2007
Band Website: Email: [email protected]
Band Members: Where do we start…well I can give my side of the story to start with and it can be added to gradually.
Hailing from Dumfries, South West Scotland, Twister as a band has gone through many guises over the years and in turn many musicians, predominantly it was a covers band but some original magic was produced. But it has always kept the love for music and entertainment throughout its life.
I’m lucky enough to be in the position of telling my side of the story from the start of Twisters days. I’m hoping that with this site the many members of Twister will add to it with Blogs, Statements, Music, Videos and their side of the Twister story as well. Now I’m not trying to make Icons out of anyone and the main reason for starting this page is to put a story, pictures and music behind the Twister name. I enjoyed playing in Twister and remember some very good and bad gigs, lol.
Well I’m Russell Graham and I play the drums. I first met Davie Jardine (Lead Vocals/Guitarist) when I was around 16/17 I think, 1994. I was playing in a band called Super Judge with Scott on Vocals, Stewart on Bass and Wee Andy on Guitar (he was 14 at the time if I remember correctly). So Super Judge were playing in some pubs in Dumfries (Rock City), one of the youngest bands in pubs at the time! These gigs were mostly in Reggazzis and that’s where I met Davie. We started chatting about music and playing and he was keen for me to play drums in a band.
We went through a time of names like “BUG†(Davies overwhelming obsession with VW’s) “The Good, The Bad And The Uglyâ€, this name was taken from a poster of the film on Reggazis wall after sitting thinking about a change of name, it just seemed appropriate at the time (but we did get sick of everyone shouting “who’s the ugly one†at every gig after that. Safe to say I never raised my hand, I left that honour for Tony the bassist. We carried on playing in the darkest and dingiest parts of Dumfries and Galloway and Glasgow.
It came to the point that me, Davie and Tony were staying in a cottage on the hillside near Torthorwald, a very cold place even in the summer. Eventually Tony was kicked out for being crap and he ran off under a very dark cloud
So we were looking for a new bassist. This was when Fraser Graham stepped up to the firing line and in a flash was playing in Baker Street without much practice at all. But for the first time a tight feeling of sold, tune making wizardry was in the air.
Twister started in the autumn of '96 as a five-piece band with Fraser Graham and Anza (Andy Johnstone) on guitars, Worm (Davie Dirom) on Bass and myself on drums and Davie Jardine on lead vocals. The departure of Anza in '98 saw Davie Jardine taking guitar duties. 1998 saw the band taking on a busy schedule with plenty of gigs in Glasgow and Edinburgh - mainly in Universities and the like with crudely made tapes of Twister originals being sold after every show.
We got through to heats for T in the Park in Glasgow and narrowly lost out to some blatant vote rigging!! April '98 saw the exit of Russell to pastures new in Norwich and a character larger than life - Donny Graham, filled the drum stool.
In 1999 Twister carried on the same busy workload until Davie (vocals) started hanging around with some punks called The Jellys (comprising of C.J and Stidi from The Wildhearts and Jeff from Wolfsbane). After a few months of contact Davie joined and waved goodbye to Dumfries, heading south to London to sell millions of records and taking what seemed like everyone from the small towns hope on his shoulders at the same time! Several UK Tours followed, many reviews in Kerrang and Metal Hammer mags and a trip to Japan to play the Rocktober Festival 2000 on Tokyo Harbour.
Meanwhile Fraser found refuge in The Dali Hammers alongside Dave Bass and Andy McMillian who was to replace Worm on Bass Guitar in Twister in 2000!! These lads worked really hard and built up a following in Southern Scotland and The Lake District area. They recorded and produced their own album 'Jerry' at their studio in Dumfries and released it on their own Turtle Records label.
In 2001, it emerged that The Wildhearts were to reform with Ginger rubbing shoulders with C.J and Danny McCormack once more and Stidi on the sticks. This meant The Jellys were on a little holiday so TWISTER was brought back from the dead and a new drummer was found in the shape of Sandy Sweetman to add to the recent addition of Andy McMillian on Bass
Twister then carried on in this format for a few years after this and was always packing the pubs and venues in South West Scotland.
Line up 96'-98'
Vocals: Davie Jardine
Guitar: Fraser Graham
Guitar: Anza (Andy Johnstone)
Bass: Worm (David Dirom)
Drums: Russell Graham
Line up 98'-April 98'
Vocals + Guitar: Davie
Lead Guitar: Fraser
Bass: Worm
Drums: Russell
Line up April 98'-99'
Vocals + Guitar: Davie
Lead Guitar: Fraser
Bass: Worm
Drums: Donny Graham
Line up 00'-01'
Vocals + Guitar: Davie
Lead Guitar: Fraser
Bass: Andy McMillian
Drums: Donny Graham
Line up 01'-03'
Vocals + Guitar: Davie
Lead Guitar: Fraser
Bass: Andy McMillian
Drums: Sandy Sweetman
Record Label: Unsigned
