ArtistInfo

Sour Face

Band,

"Teenage Punk Rock Kings Of Durham" active 1991-93. After Sour Face's debut demo 'Butter It' received a 10/10 review in Paint It Red, the listings magazine of Newcastle Riverside, the venue promptly booked them to support Lawnmower Deth but as all of the band members were aged between 13-16 at the time the Riverside had to apply for a special under-age entertainers license fom the local council to allow them to perform there. Sour Face would perform at the Riverside a handful of times in all including a legendary chaotic gig supporting Sham 69 where a stage invasion by the intoxicated mainly middle-aged Skinhead audience during their set caused a near riot and the gig to be ended prematurely and the band rushed offstage by the venue's security. On another occasion, the venue's security initially refused the band entry to their own gig! Gaining a large local following of fellow teenage Punk and Alternative Music fans, Sour Face also regularly played Durham City venues such as Fowler's Yard, The Funky Slug Club at Riverside (aka Klute), where they once supported UK Subs, and The Rowing Club where, during summer '91, they supported NOFX on their first UK tour and played on the same 'Pay or Play' bill alongside Voorhees at their debut gig, Alongside Voorhees, some other N.E bands of the time Sour Face supported and/or played alongside were China Drum, Hellbastard, Yardstick, The Campus Tramps, The Lavender Faction (feat. Rich Myers, Ben's brother's, on bass), Ragnarok, The Rye, Spit The Pips, Catharsis, The Hangarounds, Submission, Captain Trevelyan, amongst many others. In autumn '92, Sour Face were one of several local acts who were granted free studio time by Durham Arts Council. After initial recording sessions on an 8 Track porta-studio at Fowler's Yard in Durham, the majority of which the band never even obtained a copy of, the second self-titled demo was recorded over two days at the 16 track studio Northern Recording in Consett. Another local band to be granted free recording time was Voorhees who used the sessions to record their second demo and 'Violent...' 7". All sessions were engineered by Ian McCallum (now the guitarist of Stiff Little Fingers) and Ged Boyle who made it totally obvious they completely hated both bands resulting in the finished recordings being substandard efforts. 1st line-up (1991) Fill - voice / Dave - guitar / Ben - bass / Kev - drums 2nd line-up (1992) Fill - voice / Lukey - guitar / Ben - bass / Michael - drums 3rd line-up (1993) Ged - voice / Lukey - guitar / Ben - bass / Michael - drums Dave Lyon, then of China Drum, played drums at a couple of gigs inbetween Kev leaving and Michael joining. After Fill left, at least one gig was played with Michael on vocals and original guitarist Dave on drums. Sour Face's last gig was at Newcastle Riverside in January 1993 supporting Yardstick (One By One were also meant to play but pulled out at short notice). It was the only gig performed with new vocalist Ged. Ben, Michael and Ged soon started another band with original guitarist Dave called Bagpuss which played 2 or 3 gigs before dissolving.

Members

	Michael Gillham dr *1978 GB
	Ben Myers g, b *1976 GB

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