In Memory of Blake Cleverdon

Name: Blake Cleverdon Age: 27 Occupation: Music teacher  Place of Birth: Nottinghamshire, England Date of Birth: 8th of December, 1977  Hair: Brown Eyes: Blue Height: 5’10” Weight: 150 lbs Identifying marks: Left nipple pierced, tattoo of a raven in flight on his back. Hobbies: Music (especially rock, alternative and metal), playing the guitar and piano, movies, cooking, mountain climbing, martial arts.  Languages: English Family: Father, Marsden Cleverdon. Mother, Angelica Cleverdon. Eldest sister, Katie Scarlett Cleverdon Seat: 12 G

Background: Blake Cleverdon was born and raised primarily in Nottinghamshire, where his family had been living the last four generations. Blake’s father worked in a coal mine while his mother was a housewife. His older sister Angelica spent most of her time getting into trouble, and Blake’s mother sent him to a music teacher in an attempt of giving him something to do. Blake started playing the guitar when he was five and was more or less a calm boy. His father worked long hours and would go out drinking in the evenings, just like his father had done, and chances were that Blake would follow in his shoes. But the boy had different goals in his life. He wanted to become a rock god. He wasn’t the only one either. His friends had the same hopes of fame and money, especially when seeing the life that awaited them if they stayed. Together they decided to form a band, a rock band based on David Bowie, Guns ‘N Roses and the likes. It was Blake who wrote the lyrics and music, at least until he managed to teach the others how to do it.

When Blake was 16 he moved to London with his friends and started working in a pizza place with them. During the evenings they practiced and in the weekend they would occasionally play. The band called themselves Angels & Demons. Blake and Connor Newton, his best friend, were the lead singers as well as playing the guitars, while the rest of the band included Wes Newton, Benjamin ‘BJ’ James, Ted Moses and Travis Peters. The band had some success amongst students, who found their music both dark but also ironic. properly into rock, even at times crossing the line into metal, they often wore make-up. Blake’s usual make-up was a pale face and black at the lips and around the eyes, a so-called ‘Crow’ make-up which was made famous with Brandon Lee. The band advanced because it appealed to so many people.

Well, except a few details. Like Blake using heroin, a habit he picked up in Nottinghamshire. The rest smoked pot after the rehearsals, but none of them were so serious involved into it all as Blake. Not that it was a surprise, not really. After all, Blake father was a drinker and his sister was pregnant and his mother had suffered a nervous breakdown. But after a while it became a problem for the group. When they were 18 they had their breakthrough and a record contract…however, it was on the condition that Blake would not be in the band. The band signed the contract and kicked Blake out, who found himself broke, without any money for food or heroine, on the streets of London. It lasted for about a month, with him sinking lower and lower until he saw an Angels & Demons poster. Seeing his former friends fame, he realised that it was his own fault that he was where he was. He sought help, spending the next months becoming clean before finishing his education and applying for University, where he took a BA in Music and Music Performance. With that in the back of his hand he took Pedagogic and in the end started as a music teacher in London, teaching young children how to play the piano and the guitar.

He continued to write music as well, and would occasionally send a song to his old friends and find it on the hit lists a few months later. While they still refused to contact him and used a lot of the material he had made, he couldn’t make himself complain. For him, the must would always be most important. He would help out the teenagers who wanted to make a band, showing them how to write songs and compose, and occasionally perform in the coffee shops around where he lived. But the dream of becoming a rock god was dead. Blake was visiting Japan for the small amount of money he inherited from his father, who died of lung cancer, and he was making his way to Seattle where he would meet Angels & Demons after the band contacted him with the proposal of bringing him back into the group.   Special notes: Former heroin addict

Player's contact: Anne