Pre Med 2009; Danny Faulkner, Alan Davey, Steve Leigh, Eamon O'Neill, Keith Hill, James Hodkinson.
Pre Med is a Progressive Space Rock band, and the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Danny Faulkner. Principle members of the band include former Hawkwind bassist Alan Davey, and guitarist Eamon O’Neill.
Many would argue that Pre Med is the greatest project to come from the Essex based Faulkner, whose past musical exploits include stints with both Starfield and Alan Davey’s Bedouin.
Having left Bedouin (which also included former Hawkwind Drummer Danny Thompson) in 2004, Danny's plans for his own band were beginning to take shape. He began work on demos that would eventually lead to Pre-Med. Alan heard the demos and was so impressed that he was eager to get involved in the project and eventually he lent his skills to bass, keys, vocals and production of the album.
In 2007 the album “Medication Time” was finally released on the Voiceprint label to critical acclaim. Described as a must for all fans of seriously good music, it took influences from, (unsurprisingly) Hawkwind and space rock in general. However it also added liberal doses of ambient moods, a touch of drum and bass, sci-fi theme tunes and some good old straight ahead rock ’n’ roll, resulting in an interesting and varied album. Many guests featured on the disc including the aforementioned Danny Thompson, Steve Leigh former keyboard player with Prog band Landmarq and Danny's brother Martin who contributed some of the lyrics to the album.
The Truth About Us
Work on the follow-up began soon after, and the band underwent a line-up change, when guitarist Louis Turner was replaced by Eamon O’Neill, whose hard rock style brought a slightly harder, yet melodic edge to the album. Alan Davey also returned, as did Martin Faulkner, whose outstanding contribution to the first album led to his writing of all the lyrics for what would become ‘The Truth About Us’. A natural progression from Medication Time, the album was released in April 2008 again to critical acclaim, with Record Collector Magazine calling it a thoughtfully created mind-trip played and arranged with intelligence as well as passion. The album once again boasted the talents of Steve Leigh on keyboards, and late Jason Stuart (formerly of Hawkwind), guested, supplying the keyboard solo to the sublime “Death Of A Star”. The album also featured the stunning artwork of Kevin M Sommers.
In May 2008 The band recruited drummer Keith Hill and keyboardist James Hodkinson in order to play their first ever live gig, at the Sonic World festival in Derbyshire. Although the band only played a short set, their appearance was hailed as the highlight of the festival. Following on from this success, the band was asked to headline the Saturday Night at the 2009 Sonic Rock Solstice in Wales. Although this was only their 2nd ever gig, the band's set went down a storm, and was once again hailed as the highlight of the festival.
The band are currently working on the 3rd Pre Med album, and are planning a return to the live arena in the near future. Watch this space!
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