Sam and Paul met up in the first week of university and started writing songs together, trying to find other band members in the process. In October of ‘96 they got together with Darren, Matt and Stuart, who converted from playing his usual guitar, to playing bass guitar as they could not find a bass player. Most of them had played in bands before, but no one really seriously apart from Darren who had recorded demos for previous punk and rock bands and played many gigs before too . Sam had played guitar and had vocal duty in a sixth form college band who had too many different names to list , but they played only one gig which consisted of playing one song at his sixth form review. This wasn't too successful and wasn't helped by the fact that the drummers snare drum fell apart mid-song and Sams’ microphone wasn't turned on until part way through the song! Paul had played in a band called Mute which played 2 gigs also whilst he was in his sixth form. Stuart and Matt had never played in serious bands before, keeping their talents hidden away in their bedrooms.
In October 1996, Bluesun started rehearsing weekly at Studio 64 in Middlesbrough, playing some songs written by Sam and Paul as well as a few covers by the likes of Radiohead and The Manic Street Preachers. (They keep most of the local taxi firms in business transporting 5 guitar, a drum kit and amps to each practice!) There were many arguments over what they should call themselves, but eventually BlueSun was suggested by Pauls’ dad as he had recently finished reading a book of that title.
The band wanted to feel confident with playing together as a band before they started gigging and actually recorded their first demo before playing their first gig. That demo was recorded in March 97 at Studio 64 and since then they have played many venues in Middlesbrough such as The Dickens, The Courtyard, Teesside Students Union and The Temple. They recently recorded a new demo containing 3 new songs at the end of November and now are trying to play as many gigs as possible before finishing their course in June. They all intend to continue with the band after university, although it may be a bit difficult as they all live in different parts of the country.
As for their actual music all the lyrics are written by Sam, Paul and Sam work on the music together. Sam feels that their music is mostly influenced by an un-healthy amount of time spent listening to the likes of Radiohead, Pink Floyd and Strangelove, SubCircus and The Longpigs on his part. The rest of the bands influences are extremely diverse and range from Metallica (Darren) to Led Zeppelin (Stuart) to The Smiths(Matt) and Hendrix (Paul) At the moment they’re bombarding record labels with their new demo tape in the hope that someone will take notice of them.
You can check out their website at: http://www.shout-ads.com/bluesun
