Adam Lee - Vocals Bill McQueen - Guitar Dave McQueen - Bass Jan Alkema - Drums
The early years of China Drum (which lasted, roughly, from 1989 to 1992) are now just a blur of confused memories - vague recollections of motorway service stations, endless Ginsters Pasties, and trying to sleep in the back of a VW Camper with a broken heater. Amidst heavy competition, the film rights to this period have been sold to the Disney Corporation.
In 1993, however, all this changed when the shivering Geordies were joined in the back of the van by a self-financed single, Simple, all (555) copies of which (thanks to enthusiastic support from John Peel and Steve Lamacq) were quickly snapped up by an eager nation. China Drum were pleasantly surprised by the success of this enterprise, and decided to try it again sometime, which they did the following year when they teamed up with the cheeky Fluffy Bunny label to bang out the Great fire single. Again, they sold out the only pressing, helped, perhaps, by a UK and European tour with Green Day.
Despite these unlikely triumphs, it wasn't until 1995 the China Drum began to make an impression on the Great Britieh Public. Fisrt off was the Barrier single, then tours with Supergrass and Ash, and an assortment of deals being signed and sealed. Shortly after these formalities were concluded, Fall Into Place was released as a single in the UK and as part of a compilation EP titled Rolling Hills And Soaking Gills everywhere else.
In August '95 the band opened the main stage at Reading Festival, arriving stylishly in their own hovercraft, and saw out the rest of the year by headlining a 30-date UK tour and spending a month in Europe spreading the word of St. Geordie. Not content with this marathon gig list, the Drum then headed for the USA and joined Ash for a few dates on the West Coast.
Next up was Can't Stop These Things, with a chucklesome cover version of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights which kept radio producers happy for weks and also saw our Geordie heroes on the Big Breakfast. China Drum also played a triumphant gig and London's Astoria, as part of the NME Brat Awards week.
China Drum released Last Chance in April '96 and supported it with another headline tour around the country, culminating with a sell-out show at London's LA2. Later that month China Drum's debut LP (recorded in a three week burst at Trinity Heights in Newcastle) was released, produced by John Greatwood and mixed by Chris Sheldon. It was called Goosefair - "a triumphant, compelling, irresistable debut" NME - after Ovingham-Upon-Tyne's premier social event, and was launched with a sweaty, alcohol-fuelled shin-dig at their local Tavern in High Spen, at which Steve Lamacq proclaimed them "the best band in Britain."
China Drum then embarked on another European tour, and it was whilst they were playing in Trieste, Italy, that they noticed that Bosnia was just over the border. They felt they had played everywhere else in Europe, so why not Bosnia? And so in July 1996, China Drum became the first British band to play in Sarajevo since the 1995 Dayton Peace Accord. "The Bosnian countryside is so beautiful, but once you get into the war zone, it's like seeing a 300 mile car crash, a huge pile-up in Paradise" said Dave McQueen. The band still keep in contact with The Serious Road Trip, the charity who helped them with the logistics to get to Bosnia, and in December played a gig in Glasgow for which all the funds went to the SRT.
Before embarking on a tour of the States, China Drum released a single Wipeout ("the noise that Satan's surfboard would make on the big breakers" NME) in July. The CD also included a nine-minute bonus track by 'mystery' techno-teasers Rancid Hum, Sleazeball, which was remixed by Empirion.
China Drum continued to tour in Europe and Japan, and in December '96 they were invited to support German super-group Die Toten Hosen in a stadium tour around Germany. They then holed up in a studio with highly regarded engineer-turned-producer Al Clay (who had previously worked on such luminaries as The Pixies, Therapy?, 60ft Dolls and Frank Black). The result is the chillingly polished Self Made Maniac, which is due to be released on Mantra Recordings on October 13.
As a prelude to Self Made Maniac, the band plan to tour throughout September and October, with the added bonus of an extra member. Jan Alkema (ex-Compulsion) has joined on drums, leaving Adam Lee to prowls the stage in fine style. The first test of the new boy was on Friday 13th June, when China Drum brought chaos to north London by playing three gigs in one night in Camden Town. Wouldn't you hate that to be your first day at your new job?
A handful of low-key shows and festival appearances accompanied the release of the recent Fiction of Life single, with its follow-up Somewhere Else (released on September 15) and the album apearing to coincide with the tour.
Source: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~hamnet/chinbio.htm
