THE RATCLIFFS BIOGRAPHY (part 1)

After several failed attempts to start a band in the vein of my all-time fave groups - THE RAMONES; THE QUEERS, ANGRY SAMOANS and some others - I was ready to give it up. Although I had a couple of nice tunes and some others, that were rather so-so, up my sleeve it was impossible to find someone to play them with me in, let's say, something a little above of a hobby band. I was almost desperate about the situation... My problem was, that I had very exact imaginations of how the band should sound, in fact, I was/still am quite narrow-minded about the whole thing. But, you know, it's better to stick to your guns than compromising all the time.Yep...

But as the lucky bastard that I am sometimes, I was offered some help by my good friends THE MUGWUMPS: Chris encouraged me to rehearse/record four of my songs with them in early August '05. Even though I had little to no expectations, the tunes we recorded turned out to be quite cheerful and, most of all, it was good fun to play with Chris (guitar) and Andy (drums). Their bass player Hank served as a "creative advisor". I also came up with the band name during a coffee break from this session. Well, it doesn't mean anything, but sounds good, plus: it seemed better to call the band THE RACLIFFS than, say, "Ike Turners", which was Chris' suggestion...

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