Band Line-up
Jim Johnston - Keyboards
John MacPhee - Drums
Joe Cairney - Vocals (1984-1989)
Mike Barnard - Guitar (1984-1987)
Steve Stewart - Bass (1984-1985)
Mark Spalding - Bass(1985-1987),Guitar (1987-)
Barry Henderson - Bass (1987-)
John Cowden - Vocals (1989-)
Comedy Of Errors were a Glasgow-based progressive rock band formed in
and Genesis, but also by more traditional rockers like Thin Lizzy and
Led Zeppelin. Most of their material was written primarily by keyboard
Their first recording was a demo called "Ever be the Prize", and was
recorded at a studio in Blanefield (Scotland) in 1985. They recorded a
number of songs with Rog Patterson (of "Twice Bitten" fame) as producer,
Bitten. The master tapes for this recording were lost and the tracks were
were then re-recorded and further refined with the assistance of Mike
Bentley and Niall Mathewson (Pallas). These were released as a mini album
in 1986.
The band made regular appearances all round the Glasgow area and
beyond, with the Cartha Bar, The Doune, The Heathery Bar and Shadows becoming
firm favourites. They also played some local festivals, such as
Calder Glen in 1984 and Kelvingrove in 1985, with the latter being broadcast
on Radio Clyde.
In 1987 Mike Barnard left the band, Mark Spalding switched over to play
guitar and new recruit Barry Henderson joined the band on Bass in time
for a successful gig at the Amsterdam Paradiso. This line-up recorded
the demo tape called "24 Hours" in November 1987 at Evenload Studios in
East Kilbride. This was later combined with the mini album to form the
band's only CD release under the french MSI label. Unfortunately, the
quality of this release is very poor, being a direct transfer from
vinyl, rather than master tapes. This is compounded by the fact that "The
Student Prince Part One" has been omitted and replaced by an inferior
version of a track from earlier on the disc.
A change of direction was heralded in in 1989 with the arrival of new
lead vocalist John Cowden, replacing Joe Cairney who went on to join the
Fire Brigade. The demo tape "Hold On" was recorded at Evenload Studios
(East Kilbride) in May '89. The band were playing more standard rock
songs, albeit with style and the occasional lapses back into prog
instrumentals, which were more suited to the new vocalist.They played
regularly around Scotland into the early 90's, and then quietly disappeared
from view.
In the last few years the band have had a couple of social (i.e. no
music being played) reunions which came out of the Comedy of Errors
mailing list attached to their website, leading to the creation of a 3-disc
CD set of archive material by Steve Moffitt (the '6th Error' -
responsible for much of the bands' early recordings and artwork). Joe Cairney
has recently been working on a project with Hew Montgomery of Abel Ganz
(The Grand Tour - www.grandtourmusic.com
vocals on the forthcoming Abel Ganz album, as well as appearing live with
them as support to Pallas. Jim Johnston has been working on some new
versions of old Comedy of Errors material as well as some brand new
songs, which will hopefully become available soon.
More information about the band members' current activities are
available at www.comedyoferrors.org.uk