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2112 have had the privilege of being
interviewed on a number of occasion, here are a selection of those
interviews....
In the run up to 2112 headlining EuCon 05 the organisers of the
convention interviewed Graham as part of their promotions, the following is a
copy of the interview that appeared on the EuCon website:
How long have 2112 been together as a band? How did you
form?
We’ve been together since 2001. I’d returned from living in
Canada and got in touch
with Damian, who I’d been in bands with prior to leaving. We’d done a couple
Rush tribute gigs before I left as a bit of a send off so at the time I was
coming back we talked about putting a band together. Damian knew Mark and Tom
and got in touch with them about doing it, they agreed and that’s how it got
going. By this time, summer 01, Damian had been speaking with the late Mick
Burnett about playing at the Rush convention. Somehow he convinced Mick to let
us do it so our first gig was the convention that year. At that time we were
called Force 10, later changed the name to 2112 to give us more identity with
people who perhaps weren’t hard-core Rush fans.
What inspires you to play Rush music?
We all grew up listening to the music. That and being musicians probably gave
us the inspiration. There’s no doubt that it’s a challenge to work out the
parts and get the sound as close as we can. Of course its one thing being in a
relaxed environment of a rehearsal room to being on stage playing in front of
people. Rush fans probably know the songs as well as the real band so getting
up there certainly adds to the pressure to get it right. Hopefully, by and
large we do.
How do you feel about playing EuCon’05?
Fantastic. We understood that people who had seen us and the other bands had
had an input into who was going to play this year. To have that recognition is
great. We can’t wait to get up there. We hope to have a few surprises in the
set this time as well as the songs you’d expect to hear. Lots of work for us to
do but well worthwhile.
Do you think the attitude towards tribute bands is
changing, with people having more respect for the fact that some bands seem to
tour less so tribute provide the missing element of hearing their favourite
music live?
I think there is an element of truth in that. The tribute bands that seem to do
well put in a lot of effort into perfecting the set and songs. Perhaps as much
as some of the real bands, maybe some of them should think about their attitude
when they play live rather than going through the motions. I think the other
thing is that the really good tribute bands are so good that you can almost shut
your eyes and think you were listening to the real thing, at a vastly reduced
cost.
Tell me a little bit about each member of the band,
their real lives, interests etc.
The band consists of myself, Damian Fisher, Tom O’Neil and Mark Storey. We all
work for a living so this is very much a hobby, albeit a time consuming and
expensive one. We’re all in ‘mid life’ lets leave it at that! Outside of the
band we have family commitments. Me, Tom and Damian are into our football
although if Leeds Utd is classed as football anymore I’m not sure! I’m a
supporter of the current European Champions (five times Man U fans – you’ll
never achieve that!)
Have you ever considered doing a studio version of your
live act?
No. I think we all would have an issue with that. I think that would be
pushing it too far, besides why would anyone want to listen/buy a recording of
us trying to play Rush when you can put their CD on. Recording the set live,
either video or tape, would be nice to get a feel for how we come across on
stage but again not for sale.
Who else inspires you, music wise?
Blimey loads of people and for different reasons. Sometimes it’s just to sit
back, forget about listening to it from a musician’s perspective, and lose
yourself in a great song. Whether that’s Zeppelin or Kylie (I went to see her
twice on the last tour, bloody fantastic)
Where do you see 2112 in the future?
Well it’d be nice to be around then but I rather doubt it. Hopefully EuCon will
be a real springboard to more gigs around the country. We’d love to do some
gigs in
Europe as well. That’s probably it; although
it would be great to do this full time it isn’t going to be possible, we all
have mortgages to pay. And of course we’d love to be invited to play at next
years, and future conventions.
Are your instruments the same as Rush's? Tell me a
little more about your choice of instruments.
Some of the instruments we use are the same, Mark’s moog taurus pedals for
example. Unfortunately none of us have paid endorsements from the companies
that supply Rush. So we compromise and do our best with what we have.
Fortunately technology has come along way and that gives us the chance to
emulate a lot of the sounds. Getting that exact match is very difficult but is
becoming easier. Of course turn it up loud enough and no one can tell!!
When are you next touring and what is your tour plan?
We have no tour plans as such. Because of work/family commitments our gigs tend
to be more intermittent. Hopefully following EuCon we’ll be out playing in
other parts of the country, the midlands and south of
England and
Scotland where we haven’t
played before.
