The first musical coming together of members of the band
now know as, ~ahem~ "Melted Cat," was on a cold Saturday morning
in March 1999. Three of the current line-up were present, (Colin, Ben C
and Ben L), along with a small, ugly, pale looking thing who professed to
play the drums. Foolishly the other three band members believed him and
through a combination of allowing use of his church to practice, actually
owning his own kit and calling his mother a, "Fucking dyke bitch
slutfest whore from hell," he was accepted into the band. He was
known simply as Rowney.
After 2 hours of jamming a small number of Oasis covers
it was decided that each person had just about enough musical talent to
get by, and that we should become a band.
Early Days
Over the next 6 months the band
proceeded to put together a set of 12 well rehearsed songs. This comprised
of Oasis, Blur Bon Jovi and Green Day covers along with 3 original
compositions; "Looking Back", an instrumental entitled "The
Start", and later "Tuesday".
However All Was Not Well
Within the Band.
Whilst practices at "Time Studios" in Leigh
passed without major incident, the other members of the band were
developing a growing dislike for the cocky little "slammin
vinyl" runt known as Rowney. One of his many excuses for finishing
practices early was saying that he had arranged to go on the park and play
football with his 'mates' (Yeah right, he doesn't have any) at 7pm in the
middle of winter, when it was dark!! His most famous sayings on actually
turning up to practices and setting up his kit were, in a fake manc
accent, "oh no, I've forgot me cymbals" and "I've forgot me
sticks", This was often followed by another of his
"trademarks" 'calling his mum a bitch' and telling her to go and
get his stuff.
You really can't imagine how much this pissed other band
members off, it was decided that auditioning of a new drummer needed to be
done. This is where the story of Melted Cat really should have begun.
Taking Action
So without actually telling Rowney, current band member,
the lowly drummer boy known as Gilly (Paul Gill) was drafted in for an
audition at Fredlongworth High School in Tyldesly. The band decided to
play Supersonic by Oasis first as Gilly said he knew it. He played it with
a look of boredom on his face, then proceeded to play Basket Case by Green
Day after a chance comment by Colin who mentioned that it'd be good if we
had a drummer who could actually play it! In ten words, he was so much
better than Rowney it was untrue (not that it is hard for a drummer to
be.......but you get the picture). So after playing two songs Gilly was
told he was in, condemning Rowney back to his bedroom DJ lifestyle.
Now, with an improved lineup the band set about trying
to recruit a bass player. Gilly mentioned that he knew of someone that
could possibly fill the void, and of course the rest of the band were
enthusiastic. At the next practice, as Gilly walked through the door, he
was followed by a large, long haired, unkempt, beast who lurked in the
corner of the room for a while, before grunting "Hi I'm Pete".
Henceforth, Melted Cat had entered the uncharted territories of the scummy
bass player. Pete turned out to be similar in musical ability to Rowney;
needless to say Pete was relived of his bass playing duties immediately.
Completing The Lineup
Having sacked two incompetent piles of waste, the band
were now were still short of a bass player. Colin then announced that his
mate, Danny, played bass and had previously played in a band unlike the
other two wasters who are now long gone. With the chilling image of Pete
still fresh in their minds the rest of the band waited with a certain
apprehension on the night of Danny's audition. Amazingly Danny turned out
to actually be able to play the bass and was accepted into the band (the
fact that Danny smoked so much weed that he could be mistaken for a large
human cannabis plant was disregarded as insignificant at the time).
So with the lineup complete the band began rehearsing
and writing new material and shaping their unique but catchy style ~yes we
are catchy~ At this point we had only a few of our songs, including
Tuesday, Looking Back, Live For Today ~ahem~, and some other crapfests
that we could play. When Danny joined the band we actually now had the
capacity to play better songs, and therefore better covers. Covers like
"What's My Age Again" (nailed very easily) and easyfests like
"Closing Time" by Semisonic.
Orrrr rreeeetttt let's try and
play a gig!
