User:Dougieladd/sandbox

About
Sugarwood are an original 5 piece rock band from Durham, in the North East of England. Starting out as an acoustic duo in 1993, Doug Brown and Steve Percival came up with the name and wrote it on a beer mat in The Big Jug pub on Claypath in Durham City. After playing many local venues, they eventually acquired the services of two notable musicians; Mick Byrne and Peter Phillips. Mick, a veteran musician on the local scene, and with a great pedigree having played with Gem Archer (Oasis) in the mid 1980's with a successful local band by the name of "The Edge". Interestingly, Peter Phillips, highly regarded as one of the best drummers in the country, was actually hired to work with U2 as a lookalike for Larry Mullen on the video for their single "Even Better Than The Real Thing" from the album Achtung Baby (1991), and of course also working with The Edge, albeit a different one. They also welcomed bass player Peter Fraser into the fold around this time, although after a short period Peter decided to call it a day and the band then welcomed their current bass player Phil Broome a notable musician and DJ, and friend of Peter Phillips. The band was complete.

With more than 150 live dates a year between 1997 and 2000, Sugarwood were considered one of the hardest working bands to have come out of the North East of England.

Supported by many people over the years, not least their friends and families, they were also supported by the people at Northern Recording Studios in Consett, County Durham: John & Mary Kearney, Paul Green, Jed Boyle and Peter Boyle. And none of it would've been possible without the Sugarwood crew: Davie Gilfillan (Photographer, Drum Tech.), Dave McLean (Road Manager), Michael J. Jackson (Lighting Engineer), Aaron Carr (Guitar Tech.), Del Nergaard (Press) and Ken & Pat Baxter (Mobile Recording).

Sugarwood also worked with some great Producers and Engineers over the years, not least Ron Branscombe (Unlimited Media/TV), Andy Carpenter (Uncle Sams Studio), Dave Maughan (Stonehills Studio), Peter Boyle (Northern Recording), Ian McCallum (Northern Recording & Stiff Little Fingers) and Kim Fowley.

Winning over a massive audience and wooing the music industry at the Radio 1 Sound City and In The City music conferences (2000), the band split in 2001 after a (never released) album project with legendary US Producer Kim Fowley and an exchange tour to South Africa.

Discography

 * 1994: Changes (5 track tape)
 * 1995: December (4 track tape)
 * 1996: LIVE:BBC (3 track live tape)
 * 1997: Catch a Breeze and Fly (CD 10 track album )
 * 1998: Love, Loss & Carparks (CD EP 5 track)
 * 2000: Smoke (CD10 track album)
 * 2001: Devils & Sunlight (CD 10 track album; unreleased)
 * 2014: Celebrate (Limited Edition CD 12 track album)

Today
The members of the band still stay in touch, and even play together occasionally, making appearances at music festivals in the North of England.

Reviews
(to come)

Contributions
If you have a story of the band that could contribute to this history please do edit this page. Thanks.

Band Members

 * Steve Percival - Lead Vocal and Acoustic Guitar
 * Doug Brown - Lead Guitar and Vocals
 * Peter Phillips - Drums / Percussion
 * Mick Byrne - Keyboard and Harmonica
 * Phil Broome - Bass Guitar

Honourable mention to Peter Fraser (early bass player)