It took over a year, countless pints and more line-up changes than I’d care to remember, but on 4 June 1994, Solitary finally held its first rehearsal.
We had all the gear, some ideas and an awful lot of determination.
This is the story of how it all began.
The New Britannia Inn — Where It All Began
As I mentioned in Chapter One, it took over a year to get the initial line-up of Solitary together. My best mate Dave Herbert, who I’d known since preschool, agreed with almost no persuasion to learn guitar in the spring of 1993 so we could form a band.
Another mate of ours from the pub, Owen McGough, had a PA system, recording equipment and a wealth of musical knowledge. Owen had cerebral palsy, which meant playing guitar live wasn’t practical for him, but he could use a keyboard and sequencer. I reckoned he’d be a good addition.Having already experienced the torture of drum machines, finding a proper drummer was non-negotiable.
Another lad we knew from the pub, Stu Black, said he could play a bit and agreed to join. Around the same time, one of mine and Dave’s drinking partners, Nick Cuttle, mentioned that although he was a guitarist, he could play bass and fancied getting involved.
So, after countless pints and lengthy discussions in our home from home, The New Britannia Inn, Solitary was born.
4 June 1994 — The First Rehearsal
We rented a unit at The Mill in Preston and held our inaugural rehearsal on 4 June 1994. In all honesty, everyone’s musical ability was pretty limited. The fact that only Dave and I from that original line-up would appear at our first show six months later, back at The New Brit, probably tells you everything you need to know about how bad we must have sounded.
The keyboards were the first to go. Almost immediately afterwards, Nick departed too, admitting he wasn’t particularly interested in playing bass. By early September, we’d managed to write a couple of songs, Twilight and Once Betrayed, but it was becoming increasingly clear that Stu needed some tuition.
Despite having invested in a massive Premier double bass drum kit, he could still only manage a straight beat with the occasional very basic drum fill. We had all the gear, some ideas and an awful lot of enthusiasm.
The Mill, Preston — the birthplace of Solitary, where we held our first rehearsal on 4 June 1994.
All the Gear and Some Idea
From my perspective, Solitary was serious business. This was what I wanted to do with my life, and rehearsing, writing songs and making progress were absolutely essential. Unfortunately, not everyone shared quite the same level of urgency.
Stu had got himself a girlfriend, and it was becoming obvious that we needed someone with a bit more experience behind the drum kit. We agreed that Stu would get some lessons while we drafted in Scott Callaghan, who I’d got to know through Xentrix, to help us develop the songs.
Scott had years of experience playing in bands. He was a great guitarist, a very capable drummer and, more importantly, a really good mate. By this point, Scott’s brother Tristan had joined us on bass, and between the three of us we came up with the idea of asking Scott to help out.
Secretly, I had another plan. I was hoping that once Scott started rehearsing with us, he’d enjoy it enough to join Solitary permanently and we could really get things moving.
There was just one problem. Scott was adamant that if he joined another band, he wanted to play guitar. Ironically, he would eventually join Solitary on bass in the spring of 1995, but that’s another story.
For now, having Scott behind the drums made an immediate difference. Suddenly, we sounded like a band that might actually be going somewhere.
Hatred, I See Nothing and Our First Gig
Once Scott started rehearsing with us, the difference was obvious. For the first time, we had an experienced drummer behind the kit, and everything began falling into place.Within a couple of weeks, we’d mastered two songs — Hatred and the original version of I See Nothing.
Both songs had originally been written by Chris Astley and Scott Callaghan during a short-lived project they’d worked on in 1994, following Chris’s initial departure from Xentrix.Suddenly, we had some proper material, a line-up that could play it and the confidence to let people hear what we were doing.
There was just one problem.Scott’s involvement was only ever intended to be temporary, so we decided we’d better book our first gig while we had the chance.
Naturally, we chose The New Britannia Inn, the very pub where the idea of Solitary had first taken shape. There was, however, one fairly significant snag. Scott didn’t actually own a drum kit.
Which meant it fell to me to persuade or perhaps more accurately, tell Stu that we were going to play our first show without him. And we’d need to borrow his drums to do it. Looking back, it wasn’t exactly my finest moment in band management. But Stu agreed, and so, on Tuesday 6 December 1994, exactly six months and two days after our first rehearsal, Solitary finally made its live debut at The New Britannia Inn in Preston.
A week or two later, Stu left the band and took his drum kit with him. To be fair, given how he’d been treated, I can’t say I blame him. We’d finally played our first gig, but as 1994 drew to a close, we were about to find ourselves without a drummer again.
The original flyer for Solitary’s first-ever gig at The New Britannia Inn, Preston, on 6 December 1994. Free admission you’ve got to start somewhere!
January 1995 — An Unexpected Discovery
We kicked off 1995 on a high after the triumph of our first gig. There was just one small problem. We didn’t have a drummer.
On a freezing January evening, Dave, Tristan and I turned up at The Mill wondering where on earth we were going to go next. In an attempt to keep warm, Tristan decided to jump behind a drum kit and started playing. And, to our surprise, he wasn’t half bad!
Considering he’d joined Solitary as our bass player, this was a rather unexpected development. But sometimes the best things happen completely by accident. Tristan made the move from bass to drums, and suddenly we had the foundations of a working band again.
We began rehearsing relentlessly, writing and developing our material, and looking towards the next big step.
Recording our first demo tape. After all the false starts, line-up changes and borrowed drum kits, Solitary was finally beginning to find its feet.
And we were about to make our first proper recording.
Coming Next — Chapter Three: Desolate
In the next chapter, I’ll take you back to 1995 and the making of our first demo tape, Desolate. We’ll also revisit those early days through a special podcast originally recorded for our Volumes 1 collection.
Thirty years later, it’s fascinating to look back at where it all started.
I Promise To Thrash Forever.
Rich
