www.afterthefire.co.uk Band History The roots of After The Fire (ATF) date back to the 1970’s when the band played numerous pubs, clubs and colleges around Britain, building up a loyal following along the way. Musically they were a progressive rock band, their sound being dominated by the keyboard playing of Peter Banks. Although their influences included ELP and Genesis, the fact that they used an acoustic guitar as a third instrument gave them a fairly unique sound at the time. After fruitless years of trying to secure a record deal, the band decided to release their first album, Signs of Change themselves on their own Rapid records label. (This has recently been re-released on CD). With the advent of punk and the New Wave, the band’s progressive rock music suddenly became unfashionable and sensibly the band started to write shorter, more pop based songs. This resulted in the band being signed to CBS Records in 1978 and releasing the acclaimed album Laser Love in 1979. A single taken from the album, One Rule For You made the top 30, but further success was short lived when a scheduled appearance on Top of the Pops never took place. This was allegedly because the producer of TOTP decided that their single was too similar to another “electronic act” at the time, namely Gary Numan, whose “Are Friends Electric” went onto to the coveted number 1 spot! The band continued on regardless and released a further two albums with CBS/Epic – 1980’s 80F and 1982’s Batteries Not Included. They even managed to sell out London’s Rainbow Theatre three years running, as well as having their song 1980F played every week at Munich’s Olympic Stadium as Bayern Munich came out onto the pitch! They also toured Europe as support act to ELO and Queen, followed by a 3.5 month stint in the United States as guests of Van Halen, whose hit song, Jump is said to be influenced by After The Fire. ATF played their final concert in December 1982 at the Dominion Theatre in London. However, Lady Luck gave them one more bite at the cherry when their version of the Falco song, Der Kommissar reached number 5 in the US singles charts in the spring of 1983, finally earning After The Fire the recognition they deserved. Twenty one years later, after a lot of persuasion by their loyal army of fans, original members, Peter Banks and John Russell got together for a one off fan club convention in London early in 2004. They enjoyed the experience so much that they decided to reform After The Fire. They recruited John's son Matthew on drums, long time ATF fan Ian Niblo on bass and Keith Smith, formerly front man of Run to Zero and Zipcodes, on lead vocals. The band were invited back to the Greenbelt Festival in the summer of 2004, playing to a capacity crowd. (They last played at the festival as headliners in 1979). This and subsequent gigs have persuaded the band that there is still a strong following for After The Fire. Their three CBS albums are due to be released for the first time on a double CD package on Edsel Records 31st January 2005. Band Profiles Pete Banks – Keyboards The first version of ATF was formed by Peter as a trio of drums, bass and keyboard in the early 1970’s. Whilst the influences of ELP and the former Nice were evident, there were additional "flavours" that led to ATF coming 2nd in the Melody Maker Rock Band competition in the region. ATF disbanded temporarily at the end of 1972. Pete joined John Russell in Narnia and recorded an album with them. Having left Narnia at the end of 1973, he spent a car journey talking about everything under the sun with Andy Piercy which led to the next incarnation of ATF for ten more years. After the demise of ATF, Pete formed Zipcodes with ATF dummer, Peter King. The band was promptly signed to Rondor Music for a lucrative publishing deal. After Peter Kings’ untimely passing, Pete put together a cassette album of a selection of demos they had worked on which was released on Plankton Records titled "Sold Sight Unseen". Peter then turned to the world of film and TV music and composed award winning pieces for companies such as Carlton Communications, Ulster Bank and the BBC. Later Peter started to advise musicians on the purchase of computers and that aspect of business took off from 1990. He switched to all things Internet and now has a specialist company providing Internet solutions for a range of high tech and Web Design companies. The marriage of advanced computer knowledge and music has enabled him to re-equip his studio with the latest state of the art digital equipment in line with industry standards for the new ATF to record and mix their new material. John Russell - Guitar After the split of ATF in 1982 John did some session work with Andy Piercy. Later he worked for several years as a youth worker in Guildford. He was involved in the establishing of The Warehouse Project, The Guildford Youth Network and more recently, the Matrix Trust. John has been involved with the Soapbox Charity since the mid 1980's when he and former Soapbox director, Steve Flashman became friends. Although he hadn’t played professionally for many years, when Pete banks contacted him about the fan club convention he jumped at the chance to be involved with After The Fire once again. John now lives in Aylesbury. Keith Smith – Vocals A frontman, rather than a singer, Keith started his musical career in a moderately successful band in Sussex called Run to Zero and was fronting the band when he was 16 years old. In 1984, Peter Banks produced the band's demo tape and they struck up a friendship.In 1985, Peter asked him to audition for the ATF spin-off, Zipcodes. Following that, they played many London gigs and were preparing for a tour before Pete King's untimely death. Keith then worked with Pete to complete the Sold, Sight Unseen album. Following this, he worked with variety of local artists around Cambridge, and wrote and performed the soundtrack for Silverlode, a PC game designed by Millennium Interactive. From 1997 to date, Keith has pretty much been in retirement, although still writing songs and lyrics. Influences include “Roger Daltrey, David Bowie, Del Amitri and Cher (joking!!)”. Ian Niblo – Bass Born in 1964 in Rochford, Essex Ian came from a musical background. His father played trumpet and piano in a jazz band and his mother, a piano player, encourage him to learn from an early age. In his early teens he was captivated by ATF's now legendary 1979 Greenbelt set and came straight home to form his first band as a keyboard/bass player in a progressive rock trio with Rik Carter (Pendragon/The Mission/All About Eve) and Matt Anderson (Pendragon). Flirtations with different musical styles followed, including a brief stint as drummer in a punk band, and a writing partnership with vocalist Phil Aylott which survives to this day. Matt Russell - Drums Has played drums for about 7 years. Main influence is a drummer called Travis Barker, “He is one of the most incredible drummers I have ever seen and heard and proved that there is more than one way to play punk rock!!”. He has influenced his whole performance as well as attitude on stage. Other influences include Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters and Joey Jordison of Slipknot. Currently working as a Graphic Designer for a Guilford based company and occasionally helps out at 'gig nights' at the Plantation Cafe. Contacts: Mick Farrar 66 Ferozeshah Road Devizes Wilts SN10 2JH [email protected] 07787130067 .