Biography
When Gary and I first picked up guitars in the summer of 1998 it seemed they had perhaps started a little late. Inspired by bands like Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, The Beatles and The Manic Street Preachers we progressed quite quickly and thus decided to form a band .
With Gary on rhythym guitar and vocals and me (John) on Lead Guitar & backing vocals it was my brother Dave who tried his hand at the bass after our friend Andy Broderick moved back to the uk.
In the beginning of 2001, still without a drummer, we decided some help on the singing side of things would help and so we asked a friend Simon Telford to join the band too. He accepted but the line up was short lived as it became apparent that John, Gary and Dave had completely different plans for the band musically than Simon, this coupled with the fact that although Simon had a great voice it was not un-common for Gary and even me to assume lead vocals more often than him.
Shortly after Simon's departure Dave introduced the rest of the band to Lee Bullen . He shared similar musical heroes to me so it was agreed that he would join the band
Lee was brought for lead vocals but it became aparant that he couldn't keep up with the rehearsal schedule thus inspiring Gary to better himself and make the role his own.
We searched high and low for a drummer and it looked like we would never get out of the bedroom then they finally found Miguel Angel Gonzalez Hernandez who had played in bands since he was a nipper in England and Tenerife and started out with Leon and Aaron McKormack who went to the same school as me , Gary and Dave in Tenerife who now have a fairly successful career in the music business as Kormack (formerly Brother 2 Brother).
However before Miguel had kitted himself out with a new drum kit, Dave quit the band after bust ups with Me & Gary on seperate occasions. Luckily we' d already met a Swedish guy called Hannes who was more than willing to play bass for the band. And so the 4 of us started practicing at Legends Bar in Costamar . In December 2001 Hannes told us he was returning to Sweden . During that month we had to change our place of practice and found a bar in Playa Paraiso near where Miguel was working and got to work on our set - this was our Hamburg....
Dave was asked to return to the band on a temporary basis around new year 2001/2 which soon turned into a permanent position again .
Things seemed to be going well until later in the month of January after less than 3 weeks back together , Dave and I had another bust up and a few days later we agreed it best if they didn't play in the same band again.....we'll call it 'musical differences' .
Meanwhile John had been seeing a lot of Simon Telford who was compering at a cabaret bar in Las Americas called Yesteryears. Simon arranged a gig for the lads for a Friday night.
Still a member short despite ads going up in most places around the south, Loaded went into their first gig expecting the worst. Crammed onto a small stage they played their first gig to about 30 people on a quiet changeover night. The gig was a success despite the fact that we had no bass player and were been told that the un-amplified drums were too loud. The three of us played 12 songs that night including: Live Forever - Oasis, Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd, Riverboat Song - Ocean Colour Scene, Sonnet - Verve & Let It Be - The Beatles.
A couple of weeks later we took on another new bass player, a Russian called Vladirmir . It was here that things began to take shape, with his soaring bass lines it added a new dimension to the band. Another gig was arranged for Yesteryears with hope that the boss would be watching this time and drag us down to Shakers in Veronicas where The Lizard Kings had previously played. The gig went really well despite being cut short because the drums were still 'too loud' for the manager to cope with. The owner didn't appear but I bumped into an guy I knew who it turned out worked for Steve (the owner) and could get us into Shakers no problem.
We began playing in Shakers through February and March of 2002. Despite a DJ with an ego the size of Jupiter to contend with, a bar that frequently got flooded, with what I am sure was piss, from the place above, and more technical problems than The Stone Roses, we started to pick up a swagger as we got on stage and the songs were pumping out of the amps as if we'd been playing together for years rather than months.
The set the we were usually playing was along the lines of:
Yellow - Coldplay , Live Forever - Oasis , Let It Be - The Beatles, Riverboat Song - Ocean Colour Scene , Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd , Losing My Religion - REM , Hey Hey My My - Neil Young , Hard To Handle - Black Crowes , Hey Joe - Jimi Hendrix , Knockin On Heavens Door - Guns N Roses, You Do Something To Me - Paul Weller , My Generation - The Who , Day Tripper - The Beatles , Californication - Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
Just as the band was becoming a well oiled machine, the Police closed Shakers for not having correct paperwork - to date it is still closed..
Over the summer of 2002, due to lack of practice premises we managed just one gig, which was at Kilarney Corner in June. In the following months both Miguel (drums) and Vladimir (bass) quit the band. This left me and Gary on our own again and wondering if it was all worth the hassle, however we got up again and got in contact with a drummer called Emilio and our old pal Lee who I had been having 'acoustic jams' with over the summer. The four of us teamed up in late October. With no natural bass player we decided to split the duties between me, Gary and Lee.
At this point we were playing the likes of:
My Generation - The Who, Day Tripper - The Beatles, Live Forever - Oasis, All Or Nothing - Small Faces, All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix, Yellow - Coldplay, Hey Hey My My - Neil Young, You Do Something To Me - Paul Weller, Hotel California - The Eagles, Tin Soldier - Small Faces, Trouble - Coldplay, Hey Joe - Jimi Hendrix, Hard To Handle - Black Crowes, Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd , Californication - Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Weather With You - Crowded House, Sympathy For The Devil - Rolling Stones, Let It Be - The Beatles and Lucky Man - Verve.
During 2003, Gary, myself , Lee and Emilio jammed twice a week and played one gig in June at the Market Tavern. Afterwards other things took priority over the band practice and the wheels began to fall off again towards the end of the year.
In 2004, Emilio announced he wanted to have a 2 to 3 month break from the band. During which time, Gary and I recorded some of our own songs in Cactus Studios in Las Americas.
We took on a new drummer in May 2004 called Diego but to say he was shit is a complement to him, we recently saw him and it turns out he's a shirt lifter, I wondered why he always followed me to the toilet!!!.
Around September 2004 we got back in touch with Miguel and did a few gigs with him and things sounded good, we went through our most prolific run of gigs since the Shakers days having played gig's at O'Callaghans, Rooney's, Grandee O'Donnels and then back to O'Callaghan's in Los Cristianos all between End of November 2004 and early March 2005. A typical set was around 2 hours long, examples of what we played can be found on the set list page.
During March, April and May we had a break during which it became apparant that Miguel would not be able to keep up with the bands schedule due to him opening his own business in Adeje. A Friend of mine called Wes stepped in on drums making him our 4th drummer, we soon decided it would be better with him on Guitar and vocals and drafted in a quality drummer called Ket, however the line up of Gary, Lee, Wes, Ket and myself was short lived and yeilded no gigs and in May 2005 Loaded was finished.
Gary, Wes and myself continued playing with another drummer called Jon G playing Beatles songs and over the summer we did about 10 or 12 gigs in Las Americas and Los Cristianos under the name "The Blag Four". The run ended in September in O'Flanaghans bar Patch.
We continue to play together but gigs have been limited due to Jon G working as a compare and therefore not being available more than one or two nights per week.
For a complete list of line ups check out the Band Line up page.