Eliot Vey 1981 - 1983
Another terrific name, not my idea, I don't know what it meant
This band was one of the rare ones that didn't have Doug in it, at first.
Big Eddie Cumming, on the bass and Paul Piacentini on Keyboards decided to empty the
original guitar player, Stef. No doubt he thought it was all
my doing, cause we replaced him with Doug. It did however make a major change to the band's
sound and approach.
THIS was genuine prog rock, only a decade too late, and just after all the punk thing, timing could have been better. Music-Wise anything went. There was talk of a version of "The Sweeney" theme tune, but we talked Eddie out of that one. If you can imagine Yes without Jon Anderson, that was the direction. Eddie idolised Chris Squire and being able to play like him was no mean feat.
We gigged a lot at the Burns Howff, where there were some strange audience movements during the set.
We did a set of mostly original stuff, but put in some covers for good measure and to give the audience
a break. We did Pink Floyd's Shine on You Crazy Diamond, and these guys in the Howff loved it, nothing else,
just that one song. They got to know when we did it in the set and the place was mobbed for that 12 minutes.
So we'd change our set order to fool them, but they ended up posting watchers to call up the rest
of their mates, when we did the song.
Bob - Vocals, Doug - Guitars and Vocals, Brucel - Drums, Paul - Keyboards, Eddie - Bass.
This was long before the notion of Tribute Bands, and I guess if we'd been sharp we could have been the first Floyd tribute band, but we weren't and we didn't. Near the end we got wee Bob in on vocals, can't remember his real name, but he was a great singer, and did turn pro at some stage after his brief stay with Eliot Vey. Soon after we got Bob, Eddie wanted to maybe not gig on every alternate Saturday. This was outrageous, so we sacked him and wound up the band. Another terrible decision that seemed right at the time. The band was raw but good and learning all the time, and if we had stuck it out and hung onto to Bob who knows....
No Album for Eliot Vey. We recorded some stuff with pretty much a home set up.
We could only afford rehearsal time at the Park Lane Studio in Shawlands and these songs
were recorded live, all together, one take. Does it show!
The material has some of wee Bob's commercial pop hooks with Doug and Eddie's Yes influenced
discordant material.
A heady mix.
1. Nearly Midnight 2. Incubus 3. New One









