Siamese

Who were we?

* **Ajay** played lead guitar and wrote most of the original songs. He came from a wealthy family, and was the only one of us to ever drink so much alcohol before a gig that they could barely keep their eyes open.
* **Chris** was the drummer, and had “the classic drummer physique”.
* **Scott** played acoustic guitar and was the lead singer. When I met him he had fairly long, curly hair, though these days he is a lawyer and has a shorter, more conservative trim.
* and I played bass and performed backing vocals. I also sang the lead vocals on *Belinda*, which was a song that I wrote.

How did we meet?

I met Scott on my first day at University, as we lived on the same corridor in first-year accommodation (Rootes J, ground floor). We learned of each others musical talents early in conversation, and my initial impression was “he has long hair. I have never had a male friend with long hair before. Therefore we shall clearly be incompatible.”

At some point in the second term, he approached me and said “I’ve hooked up with a few guys through BandSoc and we’re looking for a bassist. Interested?” and I said “Yeah, why not.”

Originally we were a five-piece, but the guy called Nick (who played guitar) only showed up sporadically and so we booted him out.

What did we do?

We generally practised once a week and played a few gigs. I have a list of 17 gig dates, mostly in the Student Union, and never off-campus. The first gig date was in November of my second year, which suggests that we practised for a couple of terms before playing live. By that time, I was nearly halfway through my degree course already.

Our repertoire included a host of original songs, and cover versions including *All Along The Watchtower*, *Kiss Me* (by Sixpence None The Richer), *Learn To Fly* (Foo Fighters), *Weather With You* (Crowded House), *Paint It Black* (Rolling Stones) and *Hard Days Night* (The Beatles).

During our third, and final, year, we also went into a studio for 2 days and recorded 3 of our original songs. One of these then went onto BandSoc’s annual compilation album.

Were we any good?

We were all technically adequate musicians. Ajay’s guitar playing was especially good. We played well together as a band. However, the music we played was quite inoffensive and nicheless, and we never played a gig off-campus, so we never got much in the way of recognition.

For one gig, we were asked to describe our music, for the benefit of the programme. Ajay was feeling particularly playful that day, and so we appeared on the programme as “**Siamese**: Post-industrial drum and bass”.

Did we get on well together?

Definitely. We’d all go out drinking together and have a good time (though Chris was the kind of guy who gets a bit violent when he’s drunk, and will thump you playfully until you run away crying). I remember we all went to see the Foo Fighters in Birmingham, and it was one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to.

Ajay rarely smiled while performing, so I tried various tricks to make him laugh. One of our songs began with the line “Do you have a thousand wills?” and during practises I would usually interrupt, replacing the word “wills” with “goats”. Then, when we were playing this song at a gig, the goats would always pop into our heads. Take my word for it, this was hilarious.

What happened?

At the end of University, we all waved goodbye. Ajay went off to Spain, and I’ve only heard from him once or twice since. According to his LinkedIn profile, he’s now in real estate in Peterborough. I have no idea what Chris did, and I don’t think I’ve communicated with him at all. Scott and I still meet up roughly once a year, usually just before Christmas, along with a few other friends from University. As I mentioned before, he’s now a lawyer.

Did I like it?

In retrospect, definitely. At the time, I didn’t put enough of myself into it. I was still in *Shiny Tight Stuff*, my “band back home”. We would jam and record during the holidays, and I perceived *Shiny Tight Stuff* to be a much more quirky and interesting project, so to a degree, even when I was playing with *Siamese* I was thinking of *Shiny Tight Stuff*. I only ever wrote one song for *Siamese*, while I was still writing lots of songs for *Shiny Tight Stuff*.