Zenn was different to my previous band as we were exclusively an original band, coming from Torbay we felt like there wasn't really any need for another mundane covers band amongst all the others already doing the rounds. We soon built up a reputation for ourselves as a live act and in 2005 we were nominated for an Artsbase award for 'Best Live Act', which to our surprise we won. Drunkenly, we accepted the award and praised original homegrown talent (I've always been a supporter of local creative art and very much still am). Our music and strong ethos seemed to be well received and we soon built up a loyal following around the bay. Forming Zenn was a turning point for me as I'd never actually been a guitarist in a band before, I remember struggling to play and sing at the same time, practise practise practise eh! Given that we'd rehearse up to 4 or 5 times a week I'd soon get plenty of that.
After a while, we picked up a manager, produced a load of merchandise (including Zenn thongs that sold horribly well!) got a van and played anywhere we could for little more than the love of it. During this period we performed all over the south west, with several gigs at the Cavern in Exeter, the Phoenix in Plymouth, The Louisiana in Bristol and a number of gigs in and around London, as well as local festivals, lots of pub & nightclub gigs. There are several gigs with Zenn that stand out for me, the first of which being a support slot for US punk band The Misfits. Not a particularly enjoyable gig (local indie band supporting international punk giants? what a rubbish idea that was! At the end of one rather melodic number some cock from the audience heckled "call that a song?", to which our lead guitarist took particular offence and offered the guy a fight, which was declined by the sheepish fool. Another one was a gig at the White Feather Festival in 2004, it was a bit of a hippy festival and before each set, the bands were taken into a magical tee-pee to be given 'lucky stones' that were sure to bring us good fortune and all that. I blame the stones for the generator failing 3 times during our set. Still, that one was a laugh, even if it was a bit of an endurance. Each gig at the cavern was a good one, that has always been one of my favourite venues to play, a proper little dirty rock n roll venue. Zenn produced a few demo eps which were again distributed in local music stores and at gigs. The first of which was a collection of live recordings from our few weeks at Oldmill Studios in Exeter. With no real goal as to what we were doing we simply recorded bits of rehearsals and shared the results. The next one was a 3 track Ep recorded at Coombeshead Studios in Newton Abbot and the another was a 3 track Ep recorded in our bassists garage by Steve Taylor (who'd I'd get to know very well indeed...). Only 1 track from these sessions survived, a track called 'D.I.S.C.O'. Soon after these sessions we split. Once again I was scratching my head as to what to do next, something musical, obviously.
(See part 3)
For more information visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/devondemos/032005/zenn.shtml