Wake
Wake were a short-lived rock group based in Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, U.K.
The band was formed by guitarist/vocalist Andy Wilson (aka Cptn. Gravis) and drummer/vocalist Ewan Simpson while they were at high school. They worked with a few different bass players but none of them lasted, up until September 1998 when Andy met Blair (Jackson) Taylor at the University of Strathclyde where they were both studying Architecture. The pair hit it off quite quickly and because Andy was on the lookout for a new bassist he was keen to introduce Blair to the band (despite him being quite new to playing bass). On the band's first meeting with this line-up they gelled well and that evening recorded an instrumental "Snow", which would make it onto their album The Wakejammer the following year.
With the pressures of their education the band made little progress over the following months, other than playing a small set of covers at a gig in Prestwick, Ayrshire in the spring of 1999. However, the summer brought a period of productivity, during which time the band wrote and recorded a number of original songs. The result was the album The Wakejammer.
Straight after finishing the album Ewan left on an overseas trip for a month, leaving Andy and Blair to work on a number of new songs. By the time Ewan returned in September the band had an almost entirely different set from the songs featured on The Wakejammer (including Chinese Chicken Stick which would later be recorded as the first Deadman Bed song and appear on Breach Of The Peach / Sinus Of The Times). These new songs were introduced at a gig in The Arena, Glasgow on 15th September '99. This would turn out to be the only proper gig this line-up would play, as Ewan left for the University of Aberdeen later that month.
Andy and Blair continued, recruiting drummer Dave Brackenridge (whom Andy knew from school) and singer Stoo G (a university friend of both Andy and Blair who would later become Little Red Ants). The band again wrote a new set of songs and played a total of three gigs in Glasgow before the end of the year. Unfortunately none of these newer songs were ever recorded to a satisfactory standard.
By the beginning of 2000 the band was back to just Andy and Blair. Over the next few years they continued to work on little ideas but only briefly managed to form a functional line-up under the name My Friends, including Dave Allan (aka Captain Crash). In January 2002 My Friends played their only gig - in the 13th Note, Glasgow - supporting Texlahoma (an earlier incarnation of Multiplies) the members of which both Andy and Dave knew from school.
After this Wake effectively ceased to be. Andy, Dave Allan and Stoo G went on to form All The Kings Horses and Blair (adopting his middle name 'Jackson' as his stage name) joined a band which went on to become The Science.
Discography
Click on a record cover to download the album and artwork.
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August 1999
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Wake's only album, The Wakejammer was recorded to tape using only 4 tracks during the summer of 1999 (when the average age of the band members was 18). The great riffs and optimistic, adventurous songs manage to cut through the hiss and missed notes to still sound good a decade later.
Further information
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