Friday 21st of July was the birth of Silicon Baby, however the name Silicon
Baby came about four + weeks after. We had just played the NEC Rock & Pop
festival along with several other bands and musicians three days previous.
The only other band to make any kind of impression on anyone other than
Silicon Baby was a band called Colour of Chaos, who were covering Nirvana
and Green Day. They had great stage presence and did what they did well.
Three days later Mark Buckler joined the band from Colour of Chaos. He said
if we ever needed a rhythm guitar then he‘ll do it. This fitted in with
Toms ever so subtle, but blatant hints for rhythm before we had ever met
Mark. However, Russ was happy as a three piece but decided if we were to
have a rhythm guitarist then Mark was the man for the job. This was great
as we could use both guitar sounds and talents to expand on what we had
already.
November/December saw the birth of the Silicon Baby website:
http://www.geocities.com/silicon_baby2000
October 12th was the first ever Silicon Baby gig together on new bands
night. We were originally booked in as Amnesty of Youth our previous name,
but when we wrote a song called Silicon Baby we thought that that would be a
better name and used that. We then rang back before the advertising went
out and changed it to Silicon Baby... and that’s the History behind the
name. After making a strong impression on both the crowd and the bar tabs,
we were asked back for future slots.
We played gigs around the midlands making impressions on as many people as
possible and writing better music for the battle of the bands at Kellys (a
very respected local venue with waiting lists for bookings). We won the
heats after putting on a great show in every sence of the word which helped
us beat off Fader and Space Hopper. The final we were close runners up at
according to one of the judges. He said we had amazing stage presents, an
x-factor, great crowd response, were 50/50 with the winners and the only
reason we didn’t win was because they had to pick only one winner. They
decided to go with age and experience. Looking back now just several months
ago, to play the set that nearly won the battle of the bands would be a very
weak set for us.
We were asked back to kellys to play Fridays as Andy (the owner) said we
were far to good and big for Thursday new bands night despite us being
together for barely six months. We were also asked to take part in a
three-day Kellys festival which was a great offer considering the time we
had been together and the amount of bands he has to choose from.
We then decided we needed a new demo so off we went to Made To Measure
Music. The guy who recorded us said that he had never had a band in that
could record and do material near enough first time and as fast as we did.
This demo was great for getting gigs but was not really the perfect sound we
were looking for as the guitars went straight into the mixing deck which
lost us the kind of power we project.
September 2001 we played the national battle of the bands where we were
given a bye into the next round as a few bands didn’t turn up. We played a
storming set of semi new material and got invited back to play as an extra
band at some heats for other battle of the band contenders. Next round is
set for January 2002 sometime.
In the gigs in between these events we had many people approach us with
great words of support. This also involved been approached by a scout of
chapter 22 (Ocean Colour Scene’s & The Jams old label, at a gig which was
less then satisfactory for us as we set our self high standards for live
performances. We were approached by a PR’s, people saying how good we were
in general and how we should be signed. A member of a band that supported
the rolling stones said that we had a great sound best suited to America and
that we would do well there etc. We’re regularly asked to play out side the
midlands, but due to money and travel we can’t.
And Silicon Baby are still growing and gaining support off friends, fans,
well wishers and semipro/pro musicians.
