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Did you used to be in a band that never made it?


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Old 20-06-2015, 10:49
Noiseboy
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While reading the outstanding Killing Bono by Neil McCormick (about his band that weren't U2), it dawned on me how many hundreds of thousands of ex-bands that never achieved commercial success must be out there. I was in several. The other day I found a video I made of a band competition at the Mean Fiddler in 1992 - 6 really decent bands, all now utterly lost to obscurity, taking their songs with them. How many others are out there, really? Hundreds of thousands, probably. And amongst all the inevitable rubbish, you just know that there are real gems lurking in lofts and bedroom cupboards, that will never be discovered.

Never one to learn from past mistakes, I recently started a new band, After School Video Club, with one foot set in the 80s while the other roams wherever it likes. The debut single will be Lost Songs, a celebration of the forgotten people who poured their heart and soul into their own commercial failures in years gone by.

We're crowd-sourcing a video to go with it, which will be full of bands who are no more, and never achieved what they wanted, a bittersweet montage of broken dreams. We're half way there already, but would love a few more. Any Digital Spy folks with videos of their old forgotten bands on YouTube? Or do you know anyone with any? We'd love to use just a short clip, and want to know your ex-band's name, where you played, when you existed and your favourite lost song. It could be a rehearsal room, a gig, a music video - pretty much any visual record of the band that were. Cold be from any era, any genre, anywhere in the world.

You can hear Lost Songs and read up on the whole idea here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGl4s8zOPAg . Please do post here with your old videos (or those of folks you know) and give your lost songs an airing. If you'd rather, you can email me at afterschoolvideoclub@yahoo.com .
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Old 20-06-2015, 12:03
SpaceCake
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My sister's friend was in the band Catch. They were so crap . They released a few singles in the UK, but their album was shelved.
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Old 20-06-2015, 16:48
Neil_N
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My sister's friend was in the band Catch. They were so crap . They released a few singles in the UK, but their album was shelved.
Their first single was aired on ITV moments before the news bulletin about Lady Diana's crash. They were shit though, annoying.
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Old 20-06-2015, 17:47
Noiseboy
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(*cough* I thought Bingo was ok....)

Anyway, they're too big for my little thing really. They charted, they had a song I recognised. I'm really after those who perhaps never even got that far...
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Old 20-06-2015, 22:15
Hitstastic
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Yes but my "band" never made it because I was 14 and me and my two mates at the time only did it for a laugh.

We were called Whack! and our songs were basically what Pitbull has been doing over the years. Radio friendly chorus (sang by me and one of the other lads ) whilst my other mate was a wannabe Vanilla Ice (long before any of us had heard of Eminem). LOL

I actually have an old cassette with songs we recorded (on a karaoke machine no less!!! ).

Our musical influences were Outhere Brothers, Reel II Reel, Chaka Demus & Pliers and all the big Eurodance hits in the charts. A lucky escape?
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Old 21-06-2015, 00:48
Conehead
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Managing Pain, Wormhole, Do-Re-U - most of my early bands dealt in shimmering guitar hooks and whipsmart irony. But after a couple of fraught winters rehearsing neo-blues in a deserted pie factory, my last band, the Stressed Young Bees went our separate ways.
No regrets. I'm in a theme park now and loving it.
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Old 21-06-2015, 02:05
mgvsmith
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Yes, I was in a band called Meanwhile in Czechoslovakia (MIC) in the 80s. It was mentioned once before on here. I have tapes but I don't know where the one video shot is these days.
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Old 21-06-2015, 05:12
crease
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Managing Pain, Wormhole, Do-Re-U - most of my early bands dealt in shimmering guitar hooks and whipsmart irony. But after a couple of fraught winters rehearsing neo-blues in a deserted pie factory, my last band, the Stressed Young Bees went our separate ways.
No regrets. I'm in a theme park now and loving it.
Salutes
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Old 21-06-2015, 12:26
Noiseboy
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Managing Pain, Wormhole, Do-Re-U - most of my early bands dealt in shimmering guitar hooks and whipsmart irony. But after a couple of fraught winters rehearsing neo-blues in a deserted pie factory, my last band, the Stressed Young Bees went our separate ways.
Oooh, no online video evidence of any of them is there?
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Old 21-06-2015, 14:30
dodrade
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Does being a member of Menswear count?
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Old 22-06-2015, 00:44
Conehead
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Oooh, no online video evidence of any of them is there?
Ok, try looking for evidence of Phlegm, Humdrum or Ineluctable Modality of the Visible.
Anal Justice had some success too.
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Old 22-06-2015, 10:04
Noiseboy
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Ok, try looking for evidence of Phlegm, Humdrum or Ineluctable Modality of the Visible.
Anal Justice had some success too.
OK - Phlegm? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSdjwmfH1Bw

Humdrum? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqO60rbpdn4 (seems unlikely you'd be in both, but who knows?)

No luck with the other two...
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Old 22-06-2015, 13:55
crease
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OK - Phlegm? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSdjwmfH1Bw

Humdrum? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqO60rbpdn4 (seems unlikely you'd be in both, but who knows?)

