Biography
35mm Dreams a biography
I would have said formed in 1978 by 4 school friends from Craigmount High School, Edinburgh Scotland, however original bass player Ian handed me a family tree he had written in 1978 that shows that the core of the band were doing something together as early as Jan 76. Early experiments with Punk in bands Ded Rabit (75-76) and The Agitators (77-78) lead to the birth of the garage band sound of the early 35mm Dreams. Practicing and charging people to watch them perform in the garage until a set’s worth of material was ready. In 1979 around the time of their first gigs the band had declared Punk dead (the irony that Graham and Pete were playing a punk gig last night, July 7th 2007, has not escaped my notice http://www.myspace.com/shockandawemusic ) and tried to create their own indie sound.
After the first 2 gigs original guitarist Mark and bass player Ian left the band. 35mm Dreams became Graham (vocal and guitar), Pete (guitar), David (bass), Moray (vocal and drums) This line up remained unchanged until the band went their separate ways in 1992.
2 self made and financed singles and several demos were recorded by the band The high spots for the band were hearing John Peel play their single on Radio 1 for the first time. “it was like going from being a local band to everyone in the country able to hear our music” Graham 1990.
The first single was well received. The Record Mirror Feb 14th 1981 writing:
35mm Dreams: ‘More Than This’ (More Than This Records)
Edinburgh, the Picts seem to have a monopoly on Promising Young Things these days, and 35mm Dreams certainly fit that category. Short witty and scratchy boppier and less intense than (say) the Fire Engines, but possessed of considerable vigour and purpose. I suspect this will become one of my Faves of this week’s batch, but then Scottish boys are my weakness.
SUNIE
The Fire Engines http://www.myspace.com/fireengines and the Scars http://www.myspace.com/thescarsscotland hailed from the same side of Edinburgh as the dreams and there were obvious sonic connections between the bands. The Dreams were more associated with bands such as TV21 http://www.myspace.com/tv21official and Another Pretty Face and their influences are also obvious to hear andhelped togive the band that ‘boppier sound’.
In 2007 most of the band are still playing, but not on their original instruments. Moray is fronting My-T-Hi in Osaka http://www.myspace.com/mythimusic . Pete is drumming with Shock and Awe http://www.myspace.com/shockandawemusic as well as fronting S-Punk-7 http://www.myspace.com/spunk7 . Graham has been playing Sax in various projects including playing with Shock and Awe. His act, he claims, is a tribute to the Sax player from the New York Dolls. Original guitarist Mark can be heard playing guitar at his local church. Neither bass player is still playing.
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