SUICIDAL GOLDFISH

    Well, you'd be surprised how much history Suicidal Goldfish have packed behind them since March 2001. It was a nice sunny day, and I (Martin) was at school prepared to go into a double lesson of drama. We got put into groups for part of our paper 2 mock, and I was put into a group with 3 other people. One of these people happened to be Michael Latimer. After the lesson we decided to meet up and do work on a Saturday, so we did. After the work, I went back to Michael's house and he told me he had a drum kit, I went to see it and I told him I have a guitar, so we both decided to have a little jam session in his garage. After that we decided that we should make a band. Shortly after that we got to the point where we needed a singer. So I asked David to be our singer. David obliged at the opportunity, so from then on we had formed a little band.

    So every few days we would be at Michael's house practicing the same two fucking songs over and over and over again. Eventually a day came where David was ill, and we couldn't practice properly. Then we made the biggest mistake a band could ever make, we called up a girl called Becci Botting, (You could really class her as a opera singer) and we asked her to come and sing for us. So she did, and she sang "When I come Around" by Greenday with us. So Becci joined the band along with David, and well this didn't work, they fought like cat and dog. Then me and David had a massive argument. Me, Michael and Becci kicked him out of the band. But then after a couple of weeks we patched things up and David asked me if he could be back in the band and I said yes. So life went on, we managed to get a rehearsal studio in a shop called "Bumnote Music Store" every Friday after school, and we were preparing for a gig in "Youth Center 21" in Sutton. The date came nearer and nearer, until one day David plucked up the courage to kick Becci out of the band. HOPING the she would take things maturely, she freaked out and started cussing down me and David and the band. So that was that. Eventually Becci apologized, and we were now a changed band. I started to make up our own songs, which were a lot heavier than the stuff we used to play e.g. Greenday. David was round my house every night with a book to write lyrics on and we went into my garage and practiced (without Michael) On the Fridays in the Studio we show and practiced the new songs with Michael.

    How we got the name Suicidal Goldfish : WOW, this is a funny story. Well at this time David was going out with a girl called Lia. She was quite pretty, but then we found out the real Lia, it turned out that Lia was a complete idiot, she thought that the WHOLE WORLD was against her and that she has no friends and that she wants to kill herself. So that's how the Suicidal came about. Also Lia had the mind expansion of a Goldfish. She had been to David's house god knows how many times, but she couldn't remember how to get there, same with all other places as well. Also when you say something horrible to her as a joke, she would stop dead in her tracks and give you the weirdest look and stare ever known to mankind, she looked exactly like a Goldfish. So that is how we got the Goldfish part. So add the both together and you have got:

SUICIDAL GOLDFISH

   Eventually we found ourselves a bassets, his name was Matt. Me and David could tell from the start that he was not into this sort of music, BUT he was good at it all the same.

    GIG : April 30th 2001

    Well it was our first gig and Michael (I forgot to mention) just wasn't good enough for what we wanted, so me and David decided that he had to go

    Well back to rehearsing, (DAMN WE NEEDED IT) we decided to go to a place called "Live and Direct" which was a band promotion place so that gave us the extra practice, this is where we met a VERY professional sounding band called Gridlock Takedown. We heard about a gig they were doing in Sutton High Street, we asked the manager Rob if we could do it, he said yes but you could see that he was unsure.

    Me and David had to find a way to get Michael out of the band, we didn't want to kick him out because we didn't want to hurt his feelings. So we waited to see what would happen, soon it got to a point where we were all at each others throats, me David and Michael couldn't compromise with each other at all, we just argued all the time. Anyway during this time I asked a good friend of mine Michael Haggis If he would be our drummer and so he said yes, but we still had the problem of Michael Latimer. BUT THEN..... The day came, we were all round our friend Zaras house and Michael eventually broke down, he called me over and said its not working because all we do is argue within the band and it was coming in-between all of our friendship. So I gladly agreed with him and we left it at that. Michael Latimer had left the band.

    So we got Haggis in the band and we had two rehearsals in live and direct, and we were perfect. When we asked the manager Rob if we could do the gig, it was a definite yes.

    GIG : 19th July Sutton Town Square

    I can actually say this was a good gig, we were on top form we got a good mosh pit going etc., the only downside was on the very last note of the very last song I broke three stings. Quite funny actually.

    We were finally getting somewhere. We even got a gig at the Cartoon which was quite a big step for us. So it was the start of the 6 weeks summer holiday, and we had regular practices round Michael Haggis's house. Because we didn't have a basest, our friend Sara volunteered to do it. That was another big mistake. She is a very good basest, but the only problem was, was that when we were in scream studios in Carshalton, she really put us down and said she didn't want to do the gig, and Michael Haggis felt the same way, it was something to do with they don't think we are ready. Me and David saw it as a bit of fun and also didn't see there point because we WERE in time and everything. So I went on holiday for 2 weeks and when I got back, David rang me and said that we were in Kerrang. So I rang Michael and said he had to do the gig, but he didn't buy it, I didn't bother ringing Sara because I KNEW that her mind was made up already (BUT NOW I'D LIKE TO THANK SARA AND MICHAEL FOR NOT DOING IT. You'll see why if you read on.)

    When I got back from holiday there was four days left till the gig, so what could we do. David made the best suggestion, his brother happens to be a superb drummer, so David asked him if he would do the gig, so he did.

   GIG : 21st August 2001

    A WICKED GIG. Couldn't get better. We didn't have a basest yet again, but we pulled off a brilliant show all the same

    Anyway, after that gig, David asked his brother James to JOIN the band, and he said yes. He suggested to us that we ask his mate Rick to play bass, so we gave him a rough tape of our songs, had a couple of rehearsals, and played our second gig on the 26th September

    GIG : 26th September 2001

    This has to be one of our best performances. We had brand new songs. We had a brilliant crowd and a mosh pit with even punching in it. It was well worth seeing. A few mistakes made by all of us but nothing you could notice. With a bass we sounded a full band finally.

    After that, we had another gig at the Cartoon, eight days after the last one, on the 4th of October. We got another new song and a new cover, (BLIND by KORN).

    GIG : 4th October 2001

    Again a wicked gig but my distortion sounded a bit flat but apart from that we were in time and no mistakes were made. Blind went down well the crowd loved it.