No luck with the other two...

Whoooooosh!
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Old 23-06-2015, 09:53
Asarualim
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Does being a member of Menswear count?
They did kind of make it didn't they? Daydreamer was a good track. Could have been worse, you could have been in Gay Dad.
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Old 23-06-2015, 09:56
Asarualim
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I'm still in a band that hasn't made it, though in fairness we've never really tried. We've been together for about 10 years and still make music together in my studio, mostly electronic, D&B, breakbeat type tunes. It's just a hobby really, but a good one for us all. The closest we've ever got to anything resembling success was doing the soundtrack for a PS2 game. That was just a one off, but it did give us enough cash to buy some nice bits of kit for the studio.
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Old 23-06-2015, 13:00
Ally_Bowie
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Does being a member of Menswear count?
I still listen to Nuisance quite regularly, I was a huge Menswear/elastica/sleeper fan when I was 13, they were my golden trio as a youngster.
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Old 23-06-2015, 13:01
Johnny_Cash
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My sister's friend was in the band Catch. They were so crap . They released a few singles in the UK, but their album was shelved.
If it was the same band I own and love their single, Bingo.
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Old 23-06-2015, 16:40
dodrade
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They did kind of make it didn't they? Daydreamer was a good track. Could have been worse, you could have been in Gay Dad.
I wasn't in Menswear, I just wondered if they counted as a band who never made it.
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Old 23-06-2015, 17:13
SpaceCake
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If it was the same band I own and love their single, Bingo.
That's the one. My sister really likes Bingo.

Their first single was aired on ITV moments before the news bulletin about Lady Diana's crash. They were shit though, annoying.
You can watch it on YouTube.
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Old 23-06-2015, 17:15
mialicious
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Someone i used to go to school with was in an Electropop band that was nearly famous for about 5 mins.They got signed to a major and there first single got into the top 40 with minimal airplay. There second single started getting a lot of airplay got into the top 40 again, but then got disqualified from the charts due to sale irregularities.
It turns out that the dad of one of the band members had bulk bought a load of there singles to try and get them higher up the chart..they got dropped from the label straight after.
cringe!
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Old 23-06-2015, 20:15
Noiseboy
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Links to vids! I need links to vids!

I can't emphasize enough - the band can't be too unknown. If it's just playing in a rehearsal room or a local pub, that's fine. Synths in bedrooms - great. Just bands that never had their 15 minutes of fame, even. 6 views on youtube is more than enough, it really can't be too obscure....
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Old 23-06-2015, 22:28
Grabid Rannies
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Someone i used to go to school with was in an Electropop band that was nearly famous for about 5 mins.They got signed to a major and there first single got into the top 40 with minimal airplay. There second single started getting a lot of airplay got into the top 40 again, but then got disqualified from the charts due to sale irregularities.
It turns out that the dad of one of the band members had bulk bought a load of there singles to try and get them higher up the chart..they got dropped from the label straight after.
cringe!
Er, there's no need to be cryptic about this, just say for goodness sake! You're only going to cause more assumption by not saying.
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Old 23-06-2015, 23:21
Ollie_h19
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A couple of bands but we never came close, mainly due to rarely doing gigs/writing/recording anything.

First one was called the Undecided (mainly covers) then Deep Descent.

I did more gigs as a solo artist.

Also, I too own a copy of 'Bingo' by Catch. Great track. A sort of primitive Busted, but better.
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Old 24-06-2015, 00:31
mrkite77
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And amongst all the inevitable rubbish, you just know that there are real gems lurking in lofts and bedroom cupboards, that will never be discovered.
Yup. That's why I've tried to do my part and upload some of my rarer albums online.

Here's a perfect example:

https://soundcloud.com/mrkite77/sets...nerous-portion

That album is by a San Diego band called Eucalyptus. They released an album back in 1996, then disappeared. These days, the *only* reference to that album online is that soundcloud link. No other reference to the band even existing is online... and yet I have their CD, properly printed and pressed.

I really should put more albums on soundcloud.. just lazy I guess.

As far as myself is concerned, I was in a band back in highschool, but we didn't master anything. There might be a couple VHS-C tapes out there that have recordings of some of our gigs, but I don't know if my friend kept those things, and he's dead now so who knows what happened to them.
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Old 24-06-2015, 01:50
crease
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Yup. That's why I've tried to do my part and upload some of my rarer albums online.

Here's a perfect example:

https://soundcloud.com/mrkite77/sets...nerous-portion

That album is by a San Diego band called Eucalyptus. They released an album back in 1996, then disappeared. These days, the *only* reference to that album online is that soundcloud link. No other reference to the band even existing is online... and yet I have their CD, properly printed and pressed.

I really should put more albums on soundcloud.. just lazy I guess.

As far as myself is concerned, I was in a band back in highschool, but we didn't master anything. There might be a couple VHS-C tapes out there that have recordings of some of our gigs, but I don't know if my friend kept those things, and he's dead now so who knows what happened to them.
Exactly, - Your Highschool band, who I've never heard , have to be much more interesting to me than the majority of the stuff I have to listen to on the radio
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