ArtistInfo

Ariel

A.k.a. Jack Thirlwell

Jack began his musical career with school band "The Way".....a post punk /new wave outfit, who formed in 1979 and performed their first gig at a scout hall in Killay, Swanea in early 1980. The most memorable part of the gig was Jack throwing his mic stand into the audience in frustration ! After a name change to DIY (Do It Yourself) the band ended after internal fallings-out . He then joined a new band playing new wave influenced sca music called "The Leapers". They supported "Nine Below Zero" at Swansea University later in 1980 and after a couple of other gigs they too dispanded with various members going away to University. ​The DOG years​....... Jack then joined three musicians looking for a lead singer Tim Dyke, Guitar, Chris Parvin, drums and Col Bevan, bass...the band became known as "Delusions of Grandeur" and became very popular with the local Swansea music scene. Jack adopted the name "Ariel" (named after a well-known brand of washing power....he used to wear white clothes... ) ! The band performed their first gig on good friday 1982 at Cocett Community Centre to an audience of friends. The band went into a stage of inactivity for the rest of the year as band members had uni and work commitments. The band went into a local 4 track recording studio in 1983 and recorded some tracks which became their first release on cassette format (cassettes......remember them) ! Again 1983 was interrupted with band members working away etc. 1984 was to be a good year for the band. Ariel had now become the main songwriter with the band and they entered a local area band competition in which they came second in their heat losing out to eventual winners of the competition "Just Bongo". This meant that the band would not qualify for the final in dec 1984, however there were 7 heats and 7 winners and the organisers wanted 8 in the final, so Delusions Of Grandeur were invited to make up the numbers as the highest scoring second placed heat winners. However it seems more likely that the band had such a large following in Swansea the organisers were looking for the extra ticket sales. The band had started playing at the Coach House in Wind street every saturday night in the cellar bar (known locally as the dungeon). It was originally the cellar for the pub "The coach and horses" and was reminiscent to the cavern club, though on a smaller scale. The band played mostly original material and offered something different to the local music scene at that time. They became very popular and gained a large local following in Swansea and were often mentioned in the local paper (The south Wales Evening post), as the band that were destined for bigger things. The band released several mini albums or E.P.'s as they were known and sold well locally.They recorded a 12 inch single "We are the humans" which was produced by Andy Fairweather-Low ( of Amen corner fame) and this self-fnanced vinyl sold well locally. The band were also chosen to appear on BBC Wales' pop magazine programme "Juice" which was quite a big deal at the time and they used the appearance to promote their single which had just been released to coincide with their TV appearence. They had some interest from London based independent label, Diamond Records which came to nothing ,but signed a deal with Rosie Records, another London based independent label. Rosie put the band in the studio and they recorded their debut single for the label with high hopes of some national radio play. This was not to be, however and the bands first and only single release "Losing Myself" failed to make any impact other than locally. The record company cooled off at this point and the promised album never happened. The band decided to quit playing "The Coach" on saturday nights and concentrate on studio work, but this was deemed to be the beginning of the end for the band. They organised a free concert at the amphitheatre outside Swansea Leisure centre in june 1988 some of which was video-taped . This was the last time the band performed together in Swansea. Ariel left Swansea at the end of 1988 to work in London, Chris Parvin had joind "The Squirts" as drummer, Tim Dyke joined a rock band with his brother and Col Bevan retired ! The band re-formed to peform at Wimbledon College in summer 1989 for the summer ball, but that was it.....end of an era. ​The Nineties and beyond Jack began working with Tim again in the mid nineties. He had written several new tracks which he and Tim worked on for a few months before deciding to put Delusions of Grandeur back togther again. They approached Col Bevan who had work and family commitments and so declined the offer, and Chris had moved out to New Zealand. So they had to find a drummer and bassist to complete he line-up. They recruited Phil Myles on drums and Steve Lok on bass. They played gigs in Shades in Swansea in 1996 on a weekly basis for a couple of months. After recruiting a new drummer Neil Rees, they began recording at Steve's house over the next few months, with some pretty good results. More rehersals followed towards the end of 1997 preparing for some more gigs. The break-up of Jack's first marriage, however, signalled the end of the band as he had custody of his two children age 18 months and 4 years. He continued to write during his "single Parent" period but any band plans were no longer viable due to family commitments. Jack re-married in 2001 and currently lives with wife Karen and kids in Dunvant in Swansea. He is currenty recording a solo album,... "welcome to the rain", due for release in 2014.

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