Tom Sawyer Promotions presents - TOM SAWYER: THE ULTIMATE RUSH TRIBUTE EXPERIENCE

Ok... so.... 1st update since June... Zoinks Scooby! was that the last time I posted something here????

Time Stand Still!!!!!!! Immediately!!!!!!

Well.... to date Whey Aye Zed has now done 4 full-on gigs along with a couple of 45 minute appearances at charity events and I must say apart from a bit of on-line heckling from what are perhaps the 'usual suspects' the response so far has been really quite superb.

As mentioned in my last post we're not taking things too seriously. We've all been doing Rush now for long enough to be able to pull off pretty listenable renditions of this awesome music for us not to have to spend an eternity in rehearsal rooms. So, for essentially what has so far been us 'shooting from the hip' as it were, we think we're doing pretty well alright.

Of course, this is a totally different approach to the Tom Sawyer/Signals To The Hemispheres projects both of which were intended to tour the UK's music clubs and small theatres... and wherever else it might have took us. That proved to be a bridge too far due to the cost/time/commitment involved in doing that and so many band members stumbled and fell at the various hurdles along the way... and that famously caused some spectacular fireworks as many people will know!

So this time we've decided to keep things simple and therefore local... to have a bit fun with it and not put ourselves under such pressures.

And I must admit the gigs have been an absolute pleasure on that basis alone.

Of course, there might be the odd 'foible' here and there musically but overall I truly think that we're not that far off what was being churned out in previous ventures... and in many respects its been far better!

So far we've played The Office in South Shields (x2), The 3 Tuns in Gatesahead and The Blyth & Tyne in Blyth.

We have gigs coming in left right and centre at the moment and you can find the current schedule on the gigs page.

Hope to see you at one of our North East gigs soon!!!!

All our gigs are free entry although I guess we may occasionally find ourselves in a venue that charges a significant door fee or we are working with a promotor etc etc. Needless to say if we progress to that level then the quality will be much higher or else we just won't go down that path at all!

(On that note, tt came to our attention last week via quite a few of the Rush fans in the North East that an established Rush tribute band requested £2000 to play at The Office... one of our regular gigs! We firstly want to make sure that no-one for a second thinks that that band was us and secondly that we feel that this kind of profit-mongering is what brings the whole tribute scene into disrepute. You have to be something pretty special to command that sort of fee. With the greatest respect in the world the band in question aren't even close at this stage of their development. Beware the profiteerers people!!!!).

I know, I know.... it's been a long time since I posted some news up about the new Rush trib!

Well, despite 2011 having been one of the busiest years ever for me I've somehow managed to attend regular rehearsals over the last few months and all of a sudden it's now only a matter of days before we go out live.

We're kicking things off with a gig at The Office in South Shields this Saturday 25th June.

It's been a while since I played at The Office which is a venue that has always managed to attract a good crowd for Rush tribs in the past so I'm really looking forward to it and the feedback has been good.

In my last post (which was 6 months ago, oops!) I said we were coming back as Tom Sawyer but in hindsight we decided that a new name was in order.

Being a 100% North East based band (for the first time in about 5 years!) and to reflect the fact that this is a fun time band not taking things too seriously we've settled on 'Whey Aye Zed' for a monicker.

We have several gigs in the pipeline at present... details to follow... so we hope you can make it along.

Saturday's gig at The Office is free entry in the downstairs room.

We'll be playing approx 2 hours worth of awesome Rush songs for your entertainment. Things should be starting around 9pm.

See you there.

Tom Sawyer was originally conceieved in 2002. Born out of an obsessively ambitious idea to provide the UK with some top level entertainment in the form of a Rush tribute band.

The band, as many bands do, struggled initially to make it past the rehearsal room and over time it saw many musicians come and go at the audition stage.

Some were simply not up to the task of recreating this awesome music. Others were well up to it but not in a position to fully commit due to other commitments.

However, by 2004 Tom Sawyer finally settled on a line-up and embarked on a lengthy process of self promotion in the face of abstract adversitiy to establish itself on the UK music scene.

The line-up of the band was never really fully stable and the pressure of balancing touring against other commitments became too much for pretty much everyone but myself, resulting in an ever changing line-up.

In 2008 Tom Sawyer hit rock bottom as the line-up at that time was pulling in three completely different directions operationally. As is the way with bands, arguments started which became blown out of all proportion resulting in a bitter (rather public) split.

I myself went on to re-establish a new Rush tribute called Signals To The Hemispheres but this too stumbled under the weight of having to travel.

