In the mid 1980s, born out of a common love for similar genres of music, three school friends, Andy, Neal and Phillip formed a band. They had little or no musical training and owned no instruments but dreamed of becoming successful, making the kind of music that they loved. They bought cheap instruments, rehearsed together weekly and wrote and recorded some songs. It was loads of fun, but they never gigged and none of these songs ever reached an audience beyond their family and friends.
Andy and Neal went off to university and their musical partnership continued for a while. They regularly attended gigs by bands in the neo-prog genre, like Marillion, IQ, Twelfth Night, Pendragon and Pallas. Phillip worked locally and then pursued his dream by going to film school. Ultimately the three friends went their separate musical ways. For Andy and Neal at least, the musical dreams didn’t die, but were just reduced to a part-time hobby, prioritised below 'normal' non-musical careers and building a family. Ending up at different ends of the UK, they lost touch with each other.
Andy continued to play regularly in bands in church contexts, accumulating equipment and learning multiple instruments. Occasional musical output surfaced on the internet. Musical interests remained broad, with some newer bands like Keane added to a love of 1980s pop bands (Tears for Fears, Talk Talk) alongside more traditional "mainstream rock" (Pink Floyd) and the aforementioned neo-prog.
Travelling extensively with work in the early 2000s, Andy ended up working in Scandinavia with a fellow guitarist and prog enthusiast, Jon-Arne Vilbo. They spend many evenings together in Stockholm, where Jon-Arne recounted tales of hosting and supporting Marillion in his native Oslo, with the band Gazpacho that he had formed with school friends. He gave Andy a CD of their debut album. It was rather good. They played together (Andy on Drums, Jon-Arne on Guitar) for a scratch gig at a work conference in 2005. This all kept Andy interested as a music fan, albeit just involving the occasional Marillion gig or Gazpacho/Marillion album purchase. Since then, Gazpacho have become rather successful, with a loyal following and multiple album releases.
Fast-forward a few years. A spur-of-the-moment gig attendance proved to be the catalyst for a revival of interest in music-making. Steven Wilson, an artist Andy had heard of but never actually heard, was playing near him in March 2018. Tickets were still available and Andy was free. On the basis that Steven had been talked about as influential and important in Prog circles, it seemed worth a punt to see him live.
A rapid search of YouTube yielded plenty of material on a playlist. The first song, "Permanating" was good, but maybe a little more 'pop' than he had expected. The second song, "Drive Home" had Andy in tears. Andy doesn’t do tears. Andy doesn’t swear, but thought "****, this is good music"…
And it got even better at the gig. Andy suddenly realised that Steven Wilson was playing exactly the music he wanted to make and that he and Andy are basically the same age. Mid-gig, Steven explained that growing up in the 1970s/1980s he was exposed to a wide range of musical influences. His mum played ABBA. His Dad played Led Zeppelin. And he loved all of it. Yet he was bemused that at that time that youth culture was divided into tribes based on the sort of music that you liked. But you could only join one 'tribe'.
Sections of his fanbase had expressed a dislike for the pop overtones of his latest solo music, as distinct from his heavier Porcupine Tree back catalogue. Respectfully he told them that, based upon his influences, this was the music he was going to make (Code for "f**k off"). He then played 'Permanating' anyway. Respect!
Andy had found an attitude to music that he could agree with. The guilty secrets of humming along to ABBA and liking 80s pop, whilst simultaneously admiring mainstream or offbeat rock could be reconciled.
He remembered one of the pivotal musical discovery moments of his youth. On the bus to school one winter morning in 1980, "Turning Japanese" by the Vapors came on the radio. Although he had an interest in music from an early age (who didn't like ABBA when they were six?), this was the first time he was captivated enough to say "I've got to buy that record". His sensible financial brain, which was later to become a considerable professional asset, knew that an album would be a much better investment, so he bought a compilation album with that single on it. And then, as soon as it was available, the Vapors’ debut full album "New Clear Days" was acquired from the local record store.
In 2019, he heard about the Vapors reforming. Apparently, the lead singer and songwriter, Dave Fenton, was already in the early stages of a legal career when the band became successful and rock stardom beckoned. After the band broke up in 1982, Dave went back to being a lawyer. When he retired, rather than sit around with pipe and slippers, he decided it was time to heed the cries of the loyal Vapors fanbase and he reformed the band. Andy was too young to see them the first time around but had the privilege of seeing them live in 2021. Despite the receding hairlines and beer bellies of the audience that night, there would appear to be life in old dogs yet!
Therefore, following Dave Fenton’s example. Andy determined that after a successful professional career, with his children now having left home, he wasy now in a position to 'semi-retire'. But it was time to say "no" to a quiet retirement.
It was time to rekindle his musical creativity with a more serious time investment. It was time for Andy to make the music he wanted to make and listen to.
The seed of what was to become ISOMORIA was born."