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[Marsh]

Anyone remember the Aberdeen band Phonefreak?

All this talk of the Needles being the best Aberdeen band ever promted me to write this.

They were absolutely brilliant songwriters, extremely talented musicians and mesmorising live performers. And Euan, the singer had a soaring voice that was so distinctive. They played pretty straight down the line rock music, and the guitarist, Carl was a real "lead" guitarist - brilliant player.

I saw them several times, mostly at the Lemon Tree. They also played the Music Hall I think, supporting an Oasis tribute band. They won the Bacardi unsigned bands comp North East heat in 1997.

Their original 3 - track demo tape was blinding - two studio tracks and a live track. At the time It was all I listened to on my personal stereo at school.

Eventually they released an album "Freak Energy" which unfortunately was a badly - recorded, over - produced effort, which didin't capture their live energy at all. I was gutted when I listened to it after seeing them at an album launch at Drummonds.

Shortly after this, they disapeared. I've never heard anything else about them. Real shame, as I thought they really were going places. I did hear a rumour, from Jim Gellatly I think, they were offered a deal, but bottled it at the last moment.

Anyone have any news on what happened next? Are any memebers of the band on this forum? Anyone worked with them in the past?

A sad story, really, as they were a genuinely exciting Aberdeen band who were doing something a bit different and looked like they could go places.

Phonefreak, I salute you.

[Bob]

I think it's a bit silly to call any bad "The best aberdeen band ever" since

A. Who cares?
B. People have short memories.

[Afro Droid]

Phoefreak were pretty good though - I've got that demo somewhere....

[Marsh]

Originally Posted by Bob

I think it's a bit silly to call any bad "The best aberdeen band ever" since

A. Who cares?
B. People have short memories.

Just as it's a bit silly to mis - spell band "bad", really.

The title is just a flippant one - It was a reaction to people calling the Needles the best "Aberdeen band ever". Karloff are the best Aberdeen band ever in my opinion, for the record.

A. Johnny L obviously cares, he's replied to my post.

B. People do indeed have short memories. They need reminding. And I'm sure there are loads of younger people on this site who have never even heard of them. Or even knew there were Aberdeen bands on the brink of success 8 years ago.

[Dead Anyway]

Drummer Kelman now plays with Stuka.

Carl guitarist was with Star, but they broke up.

[girlsaidno]

Did Carl play in Phonefreak? I never knew that. Carl is still working in Key West at Westhill as a chef I think.

There bass player Gordon also moved to Star, then went to Texas for a year, came back, rejoined Star and now they've split up so I hear. Think he's still working for an engineering company in Dyce.

I still have the demo somewhere too. "Electric Whiteboy Blues" was totally amazing as I recall.

The album cover was 2 bits of card stuck together because the printers messed up the size or something (I always remember that).

Brilliant band....

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Marsh

Just as it's a bit silly to mis - spell band "bad", really.

Typos eh?

The best ever Aberdeen band was Hedgehog Pie.

If you missed them the first time around you'll be glad to hear that they've reformed... so if you want to hear how 5 part harmonies should be done, here's your lucky chance.

You can see them in Concert at The Forum on the 8th and 9th of April.

The line-up is as follows:
Tony Duguid
Frankie Robb
Ronnie Nicol (Whose son plays with The Needles)
Ian Michael
Willie Knight
Bob Knight (Whose son plays with Stayover)

[Jim Stax]

ATOMFLASK!

Well why not?

We were close, apparently. Complacency got in the way though and we imploded. In a crazy psychedelic fucked up drum and bass rockin kinda way. Oh the gigs, and the lights! me playin the drums in Atomflask>

[Jim Stax]

Happy memories of Phonefreak and gigs with them! Top blokes!

J

Originally Posted by Twobackjoe

ATOMFLASK!

Well why not?

We were close, apparently. Complacency got in the way though and we imploded. In a crazy psychedelic fucked up drum and bass rockin kinda way. Oh the gigs, and the lights! me playin the drums in Atomflask>

Aha, I saw Atom Flask a few times, great stuff indeed. At my first S-Set(<<<<saves the regular spelling mistakes) rehearsal/jam/whatever I was very nervous... mainly because the drummer from Atom Flask was in the band!!!