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The Story So Far - April 2009

First Wave became an entity in the late summer of 2002, and have since gone from strength to strength, with recent gigs supporting John Otway and 999. Upcoming: Anti Nowhere League, UK Subs and GBH! Read on for more.

Stu, Rob and Tony had originally all played together in their youth in a band called Catch 22 in the late 70s. With the onslaught of Hardcore and the consequent demise of good honest punk rock n roll, Rob and Tony soon became disilusioned with the music scene in general; neither of them particularly wanted to ditch the catchy tunes and good time attitude of RnR in favour of songs at 1000 bpm with unintelligible vocals. Rob put away his guitar and Tony moved to Florida for a while... as you do.

Stu went on to join pseudo-goth band White Dog Complex with girl singer Miz (also ex-Catch 22) and guitarist Kev (ex-Tone Deaf). While Rob did the family thing and Tony chilled in Florida (eventually to return to sunny Leicester...), Stu later went on to play with goth band Leather Jesus.

Fast forward to 2002, and Tony was wandering around Leicester with some quality tunes in his head... catchy lyrics, straight-up punk attitude... when who should he meet again by chance at a UK Subs gig but Rob! Tony suggested laying down some of his new ideas on tape and Rob was up for it. Tony recalls "We got talking about drummers... and Stu's name naturally came up..." It then took Tony two months to track down the inimitable Man of Goth.

At this stage, Stu was still drumming for Leather Jesus, but he agreed to give it a go, and, after much rehearsing, First Wave (as they were henceforth known) were more than ready for their first gig, at the Shed in Leicester. On the same bill were an unusual band from Northampton, by the name of Post-Teen Neurotic Breakdown Complex. First Wave quickly made friends of this friendly bunch of mutant punks, including bassplayer Monkey. Monkey went on to form a garage-punk band in which he played guitar, ominously named The Flaming Kermits, and eventually leaving Post-Teen... . At the same time, Leather Jesus split, leaving Stu to concentrate on First Wave.

After a couple of mad years the Flaming Kermits finally crashed and burned, and Monkey was on the lookout for a new band to join. Rob was looking to take time out from First Wave, and so Tony approached Monkey, who quickly accepted the invitation, resulting in the present all-star line-up. Since joining, Monkey has written a number of new tunes for First Wave, including "Girl from the KGB", "Rock The Boat" and "The Problem with England", all with the garage-rock/punk/pop sensibilities which made the Flaming Kermits popular. At the same time, Tony's writing skills have also become steadily more and more sophisticated, in particular listen to "Dead Presidents", "Bad Girl Rocker" and "Disaster Day", some of these with an almost glam sense of fun and all with great punk/pop hooks.

In short, First Wave have begun to grow beyond the 3-chord punk standard: they write catchy tunes with a sense of humour, but at the same time still have their feet firmly on the ground, firmly in their punk/rock-n-roll roots. It's no wonder then that First Wave have gone on to become one of the hardest working bands in the Midlands. Recently, we've supported the likes of Demob, Ed Tudor-Pole, Angelic Upstarts and Street Dogs, as well as John Otway and 999.