Beerzone

Towards the end of the first US tour in September/October 1999 which saw the band play shows from Boston right across the country to San Francisco Spike was beginning to find the touring game very difficult with pressures from home and lack of money beginning to take it's toll. A decision was made by the band to relieve him of his duties when the band were next going to tour which was in January 2000 as special guest of legendary London band, the Business. The tour was scheduled to last for 8/9 weeks and as well as it being twice as long a tour we would also be facing the full force of the winter months on the east coast of the US with the reason being if he had trouble on a short tour in good weather he would have hated the more testing climate of the second. Due to the length of the new tour the band had trouble finding someone who could commit to such a long time away from home and/or work so the best we could come up with was to use two bassists with each doing around 4 weeks or so. Toby was recruited from local band Wookie who had played a few shows with the band around that time and his role was taken over by long-time friend and drinking pal, Lyndon. Both did superbly well and enjoyed their experiences thoroughly. This tour basically took in a very large part of the USA and helped continue spread the bands growing reputation which was originally achieved during the highly successful first US tour. The tour had it's ups and downs but generally was a big success a couple of the highlights being the band got to appear with bands such as Suicidal Tendencies, Murphys Law, Agnostic Front and more to boot. The next major event was the bands appearance it the famous "Holidays in the Sun Festival" in Berlin, Germany in the May of 2000 where they received a great response by a big turnout even although Iain, Adam and Lyndon had to recruit the services of the legendary Max Splodge on drums as Bryza went AWOL before the show, this was very nearly the end of his participation in the band as the rest of the lads were rightly furious as this festival was the biggest show of the year for the band and tempers were running very high to say the least. Max Splodge did a very good stand in job, thanks mate. Next up was a third US tour which was to be a mixture of a dozen dates or so with the Dropkick Murphys again, playing to massive audiences most nights mixed in with the bands first headline shows in the US. The reception the band got on these shows was superb although there were several nights where the crowds were very small but never the less very appreciative. We have always said that it does not matter how many people you are playing to as people have still made the effort to come along and see you, so they deserve to be entertained every bit as much as the larger audiences; so thanks to you all for your time and effort. One point to mention here is that what also contributed largely to the poor turn-outs at various venues; it was nearly always found to be the case that the local promoters had not received any promotional packs, posters CD's etc. etc. and on one occasion the promoter said "Uh, I did not realise you were a punk band!! There are loads of punk fans round here but we were told you were rock'n'roll". Needless to say the agent was just not doing his job, so we didn't pay him. Fair's fair. On this tour the band were joined by Belfast Boys, Runnin' Riot who turned out to be great guys who could play a bit too!! The bands are now good mates. On this tour Lyndon and Toby again played around half of the tour shows each, approx. 17/18 nights each. The tour was well worth doing and helped continue to build the bands growing reputation. The one huge negative point to emerge during this tour was Adam's obvious dislike of touring beginning to become very obvious and when he refused to appear on the Dropkick Murphys ten night European tour to help promote their latest album alarm bells started to ring. The next major turning point in the bands history came at a gig on the Isle of Wight, England when the band played on 1st December 2000 and a thoroughly disillusioned Adam got blind drunk with Bryza before taking the stage and completely let both the other band members and the whole audience down, things really had to change. This was a critical time in the bands history where it could easily have just folded but after a few weeks contemplation Iain decided to soldier on and to give Bryza one final chance in the thought that without Adam he would be much better, so far this has been proven right and there has been a marked improvement in his drumming too. Beerzone kinda need having a Bryza. With Adam out Iain brought in Glen on rhythm guitar. Glen had been an original member of Intensive Care so that made things easier and Brand from local punk cover band, Clash City Rockers, was asked to join up and play when available. This was a very positive move as Iain had wanted to have two guitarists in the line-up for some time but Adam had refused. I have to point out now that now Adam is no longer involved with the band he and Iain are now big friends again, something that they were losing rapidly during the final few months of Adam's stay. The new album was recorded with the new boys on board in a very short space of time due to pressure to have a new album released in time for the next US tour which took place in May/June 2001 and saw the lads play around 25 nights starting in Seattle and finishing up at the Promote Chaos punk fest in Atlanta where they played with Anti-Nowhere League, Test-Tubes and many others. They also played at the Midwest Streetpunk fest in Kansas City during the tour. Toby played the whole of this tour for the first time. A couple of weeks after arriving back in the UK the band played at the latest 'Holidays in the Sun' festival in Morecambe which was the biggest yet to celebrate 25 years of punk. The band were the only band to be asked to play on two stages on two different days which was a big compliment.

