Knothole

Tim Rafferty's Blog

6 June 2012

School had just let out and with this being my last year, I was both excited and fearful. Excited that I would never have to go back there, and fearful that I would have to take a job at mum's bakery.  Not that I had anything against bakers or what she did for a living.  I just didn't want to spend the summer putting icing on biscuits.  Nor was being a baker in the top five of things I wanted to be when I grow up.  I wanted to be a musician ever since I picked up a guitar and hoped to be one someday.  As cliche as it sounds, the folks didn't feel it would be a good career choice and felt that me playing guitar was nothing more than "Timmy's hobby."

One day, I got a call from a friend from home; Sarah-Jo.  She left Edinburgh last year to work as the bassist of a rock band that ultimately couldn't get past the first year of formation.  She called me and  said that one of the guitarists from a new band she was forming dropped out and invited me to audition.  The catch?  It was an hour away in Dundee.  I never considered myself to be a spontaneous fox, but I just had to jump at the chance immediately. So I grabbed me guitar and booked the next train to Dundee.  In essence, that was also the day I moved out since my parents didn't want me to audition at all. No turning back now, I guess.

I managed to get to Dundee and met up with SJ.  She introduced me to the rest of the band.  There were three native Dundonians: Adam, the other guitarist.  Brianna, the keyboardist.  And Rob, the drummer.  The lead singer, Stef, was a transplant from Birmingham.  SJ and I were the only Edinburghers.

I was ready to audition but Stef told me that I didn't need to.  I already got the job.  Apparently, SJ gave me a pretty good reference for two reasons.  The first reason being that they had a gig tomorrow and were in a hurry.  The other being that I was good at 80s and 90s songs. And in truth, she was right.

So the next day, we arrive at the pub, ready to go for the gig.  And it  couldn't have gotten to a worse start.  The stage was horribly set up and too small for the six of us, plus it had the most godawful red curtains in the background.  But you make do with what you have.  So we got a large boxes and set up Rob's drum kit on top to give him some room.   We used the elevated step to let Brianna program her keyboards.  We set up the amps and speakers the pub provided (which were surprisingly modern given the situation we were in) and proceeded to perform.

We played about seven songs in the set.  We did songs from Jesus Jones, EMF, The Cure, Oasis. We settled on doing mostly songs from the 90s since a lot of the bands in the area were doing 80s songs.  And everyone in the pub seemed to like it.  Stef knew how to work the crowd.  Rob and SJ kept the rhythm and the beat.  Bri and her keyboards gave the songs a great touch and accompanied Stef on vocals amazingly.  And Adam and I kept up on guitars. 

After the set, we all got paid about £20 each and while the others were having their complimentary pints, the publican said that he enjoyed us so much he wanted us to play the next three Fridays for double the pay.  All he needed was our band name so he could make the fliers.

Good question.  What was our name going to be?

Well we all wanted to go the pop culture route for the name.  Brianna was a My Little Pony fan and suggested Equestria.  Adam was big on anime and was thinking Galactic Leyline. Rob's favorite movie was The Lego Movie and had suggested Cloud Cuckoo Land.  Stef wanted to go with The Trap Door.  SJ was liking Farthing wood.  I had no idea to suggest until I saw what the pub was named: the Knothole.  And that point I asked, "What about Knothole?  Isn't that from something?" There were no more suggestions after that.

This is an idea of a band that I have had in mind for quite some time.  They'll likely show up in an Oak Lawn Express story as a favorite band of my fursona.

Knothole is:
Stefan "Stef" Adeola - lead vocals
Tim Rafferty - guitars
Adam Stewart - guitar, vocals
Sarah-Jo "SJ" Manson - bass, vocals
Brianna Easton - keyboards, vocals
Rob Young - drums

Here is some info on the band itself:

-Knothole hails from Dundee, Scotland

-Stef is the lone Englishman in the group, is of Nigerian descent, and hails from Birmingham.  The other five members are Scots.

-SJ and Tim are from Edinburgh, Brianna and Adam are from Dundee (but Brianna was born in Dunfermline), and while Rob grew up in Dundee as well, he was born in St. Andrews.

-Tim is the youngest member of Knothole, joining the band four years ago at the age of 17.  From youngest to oldest it's Tim, SJ, Brianna, Adam, Stef, and Rob.

-Adam has a degree in computer science.

-Before forming Knothole, Tim worked in a bakery, Adam was in IT, Brianna was a bank teller, Rob worked construction, SJ was a barista, and Stef was a line cook.

-Tim and SJ support Hibernian FC in the Scottish Professional Football League, a local football club.  Edinburgh has two clubs but Hiberninan plays in Leith which is closer to where they used to live.

-Adam, Rob and Brianna support Dundee United FC.

-Stef supports Aston Villa FC

-SJ shares the composition writing with Adam and Brianna while all six members contribute to lyric writing.

-Brianna does have a prosthetic right leg.  She lost it at the age of 10 from a car accident.

-Knothole's musical style is more of a 90s pop rock sounding outfit.  Although they have been known to use new wave elements in their music.

-When they started out, Knothole mainly did covers from 80s and 90s act.  But they did the occasional cover from a modern song (with their own personal spin of course.)

That's all I could think of for them at the moment.  If I have more I will post it.

Art and chars are mine