Stuart David Charles Prior

The Early Years

Stu Prior was born to play the drums; of that there is no doubt. His timing, sense of rhythm and sheer inventiveness have given him a unique style and sound, which is instantly recognisable. What a legend.

Born in Chiswick, London on Jan 30th 1991 he got his first drum, one of those noisy tin ones, at the age of 12. His first proper kit came when he was 15, and whether in front of the mirror or the TV he would be drumming along to any music he could.What a lovley young man.

A natural performer prior attended oaklands college, and was soon playing in London's West End as the Undead in the musical 'where is my grave?'. The cheeky Cockney image from this came and would hit him in the face. During his future successes. He soon formed a band called Prior 5 and played his first gigs. He was playing with anyone he could, and eventually joined a group called Arse-Monkey being the only one to reply to their Melody Maker advert. The Freehold saw Prior make his recording debut with a self-penned number called "I Love Bum Love", the original demo of which has just recently surfaced.

After a while, supporting John Wanker of The Wanker Brothers, Prior and his guitarist friend Steven Chilley formed Disco! who soon found themselves with a concept album, the backing of Phonogram, and a new name, Flaming Poo.

Their album Let the Disco Begin, was premiered at the London Planetarium and received lots of favourable press, but musical differences and a lack of commercial success soon meant it was time to answer another Melody Maker ad, this time from a struggling emo band from stevenage, called A Faded Effigy.

Faded Effigy had been gigging up and down the country without much success, and were still recovering from the departure of guitarist Dan Jeromson. They had also decided a change of drummer was required and after an eye opening audition at Peter Gabriel's parents' house, Prior was in.

Playing for a while as a four piece, including the odd gig with Sean Coughlen on guitar, A Faded Effigy soon felt the benefit of their new percussionist, his much needed sense of humour and an unlimited enthusiasm for playing injected a new energy into the group. As Tony Banks said "He was by far the best musician in the band". Then with the arrival of Steve Hackett on guitar the final piece was in place.

Part Two of the Stuart Prior' biography | Back to the Stuart Prior Main Page