The last two years have been probably the most hectic for me ever. Having gotten my little studio up to scratch and having also made the decision to record an album of my own material with no one telling me what to do and how to do it (or how not to do it), I only went and bumped into Tony Wright at the local watering hole!

This seems like light years ago now, with everything that has occurred since, but the fact remains that what started off as literally a one man band has evolved through frustration, passion, dedication and sheer hard work into a living, breathing and gigging band, though not without its ups and downs.

Our debut album “Half Way Home” was finished in February 2008 and finally landed on my doorstep, mastered, packaged and ready to go just in the nick of time for the release and listening party in May 2008, which was already pre booked! This party was more than just a chance to publicly air the album for the first time to a select few, it was a chance to have a bloody good drink! It was also a very proud moment for Tony and I who had lived and breathed this record for a whole year.

Rewinding a little to around summer 2008, we decided that obviously, we would need to put a band together to gig the stuff and obviously, it had better be a good band. First on the scene was Leigh Crowther, a fabulous drummer who was working with “The Distractions” whom I was sound engineering for at the time. Having been pestered to “play some prog” for a little while, Leigh finally succumbed and was first on the “band” roster. Next up was a recommendation from a local Muso forum by the name of Big Ginger Gits. Phil Sloane joined on that recommendation alone and in turn recommended a certain Ian Raine for Job of Bassist. Unbeknownst to Phil, Ian had just answered an advert in the local press, was already on the shortlist and busy recommending Phil. So there you go, DeeExpus the band was born on recommendation alone. Well, more hiccupped really.

To cut a long story short, that version of the band lasted a good few months playing the same 3 or 4 songs, sometimes particularly well, other times not particularly well at all and sadly The Band parted company with 2 great guys who went back to not “playing some prog”.

Finding a replacement for Phil was particularly painless actually. Within about 3 minutes of Phil going, Tony’s BIG brother Stevie, who incidently used to host 2 or 3 of the boys from School (Andy being one of them) at his mothers house on a school lunch time in 1985, and blare renditions of Molly Hatchets Boogie no More on his White Hohner Strat, grabbed the job. This solved one major problem, namely who the hell was going to play his “Half way Home” solo, live!? (yes, Steve played the first guitar solo in HWH as a guest musician. See?)

The drummers job was a different story.

After originally knocking Kev back in favour of some South African Mike Portnoy who took great delight in messing us about, we found ourselves at a Prognosis gig on our knees begging for another chance. Kev, being Kev, loved every minute of this and told us he would consider it, though doubted he would have the time now we’d rejected him. I got a call the next day informing me that Greed had won him over in the van on the way back from his gig and he would therefore grace us with his presence.

To be honest the biggest struggle was finding a keys player. To get the band rehearsing, we had all of the keys parts on my macbook and were playing to a click, but we could hardly keep this up for a live appearance so the hunt began in earnest. After being rejected by every keyboard player I’d ever known, John Lewis (Prognosis keys player) came to our rescue with a list of 3 names, one of which was a Mr Steve Wilson!! Though I prayed he would return my call, instead I eventually got a long email from a certain Marc Jolliffe detailing everything that had occurred in his life and why he should be considered for the job. He was, the hunt was over.

Finally in October 2008, we had a band capable of playing Half Way Home in its entirety, we decided to book our first gig. Ironically we ended up with Aimless Mules at the Forum in Darlington UK which is where I’d begged Kev to reconsider his joining. It was a fabulous first show for the band and gave us a great kick start.

After a small gig at the Office in South Shields UK, we headed off to play our third ever live show; Progrock 2009 at the Wyspianski Theatre, Katowice, Poland. The show was also recorded for release as a live Album and DVD by Metal Mind Productions later this year. We had an awesome time and once again the band played exceptionally, loving every minute of it.

Writing and recording of Album II is underway. I could tell you a little of what to expect, but then, it will probably all change tomorrow.

To be continued …..