And so, here we are in the closing days of 2010.

Quite out of the blue I was contacted by Tom Alexander, our original Geddy,  to see if I was interested in a band project (not a Rush trib - more details to follow).

I was intrigued to learn that Tom was now looking to form a band with non other than drummer Mick Kerrigan. Mick was first choice drummer for Tom Sawyer back in the early days but he was not able to give a full commitment back then having only just joined the popular NE band The Force.

Needless to say I was immediately interested and it wasn't long before the potential for a top Rush tribute project was discussed.

And so, it gives me untold pleasure to say Tom Sawyer has now reformed with 100% original members.

Although Mick never got to gig with the band ultimately, he is without doubt the most suitable and able drummer for a Rush tribute.

We are chomping at the bit to get out in the New Year and bring some Rush happiness to various parts of the UK.

And of course there's our other new project which I'm sure you'll like too!

Keep dropping by for more news soon!

It's now 8 years that I've been involved in trying to put together a definitive Rush tribute band that could extensively tour the UK on a regular basis that would hopefully fill a little bit of the enormous gap between Rush tours and keep the British fans entertained.

Obviously, by its very nature this was always going to be a monumental and ambitious task. Such blindingly good music and musicianship was always going to be hard to replicate. Nevertheless, over that time I have found myself playing along side some quite talented musicians. Various line-ups have come and gone and we've had to search far and wide for players who could get even close to the required skill level involved.

However, as it transpired, pulling together the music and show was the 'easy' bit. The hardest part, even with the backing of an established industry promotor, was always the promotion and marketing of the band. Venues are all too often wary of booking any act that is outside the 'norm' or classed as 'specialist'. We have always struggled to find venues that would entertain a Rush tribute but the last 3 years have been particularly tough. Many of the venues we hoped we could play regularly have either gone under and closed down or have changed their 'modus operandii' during the last few financially unsettled years.

Many fellow musicians in other bands are reporting hard times, even those who are playing more mainstream music and of course more and more big name acts are playing live these days to counter low record sales, therefore further dilluting the appeal of bands with lesser celebrity status.

Unfortunately, when you find yourself in a band that you can't promote and which isn't out there gigging then it's natural to gravitate towards other ventures. This has certainly been the case for myself, Rick and Conal. And as much as we'd like to keep the ball rolling, the cost of rehearsing and maintaining a band when it's members are spread apart by hundreds of miles is not feasable.

So we have decided, given the prospect of the extremely unsettled financial climate that is forecast from Jan 2011 onwards due to impending government cuts etc etc that it is best to put this project to bed for the foreseeable future in order to focus on some less consumingly ambitious outings individually.

Certainly this is not the end of Signals To The Hemispheres, we are merely going into 'hibernation' until such times as we feel we can viably try to get out there and bring some Rush to our little part of the northern hemisphere.

Many thanks to everyone who came along to our shows and I know we all had a great time.

I will be doing some recording, both of Rush material and original compositions to keep myself amused and I'll post my efforts up here for anyone interested in taking a listen.

So please continue to drop by the site.

I have spent some quite considerable time recently exploring and participating in, first hand, the phenomenon that is internet fan forums. These are something I have not had an awful lot of time to participate in over the years but I was curious to partake in a few all the same should the opportunity (spare time) ever arose in order to see if I could contact like minded people to myself.

For many years I have assumed these places were set up as a haven for fans to share a comradary that stems from the love of certain things... bands, music, sports, cars etc etc.

However, much to my surprise and enlightenment I have found that such places are all too often merely sounding boards for the arrogant, ignorant and just plain rude people who inhabit the cyberworld regularly. Ironically, quite often the forums are fragmented and tribal in nature. Populated by people who somehow end up divided in opinion and often excessively negative over what is meant to be a positive element of their lives.

One such forum I have been involved with contains a stronghold of members who by and large actively demote rather than promote the very thing the forum exsists for.

This is quite a shock for someone like myself who as a musician expends a lot of time and energy celebrating the music and integrity of 3 people who have given me great listening pleasure over the years... I do of course mean the greatest band in the world... RUSH!

In a period of only twelve weeks or so I have found myself bruised and battered, figuritively speaking and quite in the minority when speaking out in a positive way about the forums' very subject of focus.

Insults are flung (and of course countered) in trench warfare fashion that at times leave the reader/poster in a state of sheer bewilderment. I have found it quite amazing how many people are incapable of accepting a counter arguement without resorting to attempts to discredit the oppositions' integrity as a last ditch resort in trying to win over a point view or quite simply in the end just become abusive and insultory.

