User:Fridaypm

Friday PM
Friday PM were a Maltese rock band active from 1994 to 2001. The band consisted of Tonio Pace (vocals and rhythm guitar), Trevor Kissaun (guitars) who replaced two previous guitarists, Mark Mifsud (bass) and Rueben Hili (drums) who replaced three previous short-tenured drummers.

Music critic Michael Bugeja commented on the band’s demo album recorded in November 1998. He wrote, “Friday PM recorded a demo, entitled ‘So You Finally Got Around’, which was met with laudable criticism. Live, the performances were, and remain, largely static affairs -- understandably, since the band's songs aren't exactly salsa party floor stompers, yet Friday PM has managed to etch a name for itself as one of the island's leading (first-generation) alternative bands”. The album is well known for its rawness and morbid tunes. Their debut album “Second Hand, Rosie” released in May 2000, recorded at Kissaun’s studio offers a mixture of melancholic tunes which blend well. Eric Montfort, another music critic commented that the album offers “a mixture of morbid, poignant sounds, wry humour, beautiful rock guitar arrangements, electronic treatments, and a good sense of direction”. Some time after the release of the album, and where at the same time the group was discussing their future work, Tonio informed Mark that he no longer wanted to be part of the band. From then on Friday PM ceased to exist.

History
Pace and Mifsud were regulars in various discos around the 80’s scene where both on various occasions discussed their wish to form a rock band. They started by forming a band called Flower and Flame, (a name which was given later by Mark) which Pace left a few weeks later for personal reasons. After a few years Pace who was a big fan of The Smiths phoned Mifsud with the question of whether he wished to join in his band. Mifsud being the first person to be contacted accepted to join only if this was to be a fruitful experience. Several contacts later helped in forming a five member band all very eager to express their music playing. Pace on various occasions stated that he wanted Friday PM to consist of five members who at the time were Tonio Pace (vocals), Charles Cocker (guitar), Oliver Sammut (second guitar), Mark Mifsud (bass) and Godfrey Muscat (drums).

The band’s official policy at the time was that they would not do any covers. The origin of the band’s name represents the day where Independent gigs were famous for. Moreover, music critic Eric Montfort wrote that the "Friday phenomenon" even influenced Radiohead, who were originally known as ‘On a Friday’. A few months after those early rehearsals, Friday PM were asked to take part in Live Buzz ’95 with Jack Hannaford on drums who also replaced Muscat’s departure. With only four songs to play the band managed to perform well. After many years locked inside rehearsing and brushing up their styles, they became very active over the past few years, playing at different gigs before eventually featuring on the 1999 YMCA's compilation album which presented new local alternative rock music talents. In the meantime band members filled vacant posts on both guitars and drums with Kissaun on guitars and Hili becoming regulars. Pace at the time taught himself guitar and in a few weeks he became Friday PM’s rhythm guitarist against his personal wish, as at the time the band was busy rehearsing for a number of gigs around the island. Songs were augmenting in numbers, which enabled the band to record their demo album, “So, You Finally Got Around” which was recorded on an eight track during cold November nights in 1998 with Kissaun as the recording engineer responsible for this project.

“Second Hand, Rosie” was the album released in 2000 containing new songs performed solely for this album, as at first it was believed that the album would incorporate orchestrations on various songs. This belief was later turned down due to unforeseen limitations. The songs on the album as Michael Bugeja stated, “are drenched in human emotion, basically the less jovial and all too familiar ones, which emotions are impressively translated into song, and over which Tonio's brittle vocals glide delicately to complete a colourless but lucidly passionate outlook on life”. At the time the local scene offered a handful of decent alternative bands, namely Beangrowers, Jane Air, and Shostakovich’s Nightmare. ‘Betty’ was the track chosen by the band to promote their album thanks to air-time radio. Local radio stations, such as Bay Radio 89.7FM and Island Sound Radio 101.8FM featured the song repeatedly making it one of the songs requested for encore when the band performed live.

--Fridaypm (talk) 19:26, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

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