---->> to the offical BEERZONE web site

RELEASES	BEERZONE
DSS036 LP Strangle all the boybands Side 1 Strangle all the boybands Duncan disorderly Rally to call Braindead Drinking legend Punkrock party Posh Spice Side 2 Life on the road Newtown Billy Wizz Stag week Sell-by date Get the beers in Society	Towards the end of the first US tour in September/October 1999 which saw the band play shows from Boston right across the country to San Francisco Spike was beginning to find the touring game very difficult with pressures from home and lack of money beginning to take it's toll. A decision was made by the band to relieve him of his duties when the band were next going to tour which was in January 2000 as special guest of legendary London band, the Business. The tour was scheduled to last for 8/9 weeks and as well as it being twice as long a tour we would also be facing the full force of the winter months on the east coast of the US with the reason being if he had trouble on a short tour in good weather he would have hated the more testing climate of the second. Due to the length of the new tour the band had trouble finding someone who could commit to such a long time away from home and/or work so the best we could come up with was to use two bassists with each doing around 4 weeks or so. Toby was recruited from local band Wookie who had played a few shows with the band around that time and his role was taken over by long-time friend and drinking pal, Lyndon. Both did superbly well and enjoyed their experiences thoroughly. This tour basically took in a very large part of the USA and helped continue spread the bands growing reputation which was originally achieved during the highly successful first US tour. The tour had it's ups and downs but generally was a big success a couple of the highlights being the band got to appear with bands such as Suicidal Tendencies, Murphys Law, Agnostic Front and more to boot. The next major event was the bands appearance it the famous "Holidays in the Sun Festival" in Berlin, Germany in the May of 2000 where they received a great response by a big turnout even although Iain, Adam and Lyndon had to recruit the services of the legendary Max Splodge on drums as Bryza went AWOL before the show, this was very nearly the end of his participation in the band as the rest of the lads were rightly furious as this festival was the biggest show of the year for the band and tempers were running very high to say the least. Max Splodge did a very good stand in job, thanks mate. Next up was a third US tour which was to be a mixture of a dozen dates or so with the Dropkick Murphys again, playing to massive audiences most nights mixed in with the bands first headline shows in the US. The reception the band got on these shows was superb although there were several nights where the crowds were very small but never the less very appreciative. We have always said that it does not matter how many people you are playing to as people have still made the effort to come along and see you, so they deserve to be entertained every bit as much as the larger audiences; so thanks to you all for your time and effort. One point to mention here is that what also contributed largely to the poor turn-outs at various venues; it was nearly always found to be the case that the local promoters had not received any promotional packs, posters CD's etc. etc. and on one occasion the promoter said "Uh, I did not realise you were a punk band!! There are loads of punk fans round here but we were told you were rock'n'roll". Needless to say the agent was just not doing his job, so we didn't pay him. Fair's fair. On this tour the band were joined by Belfast Boys, Runnin' Riot who turned out to be great guys who could play a bit too!! The bands are now good mates. On this tour Lyndon and Toby again played around half of the tour shows each, approx. 17/18 nights each. The tour was well worth doing and helped continue to build the bands growing reputation. The one huge negative point to emerge during this tour was Adam's obvious dislike of touring beginning to become very obvious and when he refused to appear on the Dropkick Murphys ten night European tour to help promote their latest album alarm bells started to ring. The next major turning point in the bands history came at a gig on the Isle of Wight, England when the band played on 1st December 2000 and a thoroughly disillusioned Adam got blind drunk with Bryza before taking the stage and completely let both the other band members and the whole audience down, things really had to change. This was a critical time in the bands history where it could easily have just folded but after a few weeks contemplation Iain decided to soldier on and to give Bryza one final chance in the thought that without Adam he would be much better, so far this has been proven right and there has been a marked improvement in his drumming too. Beerzone kinda need having a Bryza. With Adam out Iain brought in Glen on rhythm guitar. Glen had been an original member of Intensive Care so that made things easier and Brand from local punk cover band, Clash City Rockers, was asked to join up and play when available. This was a very positive move as Iain had wanted to have two guitarists in the line-up for some time but Adam had refused. I have to point out now that now Adam is no longer involved with the band he and Iain are now big friends again, something that they were losing rapidly during the final few months of Adam's stay. The new album was recorded with the new boys on board in a very short space of time due to pressure to have a new album released in time for the next US tour which took place in May/June 2001 and saw the lads play around 25 nights starting in Seattle and finishing up at the Promote Chaos punk fest in Atlanta where they played with Anti-Nowhere League, Test-Tubes and many others. They also played at the Midwest Streetpunk fest in Kansas City during the tour. Toby played the whole of this tour for the first time. A couple of weeks after arriving back in the UK the band played at the latest 'Holidays in the Sun' festival in Morecambe which was the biggest yet to celebrate 25 years of punk. The band were the only band to be asked to play on two stages on two different days which was a big compliment. ---->> to the offical BEERZONE web site