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Jon

I have of late, and wherefore I know not...

About Me

Well, where to start? At the beginning I suppose, that would make sense...Picture the scene: it’s the mid 90s, curtains were cool and emo fringes were only to be found on narcoleptic maths teachers. I had already ditched both piano and saxophone lessons because I wanted to be in Nirvana, or pre-shite Manics. Just before my Standard Grades and much to my mother’s displeasure (rebel, rebel, your face is a mess), I bought a hugely shite bass guitar and an equally shite amp, and started playing loud angry pop music with Neal and Rob.Now, at the risk of sounding like an OAP, things were different then. It wasn’t cool to be in a band at our school. In fact, I think that there was only one other band going. So, after getting turfed out of our music department by one Tony Bottone (now Eddie Thompson’s bodyguard or something), we decamped to Rob’s house to record on a ghetto blaster and infuriate his neighbours.Somehow, the racket we made ended up becoming our first band, Nikita. We recorded a few songs at Dundee’s now defunct Riverside Recordings, and had a couple of releases. One was on the "We Started With Over 100 Members" compilation cd, and the other was on the rather horrifyingly titled "Hi-Fi Songs For Lo-Fi Hearts" compilation on Paperheart Records.Unfortunately, our youthful zeal and obsession with being less together live than At The Drive-In on Jools Holland meant that we tended to get very drunk, fall-out and generally self-combust at gigs. I do remember a couple that went well though, and the recordings were good. Cult status baby.So, we hit the late 90s and I moved through to Edinburgh to go to university. Nikita eventually petered out despite our best attempts to stop it, and so I started playing with another group of reprobates who were to become Deadenstereo.Initially, we followed the same "drunken horror" approach to gigs, but we eventually got our shit together and recorded some really good music. We played all over Scotland, got in the Daily Record and lots of people said nice things about us. Four drummers later, we eventually wound down when Chris moved to Spain with his wife. To be honest, we’d probably run out of steam by then anyway. Nevertheless, it was my first band that actually did anything, and I still love those recordings. I sometimes even play the songs solo. In fact, there’s oodles of that shit on Youtube. Back. Of. The. Net.So, we rumble on to the early noughties (shite terminology). My long standing obsession with Weezer and good pop music came into play, and I began playing surf music with a new group of ne’er-do-wells who eventually became To The Rescue. Ours was a somewhat fractious existence, but we recorded lots of home demos and we even made it into the studio to record some really rather pleasing pop songs. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to last and, in 2007, I left to join Baillie & The Fault.Mine was to be a relatively short stint (I was in the band for about a year), but we played lots of lovely festivals, opened for Idlewild on three dates of their Greatest Hits tour (including the mighty Barrowlands) and generally met some charming people. While a cloud hangs over the end of it all, it was one Hell of a learning experience, and I’m now old enough to be philosophical about that sort of stuff. Hat-trick.So, fast forward to today. As the Fault scenario played out, I was busy recording loads of demos at home, and I played them to my man Gary (he is That*Flying Machine, and I have whacked a bass for him on many occasions) who assured me they weren’t mince. Then I got an email from The Mighty Griffindor asking if there was going to be a band and, if so, offering his services on bass. That was enough to prompt a rehearsal, and we roped Mert of Verlan fame in on drums for our first Bambi steps back into the world of earbleeding rehearsal fun.Things went well, but sadly Mert couldn’t do it full time (he’s got enough on his plate being a full-time sexy rock star), so the hunt was on for a drummer. Step forward Rich, the stick-twirling dervish of rhythm - band sorted. Champions League.We recorded some live acoustic tracks that are on the band page and a proper studio visit beckons, along with our first batch of gigs. As ever, stop by, show us some love and let us know what you think.Music’s a funny old thing. Despite being the cruellest of all mistresses, you just can’t shake it. I think I need to win the lottery... P

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 10/19/2005
Band Website: curatorsmusic.co.uk
Influences:Books, films, bands, songs and the eternal pain of being a Dundee United fan...:
Sounds Like: Praise for Jon’s previous work:
"Melody is at the heart of everything…brilliant harmonies" The Big Issue
"Hard-edged, sometimes abrasive, but with a tender heart and a strong sense of purpose" Is This Music?
"Haunting guitar melodies with fragile vocals" Daily Record
"Powerful, emotive music with an intelligent message at its centre" Lofimusic.co.uk
"Irresistible!" Babytigermusic.com
"This is great - chiming lead guitar and spot on vocals freefalling into another planet sized chorus" Is This Music?
"Fucking beautiful" The Bible Fanzine"They write a good lyric, write a good tune...what the fuck else do you want?" Fudge Fanzine"Very impressive" Kill The Noize Fanzine"This will rip your heart out and tear it into a thousand tiny pieces" Alternative 101 Fanzine"Soars into the high notes before striking down with aggressive punch" Vanity Project Fanzine
Type of Label: None

My Blog

The new band

Hey folks, Having finally recovered mentally from teching on the awesome Grace Emilys 2008 UK tour (didn’t expect us to get in a fight with a hooker, but that was the least of it...), back to bu...
Posted by Jon on Sat, 15 Mar 2008 04:00:00 PST

Last minute solo gigs, videos and musings

Agreeing to do gigs when you're drunk is amazing. All of the questions the morning after, the doubts, the phone calls to make sure it's on and find out what you agreed to...classic. So, for the first ...
Posted by Jon on Sun, 03 Feb 2008 07:02:00 PST

Weekends are back

Well, I've finally got weekends back - hurray hurray hurray! To celebrate, I had my face melted by an awesome Degrassi reunion gig at Bannermans. Power trio? You betcha. I also had the pleasure ...
Posted by Jon on Sun, 27 Jan 2008 01:45:00 PST

New

New things are coming.
Posted by Jon on Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:13:00 PST

Mr Dick-ens

Charles Dickens once said (doubtless fatly and smugly) that "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, i...
Posted by Jon on Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:48:00 PST

Jobs vs Ideals - Round 1

So, I applied for a job in a bank last week. Fuck. It's amazing how coming to terms with having had to do something so deeply horrible can galvanise a boy. Since then I've filled in countless Learning...
Posted by Jon on Mon, 24 Sep 2007 01:25:00 PST

Developments, thoughts and ramblings

So, having read back my last blog, I feel that a touch of humour is required to lighten the mood. With that in mind, a joke courtesy of wee bro: I went to a zoo yesterday and I onl...
Posted by Jon on Tue, 03 Jul 2007 07:19:00 PST

Everything Changes But The Shoes

Well, it's been quite a month...for anyone that gives the slightest of shits, here is the red-top tabloid exclusive... The shop is closed. For good. Not waving but drowning. It's a fucker but it had t...
Posted by Jon on Mon, 07 May 2007 11:07:00 PST

Kersal Massive...

Right, I know I'm probably years off the pace with this, but it really is the funniest thing I've ever seen. The delivery, the facial expressions, the conviction...it's all there: Get on Yo...
Posted by Jon on Thu, 29 Mar 2007 08:30:00 PST

Faultlines...

Updates, updates, updates... I played my first gig with Baillie and the Fault last Thursday at Heriot Watt, and for the foreseeable future I will be hitting my guitar with them as well as smiling mani...
Posted by Jon on Fri, 02 Mar 2007 09:21:00 PST