Redwood formed in 1989 in Sutton
Coldfield, Birmingham. The original line-up include Al Cowan on vocals and Rob Blackham on
keyboard. Angus (Al's brother) joined soon after as he was giving his brother lifts to the
practice and 'had a rudimentary knowledge of guitar'. Players came and went, with Rob
swapping to guitar and Jaqui Widdowson being bought in to play keyboards. The bass player
at the time was Paul 'one note beastie' Bennett with Dave Brown on the drums. Venues
played included The Station (Sutton Coldfield), and the Coach & Horses (Balsall
Heath).
Promo Photo 1989 - (left to right) Al, Angus, Jaci, Rob.
Dave Brown and Paul Bennett unavailable at time of shoot.
This line-up lasted for several years
till a big shake up which resulted in Redwood being a two piece for a short while (Al
& Angus, and a win in the Guildford Uni annual Band Competition). By now the band had
all relocated to Guildford. Things got back to normal and drummers were
auditioned and gigged. James Walker joined us for a year and played on early demo 'Mary
Jane' but left left to pursue a career at the BBC. Eventually the accident prone but
solid Chris Hughes was poached from another band. Redwood was now complete and ready to
take on the world.
Promo Photo -
1990
Note 1 - Friend Clare in background coz we had no drummer!
Note 2 - Big Hair was in at the time...
- All Day Blues, Surrey University,
November 1991
-
James still had several commitments to
fulfill with the band, one of these being a national band competition held at the old
Powerhouse Club in London. It was at this gig that a drunken Chris, after being plied with
free whisky all night and while moshing at the front, was seen to pick up Al's monitor
from the stage and stagger off to the bar. We knew then that we had made the right
decision to get him to drum with us! We came 2nd and the prize was a free days recording
at Marcus Studios (London) which is where we met producer Tim Hunt who helped us to
produce our self financed album 'Head' using studio downtime. He also introduced us to
Barry Campbell who ended up managing us for the remainder of the bands career.
-
Photo for 'Head' Album, Shelley Arms (A22, East Hellingley), 1994
(left to right): Al Cowan-Vocals,Bass, Angus Cowan-Guitar,
Chris Hughes-Drums, Rob Blackham-Guitar
-
The band started gigging around the
south coast and at various Universities with the very first issue of the newsletter BLURB
being created in October 1993 (13 more were to follow). Slots at the Phoenix festival for
three years running followed with interest from various labels (Polydor, EMI) resulting in
lots of free studio time, the tracks recorded eventually becoming the Asylum EP (1995).
Finally, after a bit of negotiating and release of the single 'Gone', a track we had
recorded earlier in the year, we were signed to Almo Sounds in November 1996. We partied
till Christmas before getting down to some real work producing a 24 track demo by
March'96. On hearing the demo Almo decided we were ready to do an album.
-
Guildford Festival 1995, Second Stage
-
Within a week we had decided on a
producer, Mark Wallis, whose previous credits included The La's, U2, Wildhearts, and many
others. We spent two weeks pre-production at Backline studios before moving to Black Barn
studios (Ripley) for two weeks to record the album, another week mixing in London and then
mastering and the album was complete (total cost approx £40,000)
Black Barn Studios 1996 - Comping
vocals, Al and Mark Wallis (producer)
-
Four more singles were released with
touring to support them before the album was finally released in November 1997 to critical
acclaim. Another single 'Anything Goes' (re-recorded by Pete Smith) was released
March '98 closely followed by our biggest tour yet with the band Thunder. Unfortunately
even as we were touring the record company were running into difficulty and we parted
company late '98, with Almo Sounds going under shortly after.
Through discussions with our management we decided to change
the name of the band to Lazydog. Chris and Angus adopted a behind the scenes stance but
and we carried on writing and recording eventually releasing the Redwood LP in September
2000. By now the band had stopped touring and it wasn't long before the band drifted apart
to work on solo projects. The last full band gig was at Guildford Festival 2000 on the
second stage.
Alistair and Angus have played two acoustic gigs as
Redwood, Guildford Festival 2003 (third stage) and Surrey University, May 2004.
Hey Just a wee message to let you know that in the run up to the September UK tour I have put three live tracks from a show in Seattle in May up for free download on my myspace player. Feel free to click over there and grab them. It feels good to be coming home. J
Thought I'd make a post on here about you guys playing Guilfest this Friday (4th July - 5pm-5.45pm) as it's not mentioned on here. Looking forward to it guys.
Hope things have been developing well with your music & support lately ...
Have you heard of Sony Vaio MUSIC NATION yet? ... The latest on-line Music networking community and showcasing resource - designed specifically to support both emerging UK musical talent and established stars.
