User talk:Bryallagher

Kolumbia are a Britrock/Rock and Roll band formed in the New Year of 2009, the group was formed by founding members Bryan Donoghue (guitar, vocals), Evan Gray (guitar,vocals) and Alan Barker (bass).

With the recent recruitment of Jamie Maidan (drums), Ross Turner (Bass) and Murray Wallace (Guitars) the band have continued to rehearse and work on new material while also gigging across many of Edinburgh and Glasgow's top venues.

Kolumbia was formed from the original band name The Haze in January 2009 from which the 3 original members decided upon after meeting and rehearsing from a few sessions, Bryan Donoghue, Evan Gray and Alan Barker spent the next 5 months working on a mainly acoustic sound through the fact that Alan Barker didn't play any instrument and would use this time to hone his own skills, the band rehearsed at a disused garage in the north side of Edinburgh, with no heating the rehearsal sessions were sometimes short lived during the cold and wet winter months, upon there acoustic sound they wrote and recorded a 2 track acoustic demo with tracks I Can Do Better and the original 1st version of That'll Do which was later re-wrote to suit the bands change to a live raw rock sound.This acoustic cd is still in circulation but is limited to only a few copies due to the members lack of satisfaction with it.

After 5 months of searching for a drummer to fill the empty position Evan Gray would leave the band in May 2009 after differences about the direction the band was going.He was immediately replaced with Joshua Ingram who was a friend of the then bass player Alan Barker, The band would go on to rehearse a few other tracks minus a drummer and although the frustrations of not having one were always clear to see this would actually help the band form as a unit and help to play together.

After booking a recording session in the October of that year out of will for the band to have something to look forward to and lift spirits Bryan Donoghue placed an ad looking for a temporary drummer just to see the band through their session with the hope that the demo would entice other drummers to try out, join and become permanent.Within a few days Jamie Maidan, an experienced musician with alot of years behind him through playing in many bands came on board with the idea of seeing the band through their recording session with nothing stating he would stay beyond this.

On the 29th of November Kolumbia entered the studio and went onto record a 3 track demo which consisted of songs Juffra's Blues, Limits The Sky and the early cover version of columbia the 5th track from oasis's debut album Definately Maybe this was the song that the original 3 members got the name for the band from after the 3 of them were huge fans of the band and the song, the C was quickly dropped and replaced with a K after the members stated that it "looked better on paper".This 3 track demo was used in the early part of the full bands formation to book gigs and give to friends and family and although sounding rather tame it was a good effort from the new band.

After continuing to rehearse with band after the recording session Jamie Maidan decided to become a permanent member of the band much to the delight of the other 3 band members who stated that Jamie's tight and heavy drum style transformed their songs into the gritty aggressive songs they are now and took them to a whole new level.

On the 15th December 2009 Kolumbia played their first gig at the craigmillar arts school, being the bands first ever gig it was probably good that they played infront of the 'soundman' only prompting Bryan to remark 'if he knew jamie maidans music experience he would have pulled out of the gig as it was an uncomfortable evening with no one there' this gig was followed by a gig at the then popular Ark venue on Waterloo Place in Edinburgh, ironically in the crowd that night to watch the band was one Ross Turner who less than twelve months later would go on to be in Kolumbia. Through rehearsing in the cold and wet garage the band would develop their raw rock sound which is evident on stage today, and for the first part of 2010 they would continue to play many of Edinburgh's top venues including Electric Circus and Caberet Voltaire, their highlight gig of that year was supporting one of Manchester's legends bez from The Happy Mondays at Maggies Chambers (The Three Sisters)in Edinburgh, although their was great anticipation for this gig it would turn out to be one of the bands worse performances to date from the terrible sound from the venue to the controversy due to the fact that many fans with tickets were turned away from the venue from the terrible security service that was in place, this prompted the band to refuse to play the venue in future after many offers were put forward to the band but rejected.

Kolumbia decided to take a break from the gigging scene to rehearse and perfect new material which would later be put forward to be recorded into a mini album.These recording sessions would later turn out to be a major failure on the bands part for as good as the songs were sounding on stage, the rawness and aggression were missing prompting the band to quit the sessions with 3 tracks still unmixed.During this break Alan Barker was replaced with Ross Turner the band citing that they needed a more solid and versatile bass player to bulk up their rhythm section after his parts on the failed mini album were of very poor standard.

With Ross Turner now on board the band would go back to the drawing board in the fall of 2010, by christmas time the band had an array of new songs which included Heart Of Stone, Crudens Bowl and Revolver which bulked up a set-list with current songs including Juffra's Blues, That'll Do and Limits The Sky.

The band would not make their return to the stage until March of 2011 but have since had a steady flow of gigs over the past couple of months, playing at the newly opened The Store (Formally The GRV) and gaining a support slot at the 02 Academy in Glasgow as one of the highlights of what can already be declared as a fairly successful year with many more gigs still to come and be played.

The sudden departure of rhythm guitarist Joshua Ingram in April 2011 prompted the band to replace him with Murray Wallace an experienced and versatile guitarist of 6 years, his blues rock lead style of playing has added a well needed backbone to the songs which was evident with the groups first acoustic gig at Whistle Binkies minus Ross Turner and Jamie Maidan the gig From Murray Wallace and Bryan Donoghue was well received from a number of people in the audience, evidence of a band which has songs of much quality and versatility.

As the band continue to work and progress to becoming one of Edinburgh's fastest rising bands and gaining a following all over the country they are already in the process of attempting to record their debut album, the sessions have already begun and are to be worked on over the summer and produced by Betablock Audio's Jamie Maidan hopefully citing a winter 2011 release.

Kolumbia's style is heavly influenced by the 90's britrock scene including bands Oasis, Cast and The Stone Roses other influences include The Beatles, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, The Who also many American Rock Bands including Queens of The Stone Age and Neil Young lead the band to their raw aggressive sound.

Full list of all the bands played gigs up to recent date.

2009:

• Craigmillar Arts Centre - Edinburgh, Saturday 12th December
• The Ark - Edinburgh, Wednesday 16th December

2010:

• Labour Club - Prestonpans, East Lothian, Saturday 15th May
• Whistle Binkies - Edinburgh, Tuesday 18th May
• Cabaret Voltaire - Edinburgh, Friday 4th June
• Bannermans - Edinburgh, Thursday 24th June
• Electric Circus - Edinburgh, Saturday 10th July

2011:

• Slouch Bar - Glasgow, Friday 4th March
• The Store (Formally The GRV) - Edinburgh, Saturday 5th March
• Cabaret Voltaire - Edinburgh, Friday 25th March
• The Store(Formally The GRV) - Edinburgh, Thursday 7th April
• Whistle Binkies - Edinburgh, Thursday 14th April
• O2 Academy 2 - Glasgow, Friday 29th April
• Whistle Binkies - Edinburgh, Thursday 5th May (Acoustic Gig)
• Maggie Mays - Glasgow, Thursday 12th May

Official Kolumbia Website [1]