Purplemelon

Purple Melon are an English rock band currently living in LA. They are known for their playing ability, spectacular live shows and onstage banter. They have recorded their debut album but have not yet released it.
Formation
Tom Hill and Eric Joyce formed the original band in 2005 after leaving college, both left just before sitting their final examinations. Auditions were held soon afterwards to find a drummer with Eric playing bass for the auditions, a role he later took on permanently after much persuasion from Hill
They settled on Windsor Mcgilvray, a Scottish born drummer who would later cause much friction within the band and lead to their first breakup. Next they started looking for a 2nd guitarist, which took the best part of six months, including an audition where Joyce forgot to put an age requirement on the advertisement and subsequently auditioned people aged 13 to 75 for two weeks. ‘It was f****ing rubbish’, Tom Hill recalled, ‘one minute we’d have Chris Rea and the next we’d have some 13 year old kid asking where he could plug in his pod’.
After looking long and hard Mcgilvray suggested Owen Barry, a guitarist he had played with a few times in various bands in the past. It was almost not meant to be however as Barry missed the audition as he was moving to New York and didn’t see the point in going. Eventually Mcgilvray persuaded him to come down and have a jam. After playing and hearing some of the songs he decided to stay in England and join the band.
This lineup of the group stayed together for 3 years until mounting friction within the band saw the departure of Mcgilvray. The band had no problem with a replacement this time, finding Jason Ganberg almost immediately. It is assumed that he had been approached before the departure of Mcgilvray.
Early Years

Sussex (2005 - 06)

The band started out jamming covers of their favourite songs in an old barn in rural Sussex, and soon started rehearsing their own material. It was here where they came up with the name Purple Melon. There is much speculation on how the name came to being, Hill and Barry saying they just drew words out of a hat. “It’s just a name, is it that important? So long as the music’s good, who gives a s***”, Owen Barry told KNAC.

Birmingham (2006 - 07)

At the suggestion of manager Craig Treharne, ‘to fine tune the live show’ the band moved away from London for four months to gig heavily in Birmingham. The first bit of fine tuning was keyboard player Dominic Ferris, who they fired days after arriving. Despite not getting on well with other bands in Birmingham, the band enjoyed moderate success playing the Barfly three nights a week and other venues during the rest of the week. Tom Hill recalls, “Looking back, Birmingham was definitely good for us, playing all those shows every week forced us to iron out all the creases, build up endurance, deal with hecklers, and most of all how to drink”.

London (2007 - 09)

After four months in Birmingham the band moved back to London and started gigging at various clubs around London. It was around this time Windsor Mc Gilvray was replaced by Jason Ganberg. The new line up regularly played The 100 Club, Troubadour, 93 Feet East, The Half Moon, SoHo Revue Bar. After a while however the group became disillusioned with the predominantly Indie music scene dominating London, feeling they wouldn’t be able to make it unless they ‘donned drainpipes and sang in mockney accents’. Manager Craig Treharne had wanted to take the band to America after leaving Birmingham and decided to push forward with the idea after the groups producer Paul Stacey recommended the same thing. On February the 28th 2009 the band flew to Los Angeles and started gigging again almost immediately.

2009 - Present

Purple Melon have been gigging all around Los Angeles with great success. Owen Barry says the reaction to their live shows ‘has been amazing’. They frequently play The Viper Room, Key Club, , Molly Malone's, Knitting Factory,The Mint, Spaceland and other venues in Santa Monica and Venice, CA.

Band Members

Tom Hill - Lead Vocals / Guitar / Keyboards
Owen Barry - Guitarist / Vocals
Eric Joyce - Bass / Vocals
Jason Ganberg - Drums

Purple Melon Links

http://www.youtube.com/user/purplemelonmusic
http://www.facebook.com/purplemelonmusic

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