After we had been practicing for a while at Freddies Ben
Leighton decided to offer the services of the band to his own (Canon
Slade) leaver's dinner at Rivington Barn. This gig was the biggest waste
of time (the first half anyway) that we ever saw. When we started playing
as people came in, we were just in the background really. We received a
few complements etc. . . and the dinner/buffet actually got underway with
various nothing awards for students (none for Ben hahahahaha). After these
""awards"" were completed the band resumed play and
actually played to a dance-floor (said slowly with anger) full of people.
They were all too happy about leaving school to appreciate us really but I
(drummer) got the impression people did enjoy themselves (wweeellll
ggoooodd).
What about a "proper"
gig?
What's meant by this is that we decided to try and
play a gig organized by ourselves or support someone else. We eventually
decided on an offer presented to us by Hesketh Fletcher teacher Mrs.
Asbury with whom Ben, Ben, Colin and Danny had contact through school.
Also Mr. Asbury (wife of Mrs. ~obviously~) taught Music to the drummer at
Fred Longworth High School. Anyway the decision to play a gig at Hesketh
Flectcher was finalized and we set about organizing relevant stuff. We had
more or less decided to play under the name of "Cynosure". We
designed posters ~which can be viewed in the merchandise or pictures
section of the site. They were most crap but at the time we thought they
were good. Along with the posters we made tickets to sell for 50p each
(also featured in other area of site) We sold quite a few tickets (many of
which did not turn up) quite a few people paid on the door which was good.
Although there were quite a few people there, it was the biggest pile of
NOTENOUGHPEOPLETHERETOFILLTHEVENUEATALL I have ever seen. We went down OK
though and the people that were there enjoyed themselves. During that gig
the crowd was being crap and boring but then we decided to pull a crapfest
of a stunt and pretend to tell the drummer to go (during Don't Look Back
in Anger if anyone that was there remembers) Anyway after that they
weren't too bad. That was the end of playing Hesketh Fletcher EVER AGAIN!
Life after "ecki"
After the Hesketh Fletcher gig we were all pretty much
happy with our performances although we had thought that our own songs
were lacking in number. This inspired us to start practicing at Ben
Leighton's gran's (due to the fact that the school was closed for Summer
holidays). After about 2 practices at Ben's gran's (all day affairs-5 or
six hours practice), we set about creating new material for us to play.
Within about an hour we had just made up songs through messing about and
had nailed 3 songs ~wahoo~. These songs were "personal
cheese"(name later changed), "The Fade" and "Why Can't
You Be More Like Me?". All of these songs are WELLGOODCATCHFESTS
which is a good thing. We continued to practice there through the Summer
months and eventually over the Summer had composed 6 or 7 new songs.
The Glass Barrel
After days of boredom of nothing to do in the holidays
we set out in search of gigs. We walked all round the local venues (pubs
etc . . . ) asking if we could play. We got a response from the Letter's
Inn saying that if we left our telephone number then they would get back
to us. They never did. We then (as a last attempt) asked the "under
new ownership" Glass Barrel guy called Kev if we could play. He
pondered for a while and then reluctantly agreed only if we would play for
free. Now we thought this was a bit crap so we added a clause to the
agreement that if we played for free then we would come back. Again he
agreed and so it was set. Melted Cat would play the Glass Barrel. The name
hadn't been set in stone but we soon came to the decision that we would be
called that (see band names).
At the gig we played two sets of 9 and 10 lasting about
2 hrs. We went down well and we were made to play a double encore ~chem~.
Anyway we went down well, we were invited back (playing in a couple of
weeks) and we received a crate of beer between us.
The Contact Theatre Gig
This was largely a crapfest because I think it was our
smallest and most unreceptive crowd to date. We knew it would be like this
when we found out it was an R'n'B, garage and regeeeaaaaay night (on the
day). Also Colin shouted wwwhhhhaaaassuuuuupp as we all got on stage (at
the height of this phrase's popularity) and the room just went quiet (who
could resist shouting back??!?!?!?!?). The good part of this gig was the
actual venue, this was the first time the 'Cat had been put through a PA
and mixed. For the first time our music was sounding like it should. We
played a four song set of "In Hindsight", "Religious
Education", "Why Can't You Be More Like Me?" and
"Tuesday" (three of the songs were later to appear on Cats Don't
Melt). It also was the only gig we have played with professional lighting
and stuff, which was a pile of wellgood! Another thing that came from this
day was that the drummer came up with the name for a Melted Cat demo
"Cats Don't Melt".
