I started Down with drummer Darren Millburn in late 1993, a few months after the demise of our previous band Baby Glass. Much more raw and punky than any of my other bands, primarily due to the Johnny Thunders/Peter Perrett obsession that I was going through at the time. Phil Swan also featured on bass for our recordings.
We never made it as far as a proper studio, but we did of course record the legendary Bearing Traders Sessions I & II. Or to put it another way, on a couple of occasions we recorded a few songs in a warehouse with a 4-track. You can hear a few of these below.
Down eventually disbanded in August 1995, about a month after we finally started to sound quite good – Barry Taylor on bass and John DeSimone on keyboards improving the band considerably. But such was my despondency with the whole experience that I didn’t start another band for a whole year.
Below is a video clip from our last gig, at Aston Clinton’s Bulls Head Gig in a Garden Festival, and another from the Roundabout in High Wycombe featuring the “classic” line up with Phil Swan on bass.
