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THE BAND
Echo Heights – Biography thus far….
It’s September 1995 and the final death throws of perennial
pop underdogs The Dentists have reached their logical conclusion.
The band go their separate ways, although as one last parting gift
to the world, three of the members loosely hang together and eventually
release an album of what is effectively Dentists works-in-progress,
under the name Coax. The singer disappears into the world of accountancy
somewhere in Russia, the drummer just disappears and Mark Matthews
retreats to his room to learn to play the guitar better and dabble
with the opportunities afforded through technology and home recording.
The songs start to trickle out, and various combos are launched
and implode with no or minimal success. Sightings of any of The
Dentists become rare until a crazy idea takes hold in the autumn
of 2004 and Matthews links up once again with guitarist Robert
Collins to form The Great Lines and travel to Austin, Texas for
the revered music festival that is South By South West in March
2005.
In the cyclone of activity surrounding their new project, Matthews
recruits Andy Martin to take on the bass playing responsibility
in Texas, despite Martin being a solid guitar player himself. The
Great Lines eventually prove to be as short lived as any other
post-Dentists projects, but Matthews and Martin now have a taste
for it, and those bedroom demos keep coming and evolving.
The formation of the ECHO HEIGHTS can probably be pin-pointed at
sometime around the start of 2006. Matthews and Martin begin a
recruitment drive amongst their immediate friends and Nancy Mather
and Nick Westcott jump at the chance to be involved. Mather comes
on board with the intention of taking over the main vocal duties,
but in keeping with the theme, takes over the keyboard primarily
instead. (Matthews later acknowledges that when you’ve sung
to the highest standards in the National Youth Choir, as Mather
has done, it’s sometimes challenging to come down to the
level of the dirty world of pop music). However, Mathers’ keyboard
becomes a revelation and the line up is complete when Westcott,
an old drinking pal of Martin, agrees to fill in temporarily on
the drums. He hears the songs and never leaves.
This line up completes a short six date US Tour in March 2007,
but Martin gets some news and leaves to take up a new role as expectant
father. Undaunted, the band return to the studio to complete their
debut album, Your Fortune As Told By The Stars, with Matthews
and Collins completing bass duties. With the album in the bag,
Steve Angel answers the call to take up the bass and the Echo Heights
are once again ready to do battle with the chords of rock.
There are no current plans for the band to appear on “My
Name Is Earl”.
To hear and download go to the !...
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