MUSIC NATION has a team of resident Music/Media Industry writers and administrators (including myself) who want to raise the profile of the most talented, eye-catching and hard-working Acts/Bands/Artists with a story to tell ...
MUSIC NATION is FREE to sign up to and provides a professional, "Sony-fied" platform for you to tell your story to a community who really care about Music.
MUSIC NATION presents opportunities for highly-profiled Feature Blogs, News items and Interviews to Bands/Acts who take the time to regularly blog their musical story.
Why don't you set something up & then drop me a line! ...
Hope to hear from you soon.
Best
Sticksy
Nick Robinson
Head of A&R/Promotion
BUT! Music Group
Well this is a bit of an amazing deal that is only open to people that read this!
Our price for a single badge is 99p - We've decided that for those who read this bulletin there will be a very special deal indeed! -
We are going to give you 500 (yes five hundred) badges for the price of just 50 singles!!!!! WOW
Go to www.MyBadges.co.uk and click add to basket on the single 1 custom badge - when your shopping basket page comes up change the quantity to 50 and update cart - The price will then become £49.50 - Order as usual and send your artwork to us and we will then process your order and ensure that insted of sending out 50 you will get no less than 500!!!!!!
An amazing deal that is only valid until Wednesday 14th March.
Hope to hear from you soon!
Dan - www.MyBadges.co.uk
Hiya !
Tocadisco is in town this friday @ Magnetik , The Custard Factory, Birmingham, along with Will Baiiley , Ad Jones and Big Andy. In the 2nd room there is Loxy, Squire, Escape, Pace and Dizasta. Come down and Join in the party!
CLICK THE MAGNETIK LOGO TO VIEW OUR MYSPACE AND BECOME OUR FRIEND!
Great Music Industry prizes! Contest NOW OPEN (closes 5th March 2007, only 1 week left to enter)
Promoting great Songwriting Talent!
Enter now! Visit sites above.
READ BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS...
What is the Unsigned Song Contest?
The Unsigned Song Contest 2007 is a chance for unsigned songwriters and bands to get rewarded for their talents. It is for songwriters that are dedicated to their career and want to work hard to further their position within the music industry. The contest is a song contest with an emphasis on quality songwriting. It is open to solo writers, bands and collaborations across all music genres.
Prizes
Exclusively for the winner(s)...
1. Free entry to the 6-day UK Songwriting Festival in Bath. August 14th - 21st 2007. (Worth £300) - please note that this prize does not include travel or accommodation costs, only entrance fees paid.
2. Free weekend in a recording studio. 21st April & 22nd April 2007. (Worth £500)
Exclusively for the finalists...(including winner(s))
3. The top 3 will be invited to perform live at Colston Hall, Bristol infront of Industry Representatives and A and R, plus others. The venue has recently played host to James Morrison, Status Quo, Will Young, Tracy Chapman and Ray Lamontague to name a few. This will take place in the bar area where album launches are regulary held.
4. The top 5 will get their music forwarded directly to the hands and ears of Nigel Elderton at Peer Music who has a wealth of experience in all aspects of the music industry specifically music publishing. Each song will also receive advice on what are the great aspects of their song and how to improve it.
5. The top 10 will get their music forwarded directly to the hands and ears of Stephen Kempner, a music and entertainments lawyer who deals with clients such as Kate Bush, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, and indie and unsigned acts. Each songwriter will receive advice on their career.
Plus, for every entrant...
6. Every entrant to Unsigned Song Contest 2007 will receive a comment from fellow songwriters on their song(s).
How to Enter
The contest is £10 per song entered or a special limited time offer of £25 for 3 songs.
Send your entries on CD with an entry form and your entry fee to;
UNSIGNED SONG CONTEST,
Box 231
Office 6, Slington House,
Rankine Road,
BASINGSTOKE,
RG24 8PH,
UNITED KINGDOM
DOWNLOAD AN ENTRY FORM www.unsignedsongcontest.co.uk or www.myspace.com/unsignedsongcontest as either a PDF file or Microsoft Word file.
All the best,
Blain Weller
Unsigned Song Contest Co-Ordinator
Magnetik Invites you to Magnetik @ The Custard Factory Birmingham UK on Friday 9th March!!! Electro House in Room 1 with DJ's Tocadisco, Will Bailey, Ad Jones and Big Andy.
Tech D&B with Loxy,Squire, Escape, Pace and Dizasta in room 2.
![[Hatecakes]](http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/22/s_898d8b05edd9ed366009ff2eba0d9a1f.png)
