ello and welcome to the first of many blogs, and the first new blog of 2018. I hope you’ve all had an awesome Christmas and New Year. I’m going to start the year off with an English band – one I’ve had the delightful pleasure seeing live – a band which formed part of my youth.
The 90s was a great time for music, because you could literally find anything to cater for your tastes. Not just yours but everyone else’s. The band I’m going to be talking about today is from Suffolk, England and formed back in 1993.
They were originally called Grand Designs, named after a Rush song, in the early 90s when they formed, but changed their name and musical style in 1993, from Progressive Rock to Alternative and Hard Rock. Also their name changed from Grand Designs to… A.
A released their debut album, How Ace Are Buildings (1997) during my first summer in high school, 20 years ago now. It’s hard to think it’s been 20 years since their debut album. It also means I’m 20 years older.
Two years later, they released their followup album, A vs Monkey Kong (1999). At this time I was getting into music a lot more, but I was still unaware of the band. The album was released just before my 15th birthday. The songs from the album I would soon hear in a live capacity.
‘Nothing’ (2002) was the first single which preceeded their third album, Hi-Fi Serious (2002). It was also the album opener and the first song I’d ever heard by the band. By this time, I had a collective of friends who had shared interests in high school, music being one of them.
One day Rob and I decided that we would get a joint birthday present for our friend Katie. That present turned out to be gig tickets to see Green Day at Cardiff Castle. A load of us went and the day was awesome and by now I was a fan of A but I also didn’t know they’d be one of the bands supporting.
In total six bands played, and some would say it was a mini festival rather than a gig, as there were more than three or four bands playing. I’m not bothered either way as I still got to see all the bands I like playing at one venue. The bands that played were, Green Day, A, Hundred Reasons, Face To Face, [Spunge] and Iggy Pop.
2005 saw their final release to date, Teen Dance Ordinance (2005). The band haven’t released any new music since then but they have toured over the last 10 years. There are currently rumours that they are working on their fifth studio album and when that album drops, I’ll be all over it.
