I
am often asked about Sp!n. So I figured, why not elaborate?
After all they have a song up here half the time. Therefore, this
is what I have gathered. I apologize for this sounding like a 7 year old wrote it. I plan to rewrite it soon.
Where to begin?. . .Well, Sp!n was Steve Mason and Matt
James' original band before Gene. Matt, John Mason,
AKA Steve Mason's brother, and Lee Clarke met studying
at Thames Polytechnic. In 1987 the trio recorded a single "Flight
Of Angels" and released
it under the name The Go Hole. The Go Hole was apparently
considered an "experimental pop band". The single was released
on their Big Pop Records and 'cleverly' distributed by Pinnacle.
John Peel did in fact have them in the studio on 17 November 1987.
They played three other tracks titled "Bayonet Practice",
"Treacherous", & "I'll Be Waiting".
..............After
Steve came back from Hong Kong, the four piece was set. In
1989 they changed their name to Sp!n. Sp!n blended
the classic 1989-1993 'Baggy Pop Manchester Sound' with a tougher
bite of South London guitar grooves. Lee wrote most of the
songs for the band. They opened for acts such as Manic Street Preachers & Thousand Yard Stare,
they headlined at venues like the Windsor Old Trout and Underworld.
All releases were put on The Foundation Label and distributed
by Rough Trade.
Sp!n recorded one full-length album titled In
Motion,
and two singles for "Let's
Pretend" and "Scratches
[in the sand]". Later on
23 March 1991, there was a horrible accident where a truck hit the
band's stalled van. The accident threw their manager and their live
engineer, Andrew 'Snake' Newton, out of the van into a nearby
field. Their manager broke several bones, and 'Snake' had
broke his back spending 6 months in the hospital. Matt was
left with a broken wrist, Steve with a broken collarbone, and
worst of all John with skull damage. John was in a
coma for several weeks. He had to have reconstructive surgery and
unfortunately resulting in him leaving the band. That was when Kevin
Miles, Steve and Matt's neighbor, filled in on bass. Kev
was recommended by his roommate, Sp!n's manager. A while later,
the soon to be 'fifth member' of Gene, Jerry Smith,
took over as manager. Jerry would spend over ten years working
with Gene.
Lee
then left the band to pursue a career in dance music. In 1993 Lee
Clarke was in a duo with Andrew 'Snake' Newton. Newton
has engineered for both Sp!n and Gene, and has contributed
in producing many B-sides during the Drawn
to the Deep End era. They
were dubbed Volatile. Lee Clarke has not been in the
music business since. Newton continues as one of Gene's
live engineers, as well as one for Duran Duran's 2004 tour.
Finally
in 1991, the band hired a 'temporary vocalist', who Steve met
at the Underworld. He was Martin T. Falls, who would soon
be dubbed Martin Rossiter (Martin came up with this
alias from Mark E. Smith's band, The Fall). With this new line up,
the band recorded their last effort, Hot
Blood EP. Their last
Peel session was in February 1992. With one more try the band released
a cassette demo titled Demos
September 1992. The demo featured "Decide",
which later became Gene's 1995 B-side "I Can't Decide
If She Really Loves Me". The demo was distributed through
Jerry Smith's Amalgamated Talent in London. Eventually, these
four boys became Gene. . . and the rest is history, I guess.
Got all of that?
Also,
any more information is much appreciated!!
Credits: Akiko, Richard Moore, Joe Massey, Greg Smith & Rebecca
Tully
