Facts and History       

1. Facts relating to The ScaM#

Likes...

Music:          The Police, Rush, Foo Fighters, Muse, Queen, Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Joe Satriani,

                 ACDC, Whitesnake

                 All things Stewart Copeland and Neil Peart

General:      Liverpool Football Club, red shirts

                 Young girls, older girls, old girls, mothers of young girls

                 'www.wearethescam.com' as a url for the website

Dislikes...    The smoke machine

Likes... 

Music:           Bad Company, Paul Rogers, Neil Murray, Thunder, Whitesnake, Pink Floyd, The Eagles,

                  The Doobie Brothers, Bob Marley, The Who

                  Anything to do with Overwater bases                 

                  Gibson Thunderbird bases

General:       Reading Football Club, F1 racing, rallying, fast cars, slow women, red shirts,

                  Vulcan and Avro Lancaster bombers

Dislikes...    The smoke machine, The Nanny State (the state the nanny gets in?), politics, 'fussy music'

                  'www.wearethescam.com' as a url for the website

Likes...

Music:       Progressive - Rush (the one, and the only, Neil Peart), Marillion, Fish, Yes, Asia, Pink Floyd, Styx

               Rock - Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Big Country, U2, The Alarm, Journey (the one, and the only, Steve Perry)

               Acoustic  - Counting Crows, Fleetwood Mac, Lyle Lovett, Mike Oldfield

               Punk - The Stranglers, The Jam, The Sex Pistols, The Skids

               Electronic - Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Human League, Howard Jones

               Classical - anything by Brahms

               Guitars - anything by Gibson, anything with more than one neck

               Anything to do with Neil Peart or Steve Perry

General:   Nature, the environment, healthy eating, exercise, hard work, long days and nights

               Charity work, entertaining the elderly (providing fun nights out), caring for sick animals

               Housing the homeless, supporting the unemployed, freeing Willy whenever possible

               Supporting the hopeless (Manchester City Football Club)

Dislikes... Loud drums and loud bass, Ronaldinho

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2. History of The ScaM#

From humble beginnings to rock covers at their best....

Loose Moose (pre 1997)   >   The Spam (1997)   >   The ScaM# (1998 onwards)

May 1997

Once upon a time there were three wanna-be rock stars (guitarist, drummer and bass player) in lonely Stokenchurch who got together and rehearsed some songs for fun - but wanted more. At the same time there was a lonely wanna-be rock star in rural Woodley (Andrew) that hadn't played in band for too many years to recall........and wanted to do just 'one more gig'. This lonely individual placed an advert in the Thames Valley Free Ads ("Singer/guitarist/songwriter looking for.........") and received a phone call from one of the three wanna-be's in Stokenchurch. A meeting was duly arranged....

The Woodley wanna-be went to a private address in Stokenchurch on a sunny Sunday morning - nervous and apprehensive about being scrutinized, auditioned, or just generally playing in front of a stranger after so many years and months of 'house rehearsal'. He shouldn't have worried. What was awaiting him was a warm welcome, a cup of black coffee and an hour-or-so of non-pressured jamming with guitarist Mark Walters. A friendship was born that still lasts to this day. Mark played with The ScaM# from May 1997, and gigged with The ScaM# until the fall of 1999, leaving with a regenerated resolve to play live, but to pursue his love of 'The Blues'.

PICTURE OF MARK TO BE INSERTED

Through a variety of potential names, used in band practice every Friday night (9.00 - 12.00), The ScaM# was finally released onto an unsuspecting public on Sunday 8th February 1998, at The Nags Head, in High Wycombe (a town which through the 1990's had been 'the local bedrock' of live music - unfortunately no more).

PICTURE OF ORIGINAL GIG POSTER TO BE INSERTED

The ScaM# was originally a four-piece band with a lineup of Andrew on lead vocals and guitar, Mark on guitar, Steve Knapp (where are you now?) on bass, backing vocals and occasional lead vocals, and Pete Cross on drums. A lot of fun was had by all. This was very much an experimental period, and certainly a learning period for the band. As a four-piece The ScaM# gigged heavily in 1998 and 1999 - playing anywhere that would book them - with nearly all venues booking the band again.

PICTURE OF ORIGINAL LINE-UP TO BE INSERTED

The ScaM# originated as a rock covers band playing (as they do now) a wide variety of music and musical styles. However, in these early days the emphasis was mainly on either songs that were relatively easy to play (e.g. Mustang Sally.......D'oh!), or songs that were favourites of the band members - including obscure songs and often album tracks - not necessarily songs/hits by well known artists. This was a key learning for the band which then continued to evolve over the future years into the more audience-friendly rock covers band of today. However, this early time was great fun, allowing the band to establish itself playing sets that included 'band favourites' such as: 'As the Dragonfly flies' - The Icicle Works, 'Just what I needed - The Cars', and 'Strung out' - Steve Perry (Andrew); 'Down in the dirt/The blues moved in when you moved out' - Nine Below Zero and 'Playing with gloves on' - Walter Trout (Mark)

Some early successes/songs still survive in The ScaM# song list today. These include: 'So lonely' - The Police; 'Gimme some lovin' - Traffic/The Blues Brothers/Thunder; and 'Soft touch' - Nine Below Zero (still our current sound-check song)

Original songs

During this early period of The ScaM# the band always included a few 'original' songs, penned either by Andrew, or by Mark (with former musical friends), or by the flowering song-writing partnership of Andrew and Mark. Many ideas would be tested and worked up at, what was called. The Wednesday Night Club. This was when Andrew, Mark and Steve would meet at someone's house with acoustic guitars and burn the midnight oil. Original songs penned at this time include: 'Number three', 'Greed' and 'Just the business' (Mark ands friends); 'Dancing' (Mark); 'Run but you can't hide', 'Just say the word' and 'Talk to me - The Himalayan Telephone Company Song' (Andrew); and 'Fire down below' and 'We could have been lovers' (Andrew and Mark).

Four-piece to three-piece band - all change

Story to be continued...