Just keep looking on our website www.2112tribute.com or
www.t-n-m-s.com
The following is an interview conducted by the late
Mick Burnett in 2001:
Following Force 10's excellent showing at this year's convention back in
September I arranged with their drummer Graham to do an interview for Spirit. It
turned out to be very interesting indeed.
"Tell our readers how you came to be involved
with a Rush tribute band, Graham?"
"That we were very pleased to
be a part of. I've been a Rush fan for a long time. Prior to my
emigration to Canada I got together with some musician friends to do a couple of
gigs as kind of a send off - the gigs went down well and I guess that planted a
seed. Before returning from Canada I spoke to Damian about doing the Rush
tribute thing again - but this time more than 2 gigs. Once I arrived back,
we started looking around for other like-minded musicians."
"How long have you been together now?"
"We got together in about July
this year. Tom (guitar) and Mark (bass and keyboards) were already working
together in a band. Damian knew both of them and after much arm-twisting on our
part they agreed to give it a go. We all knew there was a lot of work involved.
Added to that was the pressure of being ready for the convention. That pressure
came from Damian!! I think he may have told a few porkies to get the gig.
Anyway, although it was only July and the convention was in September we started
learning songs and putting a set list together. As I'm sure your readers will
appreciate, trying to put a set together is never easy and it’s impossible to
please everyone. Agreeing a set list was probably the hardest part.
(YOU BOYS
DID A GREAT JOB THOUGH)."
"Did
you play many gigs prior to this year’s convention?"
"Er no…. so whatever Damian told you before
about touring Europe, doing gigs three times a week….. may have been a bit
exaggerated. We had a gig booked at the Limelight for a week or two before
the convention but we had to pull out because Mark got sent to Ireland with
work. At that point, I think the rest of us were thinking of joining him
and staying til October! Our preparations for the convention went to the wire as
they say. The first time we played the set in full from beginning to end without
stopping for any cock-ups, was the convention. I think the adrenaline and
fear carried us through, I hope."
"Have you and the other band members been Rush fans for long?"
"We've all been Rush fans for a
lot of years now. We've all grown up with the band, although they're a lot
older than us I hasten to add! We are all looking forward to hearing another
album, hopefully in the New Year. It would be great to see them play live over
here for maybe one last time."
"How
do you go about choosing which songs to play, after all, Rush have a large back
catalogue?"
"Its been quite interesting
because we all have our own favourite periods of their music. Tom being the
oldest (sorry Tom), likes the earlier stuff, whereas me being the youngster in
the band (who didn't know they existed prior to 1988) I prefer some of the later
stuff. Seriously, choosing the songs was extremely difficult for a whole bunch
of reasons. We wanted to play some of the standards - Spirit of Radio, Tom
Sawyer etc. but we also wanted to do something a bit different that Rush don't
play live. Between the Wheels fitted into that category, as did Jacobs Ladder.
Now whose bloody idea Jacobs Ladder was I don't know. That was an absolute pig
of a song to get right.
On top of those choices we also
had to consider the technological challenges and being able to recreate their
sound live. Songs like Red Sector A got the boot because of that. Finally, we
also had to be aware of Damian's voice. He wasn't keen on having his nuts
squeezed for half the set just because the rest of us wanted to play Anthem and
Temples of Syrinx. That's the trouble with singers; they never want put their
ass on the
line.
So, as ever, we
made some compromises and came up with a set that I hope people enjoyed
listening to as much as we did playing, save for Jacobs Ladder. We are now in
the process of adding more songs to the set so hopefully when people see us
again we will have something new for them. I was sworn to secrecy but I can't
help it… Marathon is one of those that will definitely feature. I know I'm
going to regret this but maybe your readers have some suggestions of songs they
would like to hear, perhaps something that they haven't heard Rush play live in
a while."
COME ON AND SEND IN YOUR
SUGGESTIONS FOR WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO HEAR 'FORCE TEN' PLAY AT NEXT YEARS
CO-HEADLINING CONVENTION WITH 'THE SPIRIT OF RUSH' ONCE AGAIN AT THE LIMELIGHT
IN CREWE ON SATURDAY 31ST AUGUST. MICK.
THANKS
AGAIN TO GRAHAM AND THE GUYS FOR REALLY PUTTING ON A FANTASTIC SHOW AT THE
CONVENTION, WHICH AS WE NOW KNOW WAS A GREAT DEAL OF HARD WORK FOR THEM ALL.
HERE'S TO ANOTHER GREAT CONVENTION DAY NEXT YEAR WITH TWO BANDS!!!!!!
MICK BURNETT
www.2112tribute.com info@2112tribute.com
ã
2112
2005
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