WINTER
The first stirrings of
what became Naevus can be traced back to the first musical attempts of
a trio consisting of Lloyd James, Joanne Owen and Dominic O’Connor
(later known as Dominic Silver) in London during 1995 and 1996.
Drastically slowed-down cover versions of songs such as Buzzcocks’
‘Boredom’ and The Stooges’ ‘Not Right’ were attempted alongside the
group’s rather formless own material, which included an embryonic
version of ‘Oracle, Oracle’.
In 1997, a slightly more disciplined approach was
attempted and, for practicality’s sake, the drum machine that would
last through to the second Naevus album, Soil, was introduced. By this
time, roles were defined, with Lloyd as lyricist and vocalist, Joanne
as bassist and Dominic as guitarist, while composition emerged from
various combinations of the members. In March 1997, Lloyd and Joanne
invested in a 4-track recording device and the trio put together a
cassette of three songs, choosing the title of the cassette, Winter, as
the name for their group. By this time, Dominic had moved away from
London to his native Cheshire (later moving on to Wookey Hole), so,
after a compilation appearance in May and releasing a further Winter
cassette in August, necessity dictated that the trio become a duo.
The temporary band name Riddlehouse was chosen (a
reference to a Birthday Party song) and in November the cassette
Wilkin’s Bones was released in November. Throughout 1998, rough demos
were made for an unnamed future project and finally, at the end of the
year, a digital 8-track recorder was purchased and Lloyd and Joanne set
about working on the songs that would later emerge on the album
Truffles of Love. With the release of the album in early 1999, the name
Naevus was settled upon, a reference to the birth mark that Lloyd had
had removed from his arm in childhood, which seemed to match some of
the medical themes that marked out the groups songs at the time.
Naevus continue to perform, record and release new
material. Dominic was involved in various musical activities in the
Wookey hole area in the early 2000s. He died in a car accident in 2003.
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