[ BIOGRAPHY & PROFILES ]

[ Ricky McMahon ] - Vocals
[ Kym Lam Sam ] - Guitars
[ Luke Pammenton ] - Drums
[ Chris Arthur ] - Bass

No Vakancy Biography v4
By Luke Pammenton & Tyne Ainsley

It all started sometime in the middle of 2000, in Brisbane, Australia.

Newly established guitarist Kym Lam Sam wanted to start an alternative/punk band. He knew of no other musician in his school age group except fellow 'muso' Tyne Ainsley who had recently taken up the bass guitar. The next task was finding a drummer, and a good one at that. They turned to Luke Pammenton who had recently arrived, "fresh off the boat", in Australia from England. Luke didn't really know Kym but was very keen to play in a band. The 3 of them arranged to practice one Sunday at Tyne's house. After a long practice and not much progress the idea was put on the back burner for a while and eventually disappeared, with Tyne moving into the jazz/funk scene and the others going their own way.

4 months later, soon to be vocalist Ricky McMahon discussed the forming of another band with Kym. Immediately Kym again spoke to Luke Pammenton, asking him to play drums for them. With Tyne no longer wishing to play bass, they were in a bit of a tight squeeze. A couple of weeks later, Kym came up to Luke with some good news,

" I've found us a bass player"

This all came about after Kym started complaining to his good friend Chris Arthur about the band being without a bass player. Hearing this, and also having played a bit of guitar, Chris offered to take up bass to play in the band. Since they didn't know any other bass players, Kym willingly accepted the offer. Hence, No Vakancy began.

On the Tuesday of the last week of school, a practice was arranged at Luke's' house. As it was the very first practice, everyone was slightly unsure of each others capabilities. We should also mention that no one had heard Luke play the drums properly. Straight away, Luke asked to begin the first song with a drum solo. They accepted his kind offer and he proceeded to play a short but direct drum solo. Everyone in that garage was gobsmacked.

Ricky, Pammaz & Chris's ass at practice

This song was "Pay the rent", which was written that day along with "Spartacus". Everybody left the practice feeling very confident about the future of the band. The next practice held a Chris's house was to be the brainchild of the song "Something Chronic" ,and, along with their other songs, was recorded that day. Another song written that day was less energetic "My Oath to you", unfortunately this number was dropped from the No Vakancy repertoire.

A few days later, while Tyne (remember him?) was around at Lukes' house (probably drinking beers and watching videos), Luke played him the recently recorded demo tape. Tyne was rather impressed. Some time later, Tyne was chatting to Kym over the Internet. Kym was voicing his concerns about the band having a very empty feel during his solos. This was of course mainly due to the absence of a rhythm guitarist.
After some thought, Tyne offered to play guitar for NV. Although he hadn't been playing guitar seriously (due to drumming being his main instrument), the advent of the band re-inspired him to put more focus on his guitar skills. Kym told him of the next practice and Tyne rocked up with what little gear he had, ready to play.

After that day, the band became more aware of each other and a song writing chemistry was formed. With songs being written left right and centre, the band decided to make a demo tape, later to be called "11 'til 4". Christmas had now passed and NV were preparing for their first gig, to be performed at Ricky's 16th Birthday party. The plan was to have the tapes ready for sale at the gig. The tape contained the first 8 tracks written by them and, as a bonus for the fans, had a special surprise on the B side (basically all of them talkin' shit for about half an hour). That night, No Vakancy played really well, the crowd responded really poorly, leaving the boys a little pissed off. On the upside, they sold all their tapes and put the cash towards a new microphone for Ricky.

Since then they've played various gigs and recorded their first EP - "Cuttin Sick" which proved to be a great success with the fans. The CD was a eye opening experience for these fellaz as none of them had been in a studio for a recording (find out more about their new CD in the Discography section). No Vakancy have a small but dedicated following that attend all the gigs they can.

Just recently, rhythm guitarist Tyne Ainsley decided to break from the band due to differences in music styles, but the 5 of them are still on good terms. What's happening with the band now? They're currently writing songs for another album and are hoping to record the new CD towards the end of this year.