Alan Bruce began his playing career back
in the 70’s as a teenager wanting to emulate his then hero Marc Bolan. He
learned how to play a 12 bar, taught by an older friend named Andy, whose
brother played bass in a band called Alan Avon & the Toyshop, who had
supported Black Sabbath in their early days. The first song he learned to
play was “Down the Dust pipe” by Status Quo - a twelve bar boogie. He claims
to have been in the first ever tribute band in 1974 who played a set of 30
songs and 26 of them were Quo songs…
Alan had always sung from an early age in school choirs, progressing to
drums and percussion in high school alongside his out of school bass playing
activities in various bands – he says ‘we changed the name of the band
almost weekly – before settling on “The Harley Street Blues Band II”’ and
this lead to a string of self penned numbers which still barely survive on
‘tape’ to this day.
Some great musicians and friends made in these formative years, even better
stage clothes big boots winged tops all great fun, always just past trend
being a Rock fan as in Rush, Yes, Genesis, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath etc
was not good in the UK in the mid to late 70’s.
Various bands and line-ups came and went as he found himself playing with
Heartbreaker in 1980-1983 a voracious touring band, which played the
Northern UK rock circuit with circuit contemporaries such as Twisted Sister.
Bruce says ‘We supported Demon several times and secured a deal with a very
minor label’. This lead to a split in the band, with three members taking
the deal under the guise United Nations and releasing the album, while Bruce
continued in bands, writing original material through the middle eighties
Hard Core being a firm favourite - he wrote some of his best songs in this
band at that time with some excellent musicians, very much a mix of Genesis
and Level 42 if you can imagine it.
Check out the Alan Bruce short Biog to the left or just right click HERE to
download the complete biog in Microsoft Word format - zipped.
Contd....
Around this time Bruce also got involved with local drama groups taking to
the boards singing and acting in a number of shows over the years, in award
winning productions, combining both playing in pit bands for a couple of
shows too. He also loves gadgets and gizmos of all kinds and photography is
one of his passions; He loves to try to capture the essence of the moment.
After a serious illness and while Bruce was recuperating Mckenzie was
working on his ‘Eniac’ album on which Bruce had the pleasure to play bass,
some rhythm guitar and sang as well as hints and ideas for the production.
The album spans twelve months effort on and off interruptions here and
there. Mckenzie does think outside the box - Check it out - It Rocks!!
Mckenzie inspired Bruce to produce his own album. The album was to be based
on existing in ‘altered states of consciousness’ - No he wasn't drunk when
he thought that up, he was just waking from a dream about being WATER!
Honestly the medication these days... Bruce had about eight tracks lined up
for that album in various states of readiness as in ‘little or not very
much’ ready, but no doubt will make the studio one of these days.
Tempus Fugit as they say... Bruce’s album had been put firmly, albeit in a
gentle way onto the back boiler... slowly simmering. McKenzie and The Berner
Street album concept started off with him asking Bruce to work on his new
album - bass, lyrics and vocals. From this it became an all encompassing
joint project.
