OUR VIOLET HOUR began in autumn 1984 when Aidan Searle and Ade Hughes met in the Cat and Wheel on Gloucester rd. (the night before the Brighton bomb) Ade had put up an advert in Revolver about the type of band he wanted to form. They had a few pints and agreed to start playing together and look for a guitarist and singer. they arrived firstly Willem (guitar) and Jim (vocals). Aidan and Ade had been jamming in the cellar at Grove Rd, an amazing place that could only be accessed through a series of tunnels and broken stairways. many bands had rehearsed there, The Crazy Trains, Systems Rhumba, and Glass Life (with Ross Alexander) among them..the wiring was dodgy and we were often candle-lit. very gothic! Willem was a superb, creative guitarist and provided a sound scape of guitar over Ade Hughes’s punk bass and Aidan Searles brilliant drumming. a few singers had auditioned but the band chose Jim for his darker angry sounding vocals as well as his guitar playing and his wit!. There was an intensive period of writing in the cellar which had an amazing sound..the first few songs were written and then in the March Ross Alexander produced out first demo featuring The Cradle Grave, Ghost Ship, In Armour and Broken Wing. Artwork for the band, featured on all the demos, was done by willem who had a real talent and eye for the job, and posters would be made for each gig. Dave Massey recieved the work and liked it, giving us a wonderful review in venue magazine. Dave got us a support slot with the impressive "Royal Assassins" at the Bristol Bridge in May 1985, a gig which has been recorded and recently re-mastered along with gigs at The Thekla and upstairs at the Dug Out. If my memory serves me, Willem and I got up about 5am to fly-post the best spots in Bristol. A morning which began with Willems concise phrase "you are fucking joking" something I must emphasise is that we had a great sense of fun, passion and a great chemistry. The cellar had a sound all of its own, present, cacophanous. It really suited our sound so we recorded most of our work there. these tracks were produced by the very dilligent, generous Ross Alexander. the only tracks not produced by Ross are Mother and Scared Godless. Working in the cellar with this band is a memory I cherish..we held out against it being filled in for building work and had one memorable last rehearsal which exists on tape somewhere. an extract of a re-working of The Ghost Ship from that night is on the collection sent to www.bristolarchiverecords.com. ade hughes.....bass willem postema...guitar/vocals jim widdett...vocals,guitar aidan searle ...drums <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Our+Violet+Hour">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.