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Member profiles:
 
Guitar & Vox
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Guitar & Vox
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Drums
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Bass
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Band History:
DISCLAIMER: We do not guarantee the accuracy of any of this.
Gillray was started one day when Sean was taking a long walk on the beach as he does from time to time,
and happened upon a guy by the name of Paul who was burning ants with his glasses. Being an avid animal
rights activist, Sean protested strongly against the harsh treatment of the ants, so Paul stopped.
Paul wanted to form a punk band and so Sean joined. Together they suckered Dave into playing
drums. Dave had just finished his 12-step program for his "addiction" hence the nick name FILTH! Dave had
never played an instrument in his life and was awful compared to the classically trained Sean who produced
wonderful, melodic sounds on the guitar never before heard, and Paul with his amazing, natural gift: his strong
yet gentle and soothing voice. None of us knew what punk was, or what it was suppossed to sound like, so we consulted a guy by the
name of (S)melley who told us that bands like Greenday, Blink 182, Offspring and NOFX were in fact NOT PUNK!
What a Wanker! So we ignored him and played Nu School punk anyways!
Dave insisted on having a bassist as he was tired of
fantisizing about Sean and Paul, so Paul got his friend Ryan to join. That shut up "FILTH" for awhile, but the
makeup and feather boas which Ryan used to wear soon bored him, and shortly afterwards they were looking for
an additional member (to satisfy filth's addiction). Paul had organized our first gig by then, which was to be played
at Wentworth, one of the colleges at their University. They had to decide on a new name and quickly as Paul had
chosen the name, "Teenage Politics". Dave absolutely loved the name, but they had to change it as they realized
that Paul had taken the name from an MxPx album. Anyway once again Paul came up with another gem and the band were to
be called "GILLRAY". When asked where the name came from, Paul muttered something about fish, gills, rays, lobsters and
filth's mom, so they decided that they didn't want to know any more.
Filth's prayers were finally answered when Geezer joined the band a day before they were due to play their first gig.
They needed to practise bigtime so Paul didn't fail to surprise them again by booking them into an old abatoir (seriously).
Geezer was the dodgiest bloke any of them had ever met. He was from London where he had been involved in a
number of underground circles. He had just finished serving a 2 year prison sentence for beating up dairy cattle
on a local farm. The day after
the first rehersal as a proper band, they played their first gig. Put bluntly they were crap...just the way
they wanted to be. Paul talked about the gig for weeks afterwards and put it tactfully that the rapport between him and
Ryan was the best part of the show.
After seeing that his attempts to transform GILLRAY into the manic street preachers were futile, Ryan left the band to
concentrate on his band, the Following (which has since broken up). Geezer organized a new bassist through his dodgy connections and so Rich
joined the band (once again right before another major gig). Rich has become reknowned for going crazy at concerts
jumping all over the place, and stage diving. One time he smashed up all the equipment. Now with a more stable lineup
the band played a few more gigs (they were still crap), until the infamous
Walkers Bar Gig where the band decided Paul had to leave (and where Geezer grabbed paul
by the throat and threatened to kill him on stage before walking off half way through their last song). They sacked Paul
right before
the University of York, Battle of the Bands. Geezer switched to vocals and was terrible unlike Sean who also began singing.
Gillray made it to the semi finals which led many people to believe it was a fix, seeing as though they didn't practise once and also seeing
as though Geezer made up the words to all their songs on the spot. His lyrics, "I dunno who I am" have become legedary since.
Since the Battle of the Bands Gillray decided to take it slower, dedicating more time to practise and battling Filth's
addiction. The band didn't get to play or practise for ages after the Battle of the Bands, but thought just a handful of
gigs (more than the amount of practise they'd had) was enough to record an 8 track LP. They did it and it sounds crap.
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