14/6/2003 - I know it's been an extremely long time since I've updated this page, nearly two years, in fact. What I wrote last time was true, we did start playing shows again, and that was going well for a little while, until a really tragic show at the Indie Temple on the 3rd of November 2001, where basically, everything that could've gone wrong, did. It was fucked up, Dane's amp blew up, the bass amp we'd organised didn't show, Steve's kick pedal broke, we were forced to resort to playing 'Why?' while they tried to rig up a solution Eventually it got back online but we ended up playing like 6 songs in a half hour set.. not pretty. It was fucked up enough that, combined with having some of our gear stolen, that everything went on the backburner. Between Steve moving out of the old house at Stafford, me moving to Auchenflower, Hayden being in the middle of nowhere and Dane being at uni, we all got dragged in different directions. Then I got really sick over the holidays, Dane and Hayden got stuck into uni and Steve started working full time, and basically, it was all but curtains for 4FS. Nothing happened for ages, and sad to say, through lack of organisation, only a few things happened in 2002. We had a few practises here and there, but nothing really came together. Around christmas time, there was discussions of the possibility of getting the band back together and it seemed like a really good idea, but more time passed and it was three months later before anyone actually tried to get around to organising it.
So, that's where we are now. Everyone got drawn in their own directions with life and what not. Dane and Hayden play a regular covers live jukebox affair at the Tin Billy every Thursday night, I record here, and Steve dj's. I've just purchased a Tama Swingstar drum kit and another bass is coming later this month, so things are going to be going ahead as planned, and if you're interested, I will be releasing the initial demo recordings *IF* someone emails me and requests that they be put online. The new material is really good, and I believe in it. It draws influence from early loss4words, original Skint, No Use For A Name, Thrice, Strike Anywhere, Living End, Strung Out, Less Than Jake, and even a touch of hardcore. We're keeping a lot of the older material, and the songs that used to go off live, still do. Some of it's been re-worked, some of it's just the same as it always was.
The "classic" loss4words songs, Moving To Atlanta, Ten Days, Brick, Pleasant Valley Sunday, On Your Way, and Unwanted will all be there.. Moving To Atlanta and Ten Days will blow you away if you haven't seen us since the first round of shows in 99/00, so all the old Mackay crew.. can't wait to see you fuckers in front of the stage again. So many memories of shows with Mario Speedwagon, Happysnap, Blacklist, 3rd Gear Burnout... fuck, memories man, memories. I found out the drummer from Bewilderbomb used to be in Blacklist, and I've actually played shows with them before. Nuts. Where was I? Oh yeah. A mix of getting back to roots, and moving in new directions.. yes, somewhat paradoxical, and there are a LOT of songs on that front page, so some of you will be thinking.. "what the?"
Don't worry. It's all coming together. We had a lot of plans the first two rounds of shows, some of them came about, some of them didn't, some of them are still an option.. but basically, it's pretty much spread out on a platter where I want to go next. Whether that actually happens will depend on a bunch of things; money, time, opportunities, other people.. but I know that no matter what happens, this project will never die, and I haven't lost the vision of what it was going to become when Duncan and I first started loss4words in 1998 with a web page and no drummer. So here I am, five years later, having experienced the different scenes in different towns, having been all up and down the east coast, with a shitload of experience, having lived in six different houses, seen 542597324 different bands, finally finishing uni.. I remember the first show we ever played, at CQU, as the headline for a Battle of the Bands. We got paid $300 for a half hour set thanks to Carly "Star" Rolls, who was on the organising committee. $200 an hour each, it worked out to. Not freakin' bad. That was supposed to be the first show, it was the reason we got together and started practising. As it turned out, we came across a show the night before at Cloud 9, and played that too! Oh man.. I'll remember that night forever... If only I still had those tapes. Hayden found our show at the Wakeboarding Festival in 2000, I really want to get a hold of that, and maybe post some things from it. Anyways. The point of all this is, that the shit is coming together nicely, and it's about freakin' time. loss4words is a million different things. It was a band, it was a live music e-zine, it was a production business, and it seems to be the name that gets given to anything I'm in charge of creating.
4FS lives! - chris