This is quite common on forums in general to a certain extent I have found... but in most cases it ends up being a fairly balanced affair... or more often the positive opinions outweigh the the negative ones... trollish posts I believe the term is.

It is quite a bizarre experience to go onto a fan forum only to find that the majority of posters do not particularly like the subject in question.

I even found my comments removed by the moderator when I expressed an opinion that this particular site was not fulfilling its supposed role as a proclaimed 'fan' site with the following comment added... 'We will also no longer tolerate posts that flame or otherwise bad mouth (said site) as a place to visit'.

Astonishing. Talk about dictatorial style sensorship of free speach and arrogance of unlimited proportion. You can bad mouth the subject of the forum but not the forum itself. These people need to get real.

Needless to say this site is populated by only a handful of people as most fans avoid it quite actively.

The reason for this trip into Forum-ville is that I am keen to promote any site that I feel worthy of peoples' attention via providing a link from this website and have been looking to see which was the one most worthy of being brought to the attention of RUSH fans who visit here.

The one site I can strongly recommend to any discerning and ardent RUSH fan is (click the following link)...

THE RUSH FORUM 

This site offers a balanced set of opinions on all things RUSH and whilst not all who post there are positive, any negative posts are by and large from a small faction of the site and on the whole most posts are well reasoned and well delivered.

Please visit The Rush Forum and join in the celebration of 3 of the worlds finest musicians ever.

It was an unexpected pleasure to meet another one of rocks longest standing icons at The Uni Campus Bar in Sunderland on Saturday 28th Nov, that being Gary Numan.

Gary is one of my all time favourite musicians and teenage idols. It was the huge synth sounds that Rush were using around the late 70's and early 80's that first really turned me on to them having listened avidly to bands like Numan, Ultravox (I enjoyed their come back tour earlier this year) and Kraftwerk for quite some time previously.

Thanks especially to Gary's wife Gemma for taking the following photo.

I can strongly recommend anyone to go see Gary's shows which are a recreation of his Pleasure Principle Tour back in 1979.

Visit Garys' website for more info....

NuWORLD

The band now have a new name!

Following a recent partnering with Glenn Povey Management and subsequent consultation with Peggi Cecconi, Vice President of RUSH management company SRO/Anthem Entertainment in Canada it has been agreed that a name change is in order.

Introducing.... SIGNALS TO THE HEMISPHERES.

Teaming up with Glenn Povey, probably most noted as the person who put the hugely popular and successful Aussie Floyd together, means that the band will be venturing far and wide to bring some RUSH-ness to everyone's lives on a regular basis.

We look forward to bringing a little bit of entertainment to RUSH fans everywhere in these rather sombre recession tainted times of late.

Roll the bones!

Visit the Photo Album to check out a host of classy pics taken by Billy Hepburn at the Town House show in Hamilton last Friday.

Billy of MusicPro Photography is a top Glasgow based photographer who specialises in music events but also covers all kinds of other requirements.

Check out his website here.

Do not hesitate to contact Billy if you need some great photos!!!

(Top tip - view all images in the Photo Album using Cooliris. Just click the option 'view as slideshow' and download the viewer if necessary. It really is cooool!).

It was great (and a little odd) to travel back from the Hamilton gig on Saturday morning listening to my two band mates on Radio 1.

The guys (plus Conals' brother) were invited by Radio 1 DJ Vernon Kaye to provide the live music, as The Duffy Brothers, for Vernons' show which was Pheonix Nights themed and they both had to shoot straight off after the gig on Friday night in order to be there.

The show was broadcast from the real 'Pheonix Club' in Farnworth and hosted many top stars from that area including of course Peter Kay, Paddy McGuinness, stars from Coronation Street....etc etc.

Highlights of the proceedings were Chris Moyles joining The Duffy Brothers on drums for a striking rendition of 'Sex On Fire' by Kings Of Leon and Peter Kays' famously lamenting 'Wind Beneath My Wheels'.

In Conals' own words.......'What a crazy 24 hours'!

I'm looking forward to hearing all about it lads and maybe there'll be an amusing little story or two to share with us all here.

We are proud to be entered into the hallowed halls of Planet Rock radio station.

Planet Rock will be keeping listeners up-to-date on RUSH UK gigs on-air and also listing our gigs on their website.

Planet Rock is a fantastic national UK rock station playing all genres of classic rock - past and present!

Links will appear on this site soon but for now please click here....