Pool Of Sound - The Stands

The Stands

'The Stands' were formed in 2002 by Howie Payne, who had previously formed 'The Magic Clock' in 1992 before frontiing fronted 'The Windmills', together with future 'Cast' drummer Keith O'Neill. Howie also fronted 'Telefone' and 'Blue Seed', who released their debut single, 'The Only Ones', in 1997 and an EP, 'Special Care and Spare Change', in 1998 on Ultimate Records, (an extended version of the EP with the debut single material as bonus tracks was released in Europe as a mini album). He then played lead guitar with 'The Big Kids' fronted by Edgar Jones, who in turn had earlier formed 'The Isrites' with Howie's brother Sean Payne of 'The Zutons'. 'The Stands' early local shows featured a revolving cast of backing musicians, including Howie's brother Sean Payne and Russell Pritchard, also of 'The Zutons', and session player Martyn Campbell. Howie then set about putting together a more permanent line-up recruiting local acoustic singer-songwriter and drummer Steve Pilgrim to play drums plus guitarist Luke Thompson. The trio, along with Martyn Campbell on bass guitar, recorded a selection of demos at Parr St Studios in Liverpool.
In September 2002, an ITV programme 'This Is Music' filmed a special episode focusing on the emerging new music scene in Liverpool that was centered on The Bandwagon nights, run by members of local band 'The Bandits' at The Zanzibar club in Seel Street. As they were newly formed, having only performed a few shows, 'The Stands' were not set to appear but the other bands petitioned the producers of the show to add them to the program. This they did and the band performed 'All Years Leaving', with Russell Pritchard filling in on bass guitar. Having watched the band perform, after the show local musician Dean Ravera asked to join them, which he did a week later, and shortly after they were invited to support 'The Coral' on their imminent autumn UK tour.
During the tour, Howie received a phone call from Noel Gallagher who invited them to support 'Oasis' at their upcoming show in Liverpool at the Royal Court in December 2002. Howie recalls; " A fella from Nottingham had passed over our demo to Noel and he was listening to it on the way to the Old Trafford gigs. When they got there they asked a lad from Liverpool called Martin Campbell, who was playing bass with Richard Ashcroft, if he knew us. Martin had played bass on the demos 'cos we didn't have a bass player at the time. Noel got my number, rang me up and we had a chat," They were subsequently asked to support Oasis again for two nights at the NIA, Birmingham. In early 2003, and still unsigned without management, the band supported 'The Zutons' and further shows with 'The Coral'.

Howie Payne

In Spring 2003 the band signed to Echo Records and began recording their debut album at Noel Gallagher's recording studio before releasing their debut single, 'When This River Rolls Over You', in August 2003 with a follow-up single, 'I Need You', in October 2003.

They released their debut album, 'All Years Leaving', in February 2004 which entered the charts at No.28. Noel Gallagher and 'The Coral's' guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones played on the album which produced three Top 40 singles.
In 2004, they supported 'Gomez' and Paul Weller and, played their first US shows in L.A's Troubador and El Rey clubs as well as doing their first headline tour of Europe. In October 2004 they relocated to L.A. to record their second album, 'Horse Fabulous', but shortly after the recording Steve Pilgrim left the band to pursue a solo career. With a new drummer, Graeme Robinson, they supported 'Oasis' once again in Europe, however, during a return break to England during the tour, Luke Thomson left the band and Paul Molloy (later of 'The Zutons') was recruited to play the remaining shows.

'Do It Like You Like', the band's fifth single, entered the UK Top 30 in May 2005, and the band embarked on a second tour of the U.S. and toured the UK festival circuit throughout the summer. 'Horse Fabulous' was released on the 25th of July 2005 but spent only one week in the UK Albums Chart. Affecting the promotion of the album was the announcement, two weeks later, that the band, including several others, were to be dropped by the Chrysalis Group after a £2m loss meant a restructuring of their Echo Label.
Without a record deal, 'The Stands' embarked on a fourth UK tour in September 2005, climaxing in their final show at the Carling Academy Islington, London. The band disbanded in November 2005 following their final gig at the University of Liverpool as part of the 'Love Music Hate Racism' campaign in memory of murdered schoolboy Anthony Walker. In a later interview with music blog Getintothis, Howie Payne said, " I never regretted anything we did. I was really driving everything so 'the buck stops with you'. That was the band we were, who got to do everything we wanted to do, we never had to compromise. We went out, we played, toured the world, we jammed onstage – a massive part of my philosophy was making the live experience different every time. Nothing much there to complain about!"

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2020/05/pool-of-sound-johnny-boy.html?q=Johnny+Boy