Back to the Barrel
As promised, we were asked again to play at the Glass
Barrel. This time we wanted some money for the gig because we had not been
payed for a gig since our very first one. Kev wanted us to play for free
again. At first we refused, desperatley wanting money but in the end our
need for another gig overided the need for money and we accepted. Kev said
that for playing we could have free drinks all night. The gig went down
fairly well but gave me nowhere near the rad feeling I got after playing
the first gig at the Glass Barrel. At this gig we debuted the songs
"Mr. Cynical" (included on Cats Don't Melt) and "Smokey
Bear".
Do Cats Melt?
So after playing the Glass Barrel for the second time we
decided that we needed to play at different venues and the only way to get
different gigs was to record a demo. After considering what songs to put
on it at a practice (we literally voted and picked the names out of a
hat), Danny came up with somewhere that seemed ridiculously cheap for the
facilities it had. This place was the recording studio at Colin and
Danny's college, Railway Road, Leigh.
So on the 13-14th of Jan 2001 the 'Cat went in, recorded some songs, took
some silly photos (some have already been put up in the Band Pics section)
and took a few very silly 15 second videos. The end product was "Cats
Don't Melt". This CD had us chemming for weeks afterwards because it
sounded wweeeeellllllllprofessional. To get your hands on this gem e-mail
us at meltedcat@hotmail.com or you can download the MP3s from the MP3
section.
Glass Barrel-core!?!?!?!?
The return to gigging for us at the Glass Barrel, on
5/5/01, was probably the best gig we have done in terms of quality and
amount of our own material played (16 songs out of 20 played) and in terms
of stage technique.
And the award for unluckiest band
ever goes to....
It had to happen. A knightmare gig for the new era
of Melted Cat. OK so, it was at the Spring Bank Holiday Rock
festival at the Boars Head pub in Leigh on the 28th May 2001. The
signs were there that this wasn't going to be our day when our scheduled
time got shifted around about 5 times previously, but we went down on the
day and we decided that the best opportunity for a rad gig by us was
probably this one (a good PA, sunny weather, a stage and about 300 people
watching). Anyway we started the set an the monitors were so close
to us that the band was basically in a line and movement was restricted
which ate ball. Anyway basically Guitarcat snapped the "A"
string on his guitar in the middle of the 4th song (In Hindsight) and then
had to restring it afterwards (no spare guitar). The rest of the
band filled in as best they could but then the sound guy cut our set short
so we decided on playing "Part Time Girlfriend" and "Why
Can't You Be More Like Me?" to finish off but we couldn't really
rescue the gig back after that big pile of unlucky. One good thing
that I observed from onstage was that people were audibly singing along to
WCYBMLM? (I could hear people singing over the sound of the monitors!!!!),
which just ROCKS! (see the gigography
for a listing of all the gigs we've ever done and a short review).
Frozenorth Records
So after we played the Hollywood Bar (see gigography
for a review), gigging, once again, seemed to go straight to hell and for a
whole summer apart from one relapse, where we couldn't help ourselves but
play the Glass Barrel, just one more time! Shortly after this gig the
band got an e-mail from Frozenorth Records. This was a startup independent
label that was looking for new bands to be on their debut release
compilation album "Future Punk Superheroes". This resulted in
a certain amount of chemming from members of the band and a quick e-mail
saying we would do it. We sent them a demo and they obviously thought
it was good enough because we are now officially Track 9 on the Future Punk
Superheroes compilation album with "Why Can't You Be More Like
Me?". You will be able to buy this comp at shows and in the merch
section in the new year.
So what's Next Then?
We are currently in contemplation about the future of
the band. We are all agreed that we need more gigs if were are to go
anywhere with this band, we are all hoping the whole band can put a bit
more effort into this side of things. We are also thinking about
maybe recording again. More will added to the history as more
history happens........
