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“How On Earth Did We Get This Far?”
(A History of No
Way Out: Jan 2000 – May 2008)
It all started way back in 2000 when drummer Maz decided it was
time to leave his current band “Cobra”. Pete H, who had been a big fan of
“Cobra” and developed a friendship with the band, persuaded Maz to start a
new band together. Maz and Pete spent almost the next 12 months auditioning
members for the new band, trying out various musicians but to no avail as
no one fitted in with what both Maz and Pete wanted to achieve. Close to
giving up it was a reply to an advert in the local paper that would change
everything as Pete and Maz agreed to hold an audition for the three
musicians interested, Craig a Lead/Rhythm Guitarist, Peter ‘Railroad’ G a
Rhythm/Lead Guitarist and Rod a Bass Guitarist. Both Maz and Pete,
extremely happy with the audition, offered the trio the chance to join and
in January 2001 the new band took its first steps into the wide world as
“No Way Out” Mk1 was born.
The first gig of the newly formed Band was at an open day
for Hassocks Football Club and although only playing six songs they went
down extremely well, this was followed by a full gig at The Sussex Arms in
East Grinstead which went on to became a regular fixture on the gig list
until it was taken over by new management. More gigs followed and “No Way
Out” slowly picked up fans and venues including a couple of Thursdays at
Piries Wine Bar in Horsham, a small venue where the band had to park in a
multi-story car park, get shopping trolleys and push the gear across a
shopping centre to get there. Another early gig saw the band play in The
Pelham Buckle in Crawley where they were
joined by Fish from the band “Juicy
Lucy” and for a few of these early gigs the band was joined by
former Gutbuckets Saxophone player Lucy.
In 2002 after only a year, Rod stunned the rest of the band
by announcing he had to leave because as he was moving up to Lincoln, so the hunt
was on to find a replacement. In stepped an old friend of Craig’s from his
days with “Cry Wolf”, Dave, and Rick (now in the band The Noodleheads) to
help out the band by doing stand in duties on Bass. With the amount of gigs
the band had already got booked, Rick was unable to commit so Dave was
asked to join the band full time and he gladly accepted. With a new bass
player “No Way Out” Mk2 was ready to rock!
The band was now up to full strength once again, with more
gigs being booked in places like The Star in Lingfield which also saw the
band perform at an open air concert with other bands and Radio Mercury
supporting the event. At a gig in the Lingfield Sports and Social Club the
band decided to hire some people to record the event and in true Spinal Tap
style only about four people turned up! But soon it was time to enter the
recording studio to record the bands debut album. For four days the band
recorded at Esselle Studios in Dyke
Road, Brighton,
Pete H was suffering from glandular fever and poor Maz was stuck in a tiny
drum booth, despite this “First Offence” was finished with Jo Clarke
singing Backing Vocals. Craig wanted Jo to join full time but was concerned
about space on stage, unfortunately Jo and her husband John moved to Wales
shortly afterwards (although they do travel to see the band every now and
then, with Jo joining the band on stage to sing). The second album “Love Is
A Gamble” was recorded at 811 Studios in Cowfold. The studio was
recommended to the band by “The
Midnight Howlers” and much to the band’s delight had old valve style
equipment which gave a more ‘rock’ sound to the album. The album was
finished in seven days but it took about another year and a half for the
album cover to be designed!
In July 05 “No Way Out” where invited to participate in a
Charity Concert for Children In Need to be held at the beginning of
November that same year. Craig and Peter ‘Railroad’ G had an idea that they
would get as many friends, who could play an instrument and who had also at
some point worked with them, to ‘guest star’ with “No Way Out”. The night
itself was a success and led to one of the guests, Jason, to jokingly
remark that if they ever needed a keyboard player they could always call on
him. In June 06 the band was looking at expanding and considered adding a
keyboard player so Craig decided to take Jason up on his offer and asked
him along to few rehearsals. Everything went well and it seemed as though
Jason had been part of the band for ages so they asked him to join
fulltime. Of course Jason jumped at the opportunity (the band are still waiting for him to get a “No
Way Out” tattoo so they can change the name of the band!) and “No Way Out”
Mk3 was unleashed onto the unsuspecting world at the end of August 06.
With the band slowly settling in as a newly expanded six
piece, 2007 saw another small hiccup within the ranks. Maz had been
suffering from a hernia for the last half of 2006 and it was time for him
to finally get it operated on at the end of February. March 07 saw two
‘guest’ drummers fill in for Maz whilst he recovered from his surgery in
the shape of Paul (Craig’s former drummer in King Waller) and Neil, whom
Craig and Pete ‘Railroad’ G knew from their work. For the next three months
both Neil and Paul helped out on drumming duties whilst Maz had to sit and
watch from the audience! It wasn’t until the end of May/beginning of June
that the band would be back together again.
The beginning of 2008 saw another major upheaval within “No
Way Out” starting with Pete H having a nasty fall and breaking his left
wrist in January. This was followed closely by Dave suffering from a
perforated eardrum at the beginning of February meaning he would have to
temporarily relinquish bass duties for at least three months until it
healed. To make matters worse Jason was involved in a motorcycle accident,
also at the beginning of February, and so he too was out of action for the
next two months with a broken right hand. To help with the situation Rick
was again called upon, as well as two friends of the band, Nick and Mick,
to fill in on bass duties and the set was altered to accommodate the lack
of a keyboard. Suddenly at the end of February 08, out of the blue, Dave
dropped the bombshell that he was leaving “No Way Out” and the race was on
to find his permanent replacement. With Mick agreeing to continue to help
out with bass duties at our gigs, the band held auditions with a number of
Bass players but no-one quite fitted in with the band. Jerry had been a fan
of the band since seeing them play at The Fountain in Chichester
and it was his wife Jan who suggested he contact them to audition. At the
end of March 08, Jerry auditioned for the band, although it was a short
audition it was all the rest of the band needed to know that Jerry was the
man to hire and within a few days he was offered the job. With six weeks to
get up to speed and getting up to play one or two numbers at a couple of
gigs, Jerry was ready and “No Way Out” Mk4 burst forth at the end of May
08.
And now here we are at present day, with a diary full of
gigs (50+) and each one nearly sold out, the first and second albums
selling well, work on the third about to start (sometime very soon), we
really can say “how on earth did we get this far?”…
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