| Guilty Parties was founded in October 2000. I had known Evan and Bobby for some time as we were all in the same year at school. I also had just met a bassist named Alex Rees in a drunken encounter at a local pub. In our drunken state we jokingly said we should form a band. Little did I know how much truth was to be in these words. Bobby and I, bored in our complacence, had a bright idea to play some rage covers with Bobby and Evans other band SALT. Evan agreed, but we had no Bassist, as Salt's wasn't a rage fan (a fundamental flaw). Bobby and I approached Alex being as he was the best bassist we knew. It was settled we would get together and play 4 RATM songs at the end of December. As far as we knew this was a one off. However we wanted to take things seriously and tried to come up with a name for ourselves. Initially "ANGER AGAINST THE MICROWAVE", I was unhappy thinking it was too gimmicky for a band trying to put forward a serious message. After much thinking, it hit me. On every RATM album or single sleeve, the words "Guilty Parties" are always used for the members of RATM. The band all agreed and things were starting to look a bit more organised. At this time (late November) things got a little bit difficult because of exams, and practice was scarce. In fact we had only had about three hour-long sessions with no Alex. But with the benefit of us all attending the same school, we managed to get enough communication with each other. The first Gig The day of the 22nd December finally came. In the morning we finally got a vital practice session at Alex's house. The four songs were decided and played to perfection. We all arrived about six in the evening at the "Beatbox" a local Swansea club where new talent played. SALT were used to playing there, but Alex and I had never played a gig before and the nerves were beginning to show. As SALT's set finished Bobby called us to the stage, and my heart was pounding. Despite us keeping ourselves fairly quiet, news of a RATM tribute band had somehow got out, and the club was packed. All of our friends were there to support us and the time had come, Guilty Parties were ready to play. We tore into "Killing in the name with" huge amounts of energy. The explosive fury from the band was echoed in the crowd as they moshed ferociously to the killer riffs and funky beat. The onslaught of the first song ended with the huge "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me." And all signs of nerves had disappeared. "Sleep now in the fire" followed with another great crowd reaction; people sang along to the chorus and dived from the stage into the eager audience. A similar response was given to "Bullet in the Head" and "Wake Up". The final words "How long, not long, cos what you reap, is what you sow." was a perfect ending to a fantastic set. At the end of the set we couldn't get enough appreciation from the crowd, the number of strangers who complimented me that night was unbelievable. With this appreciation we knew that this had to be more than just a one off, Guilty Parties were now officially a fully formed band ready for any challenge. �There's more After December it all seemed to go a bit quiet as far as gigs were concerned. However below the quiet surface, we were practising like mad broadening our repertoire. We thought about the RATM songs that would appeal most to our fans (and by this time our fan base was growing considerably). The Ghost of Tom Joad, Bulls on Parade, Know your Enemy and Freedom were among the songs added to the original line-up. In early February Alex told me some great news, we had been chosen to headline at the Abbi-Kanapatharaja gig at the "Function Suite" Swansea on February 15th. We couldn't believe it our second gig and we were headlining. Once again we practised all our songs the morning before courtesy of the helpful staff at Olchfa school who let us use their music rooms during the Spring Holidays. In the evening Alex and I met in a pub close to the club, despite the popularity of the band, nerves were creeping in again and so was the problem of our fitness. We didn't think we'd be able to get through the set without some sort of aid. 7 packets of fucking superdrug's own energy tablets later, Alex and I were running on a glucose high. Was this the beginning of a habit? The gig was going well with appearances from local Ska-Punk monkeys "Adam Went Home" three of Bobby's other bands "Little Miss Direction", "Insomnia" and "Salt". Unfortunately with all these other bands it was very late before we got on stage. By this time Alex had already chucked his guts up and I was feeling just as bad. The set actually went fine apart from these things but a slightly pissed off crowd meant this wasn't as big a success story as the first gig. Not long after this another Guilty Parties gig was announced again at the Function Suite, this time we were to play with Top local bands "Elysium", "Trigger Happy", "Against the Grain" and the ever present "Adam went Home" on the 29th of March. This time after a bit of shitty treatment from the organisers we got off to a great start. "Tom Joad" was an excellent crowd drawer with huge outbursts from the moshers during the chorus. The whole 9-song set was received brilliantly by the surprisingly large group of fans. We finished with "Freedom" which was becoming a habit, and the blood curdling screams left the fans gagging for more. Guilty Parties were back on top form. We've played three smashing gigs since then, including a "battle of the bands" at Olchfa School, One gig at Fulton house was a little crap because of other bands time wasting *coughadamwenthomecough*. More recently we played a six-song set in "The Celtic Pride" a Swansea pub. This was the first time I saw the "Fire Breathing Penguins" and they absolutely blew me away. By Mr T. Guilty Parties are: Tom Hill: Vocals Alex "Manwhore" Rees: Bass Evan Divis: Lead Guitar Bobby Cole: Drums Contact: [email protected] http://come.to/guiltyparties |
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| Alex, Bobby, Evan and Tom doing their thang... |
| JUNE |