This page
is a posthumous biography for a band i was in approximately 1997 - 2000, it
is getting hard to remember the dates these days! It's really here liked from
my main page, feel free to add if you want, but bands please see the Led Zep
Too link in the top 8 and add that as it is the band that i currently play
with, thanks.
Utopia
Station were formed in Horsham, Sussex in about 1997. The band originally
named Dogfoot started out as a funky, rocking sound with a few ballad type
tracks. The lineup consisted of Vocals, Piano, Guitar, Bass & Drums. After
about 18 months the band's sound started to change direction, moving towards
a more experimental darker sound. Adryan (piano) wrote most of the songs on
acoustic guitar and we would then jam out until some nice riffs and grooves
were formed. Once the sound started to change direction we started to put
things together in the studio and ended up with quite a few songs that never
got played live, which was a bit weird!
We used
Alleycat Studios in Reading, we had some sort of agreement with them that
we could record for nothing and pay later, i don't think we ever paid anything!
And we would go for 2 or 3 days, record all day, go to the Purple Turtle in
the evening, come back about 2, usually there was a party going on in the
studio when we got back, so we just kept drinking! Then we slept in the back
rest room behind the control room, normally about 5am, (I can even remember
calling in sick one morning from the bar at 6.30am just before going to bed!).
Pete would then arrive around 10am to get the tapes set up! We certainly had
a lot of fun! And Pete was a great engineer.
The band
was always playing regular gigs, in fact it's one of the few original bands
i know of that could play the firkin pubs, where usually covers bands would
play, and still hold the audiences attention for the whole evening. We did
do a few covers, Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd) was usually the encore,
we also played Superstition (Little Stevie Wonder), Revolution (The Beatles,
the fast version!), Cold Turkey (John Lennon).
We played
some good gigs in our innings too! A few that spring to mind are Warwick University.
We played this twice, as far as i know we are the only band to ever play there
twice! The first one was amazing, a leavers ball, last day for so many students!
They we well up for it! I can remember arriving at 3pm for soundcheck, then
going to the room we had with a pretty hefty amount of beer! Getting pissed
from 4pm and going onstage at around 10pm, just wandering around the campus!
It was definitely the most drunk i had played to that date! The weird thing
was it was so easy, it was like i was part of the audience, i was just observing
and listening, the playing was great! Not one bum note! LOL. I remember pointing
at some girls up on the balcony and so many people were dancing, so i used
my pointing to tell them to get downstairs and dance and they did!
Another
memorable gig was just a crap pub gig in Hammersmith, The White Hart. Think
it was a Friday night, about 15 people in watching! We did our 2 sets and
said goodnight at 11 just to be told that, we have a licence until midnight!
Oh, ok we thought! well we played our set's what now. So we just started jamming
for an hour & i wish we could have recorded it! There was some crazy stuff
going on! We also had a regular at the Camden Firkin, the only FREE venue
in Camden! Once a month Saturday night slot! It was never a let down! Lots
of crazy characters, people dancing on tables, it was always such a good gig!
Other gigs include supporting Saxxon at the Alleycat Club in Reading, that
was very amusing! We supported Libido at the Firkin in Reading. A couple of
battle of the bands at The Mean Fiddler. The Borderline, off Charing Cross
Road. The Sound Republic in Leicester Square, another funny story there actually!
We had
to park about 20 mins walk away in Charlotte Street. After the gig Adryan
& I went to get the van, and it had been clamped and ticketed too! So
we walked back to the venue, Stuart's girlfriend Jess used her card to pay
the fine of £80 and I went back to wait for the unclamper! I was waiting
for bloody ages! must have been 90 minutes or more! Eventually he came and
unclamped me. Then i was so impatient i reversed into the mini parked behind
me! I heard the glass smash, but after having such a nightmare already i had
to cut my losses and just fuck off! I am so sorry to whoever owned that mini!
Of course the van had a huge sticker right in front of the driving view on
the windscreen! Anyway I got back to the venue to see the band and associates
all standing on the pavement with the gear all dumped on the pavement too!
The others were chatting to those 2 limo drivers that were helping out with
spliffs and things! Their limos cost 50 grand each and even had a button in
the rear that lowered a flap which had a coke mirror on it! Anyway, not only
did they have all that but they also had some wondoe cleaner and used a credit
card to remove the clamping sticker from the wndscreen of the van! What useful
people to have around when you need them! Well they were there waiting for
their clients that were busy clubbing it next door. As far as i remember it
was Atomic Kitten, this was a few months before they released their first
single, i guess they were networking! So when we left one of the limo drivers
said, are you sure you don't want to stick around, the nose bag is turning
up later! LOL
Yet again
another lively incident was when we got busted! I think it must have been
coming back from a Camden gig. We took a wrong turn and ended up driving through
the city. Of course big white van, well we got pulled over near Islington
somewhere i think. As we rolled the windows down they would have smelt the
smoke wafting out of the windows! So of course we were taken down to Snow
Hill and inconveniently made to sit in a cell for 3 hours! Well 2 of us, the
rest sat in the waiting area. As far as i was told, 2 of them were in fits
of laughter and some girl that was with us was in tears!
Of course
the best has to be our 3 weeks in China. Playing to 125,000 people over 3
weeks in an outdoor stadium sized arena with 2 giant video screens! This was
just an experience of a lifetime! Shenzhen, just off the coast of the South
China Sea, about 1 hour from Hong Kong, 40 Degrees, 98% humidity! It was unbelievably
hot! A special thanks to my friend Xiaolin for arranging this for us! We were
basically playing at a beer festival during the summer of 2000. The venue
was like a tourist place for Chinese people. There were very few westerners
there & no one spoke English! Window of the World was the name of the
theme park, which was basically the world in miniature. They had everything
from Stonehenge to the Sydney Harbour! A small scale Niagra Falls, with a
ride that went around the top! And a 3rd of the size Eiffel Tower, which even
had a lift to go to the top! It was all there.
We came
very close to a deal a few times, but it was bad timing, record companies
were busy dropping bands & not signing them. Island, East West, Gut, Parlaphone,
BMG all showed interest, one even drove down to Sussex to hear our rehearsal.
They all said that if they had a budget they would have at least sent us into
the studio. Upon our return from China Stewart left the band, and others followed
one by one, Myself, Adryan and Glen stayed on with a chap called Stuart on
the drums and a vocalist from Birmingham called Bioux. That became Big Red!
(cause Bioux was a Ginger Brummie!)
