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Out on Bail escaped around 1930 and played there first gig 2 hours later at half past nine.
Take 2: The band was formed in the 1980s and today boasts three founder members of that band - Paul Marland on lead guitar, Simon Barton on vocals and Darryl Harris on drums.
The band enjoyed a few successful early years, culminating in an appearance at the Band on the Wall, Manchester (when it was THE place to play). As with a lot of bands at that time, Out On Bail began to struggle due to a lack of venues as pubs became obsessed with karaoke and self contained “artists†i.e. a mic and backing tracks. It was also the beginning of the “theme pub†era when every pub big enough to put on a band started transforming the place into eateries with bikes and watering cans on the walls etc. Also, the desire to hear classic rock in the nineties was perhaps waning amongst the general week-end boozers.
Inevitably the band went into exile. Simon carried on singing with various bands, Paul went off to sample hops and Darryl played on a little longer before putting his sticks into temporary retirement.
In the late 90s Darryl stumbled into Paul Robinson, who he‘d played in a band with at school in the 70s, and they discussed starting a band. The pair joined forces with some wrinkly old rockers from Oldham and formed Jagged. They played for a couple of years with Paul on reluctant vocals.
Darryl became restless with the lack of ambition of the band and when he heard the growing rumour that Out On Bail were reforming he left. Paul followed shortly afterwards after being secretly auditioned, and Out on Bail were reformed with the 3 original members plus Paul on rhythm guitar and Simon Garlick on bass. They played their first return gig at The Gardeners Arms, Oldham in the summer of 2006, the scene of their very first gig many many years earlier.
All was going well when towards the end of 2007 Simon Garlick quit the band sighting the long tours, loose women and late nights as the reason. Plus he’d had one television set too many fall on his head. He was eventually replaced by a deliriously happy Rob Brooks who was transferred from “Grim Beaver†for an undisclosed fee. Rob couldn’t give a stuff what music he played as long as he could enjoy the very things which forced Simon to pack it all in.
With pubs finally seeing sense and opening their ears once again to classic rock music (and in the process finally ridding themselves and their unsuspecting punters of Whitney Houston wannabe’s avec backing tapes) a renaissance for good rock cover bands is at last happening and Out On Bail are at the forefront.
So here we are enjoying an Indian summer, playing to bigger audiences than ever before and we aren’t quitting until we’re all bald, deaf, daft and worthless..... so just three of us to go then. This is not the beginning of the end but the end of a very long beginning.