I have a vision of Music, and that Vision is Clear!

For the second rehearsal of the unnamed band I went by myself. I felt now that I had met everyone, saw what I could do and had also seen their talent, it would be better to knuckle down without my girlfriend being present. She did come along from time to time and witnessed some of our most triumphant gigs, but for now it was time to work on our set and get 'gig ready'. 

Originally, we just did covers, and within a few weeks somehow we had managed to bag a gig at the student union at one of Medway's university campuses. No pressure then! Yes, our first gig would be at a university student union, in front of loads of drunk students, baying for our blood - if we were crap..... Great! So, work hard we did. 

Within a few weeks, we had successfully got over an hour's worth of material, covering the then in-crowd of musicians/bands of the British Britpop scene. Plus a few more from a little further in the past. Very soon the gig was upon us, and the issue of finding a name was very much a concern to all. I can't remember who exactly came up with the name, but I was very proud of the name we had chosen. 'ClearVision'. Within a week, we had a logo and a hastily hand-drawn banner to display behind us on the stage. I think I still have it in the loft of my father's house, but I'll need to check. (Sometime later..... Yes i have it!)

(The Original ClearVision Logo)

The first gig came and went without any problems, mostly because hardly any students turned up and the audience was made of up predominantly of our family and friends. However, we had performed well and not made many mistakes. Our friends and family told their friends and family, so by the time of the next gig, we had a much bigger fan base to call upon. 

( One of our first gigs, at Aylesford Rugby Club, Kent)

We soon started dabbling with writing songs. I had done this on and off for a couple of years by now, very basic chord structures and melodies. Alex and Chris formed a partnership, bouncing ideas off each other which culminated in two very exceptional songs called 'TV Life', and if I do say so myself, a beautiful song called 'All I Believed'. I was trying to write on my own, but still struggling to get anything decent, except I had a chorus to something which had a hook that revolved around the words 'I, am not really that strong, and you, you're the one that turns me on'. Unbeknown to me, Alan, our bass player, had been working on something where he had a chord structure, but no lyrics, so he asked me to see if I could work with it. The next rehearsal, I rocked up guitar in hand, with a completed song which included Alan's chords for the verse, my chorus hook and a new bridge section to link the two together. It was called 'Love me Today'. With these new songs in tow and our rapidly expanding fan base, we had started to build strong foundations for ClearVision. The new songs became extremely popular and we kept getting asked if we would be recording them for people to buy. 

(ClearVision: L to R - Alan - Bass, Chris - Guitar, Myself - Vocals, Martin - Drums & Alex - Guitar)

After a number of months saving up our very limited gig money, we entered the studio and recorded our first, and last, EP. The CD was very popular; I think we sold close to 500 copies, which isn't bad considering our fan base didn't really exceed the Medway/Maidstone area. We collectively worked on the design with I think Alex using the logo to form our cover. To sell 500 copies nowadays of a physical single/EP you would be expecting a chart entry in the top 75 of the British charts (if sold in a week, yes I know, but it's still impressive). Our increasing popularity led to us entering a 'battle of the bands contest', probably the pinnacle of ClearVision's career as it turned out, and also the place where I discovered the music of Pink Floyd......