Then they disappeared... (Symposium in General)

Member Name: hugon

Product:	Symposium in General
Date:	25/05/01 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lively, energetic, fun music, Some brilliant songs

Disadvantages: They're gone now, I didn't get to see them live, Last studio album was a little disappointing

London based band Symposium are always going to be a special band to me. Although they never really broke through or had a lot of success, they meant a lot to me for a few reasons – the main reason is that every time I listen to them, it brings back some great memories, memories of 1997 and the summer I sat my GCSE’s, sitting outside in the sunshine listening to them in the sunshine while I was revising.

The other reason was that they inspired me – I loved their music, loved all the energy they put into it, loved their lyrics. They where all in their late teens or early twenties, and I wanted to be them, to be in a band, touring the country with my friends and having fun. The lyrics seemed to mean so much to me at the time – it was standard teenage fair, about falling in and out of love, making friends and falling out, going out and having fun. Not the most groundbreaking subjects in the world, but to a 16 year old me, it seemed like the entire world.

Symposium where composed of Ross Cummins, lead singer, bass player and main song writer Wojtek Godzisz, guitarists William McGonagle and Hagop Tchaparian, and drummer Joe Birch. Lifelong friends, they had met in school and spent years practising in their youth club, placing as much effort on jumping around the room as playing their instruments. That was the youthful exuberance of the band – if you ever seen them live, you didn’t doubt that their heart wasn’t in it. Ross leap around the stage and sang his lungs out, Wojtek bellowed backing vocals and the whole band had a good old jump around, and encouraged the audience to do the same. Their onstage energy and passion got them labelled the “Best Live Band in Britain” by the Melody Maker in the summer of 1997.

Musically they where like a more intense version of Ash, they had the same type of youthful sound, yet Symposium’s guitars where louder and they shouted louder. It won them a ha
rdcore group of fans, based on their relentless touring schedule that saw them play most of the country’s tiniest venues. Their on stage antics also was to the detriment of the venues as well – Ross often climbed the speakers, trying to take off the roof tiles to try and climb up, falling through the ceiling and being lucky to not injure himself. He wasn’t always as lucky – supporting No Doubt at the London Astoria, Ross leapt off the speaker stack, only to land and bust his knee. He manfully continued the song until the end – his band bates, used to him rolling around the stage and screaming, didn’t notice anything was up until the end of the song when he passed out.

Their fan base was mostly middle to late teens, people who enjoyed the crowdsurfing and energy as much as they enjoyed the music. Attendance of a Symposium gig was a guarantee of both a good work out and a whole lot of enjoyment.

Symposium burst on to the scene in 1996 with the “Drink the Sunshine” single on Infectious records, also home to Ash. It was a good seller, doing well at their gigs and was given an extra boost by being picked up by Steve Lamacq’s Evening Session on Radio 1. They kept on touring and gradually built their way up, picking up more and more fans and that was where I found them. The next single, “Farewell to Twilight” was a fixture on the Evening Session for about a month, and a frenetic live show on Radio 1 won them a lot of new fans. They also made it onto TFI Friday, impressing the watching millions with Ross singing most of the song from the crowd where he had jumped. The extra exposure managed to drag the single into the lower regions of the charts.

Summer was Festival time, and Symposium played most of them, drawing crowds whatever time they played and no matter what stage. By now, they had attracted the attention of the music weeklies and their exposure was increased with a series of
interviews in both the NME and Melody Maker.

Next single “Answer To Why I Hate You” also entered the charts, just missing out on the top 30. It was an angrier, more intense number, and their rise continued, with the video being featured on popular ITV Saturday morning show The Chart Show. The fan base was still growing, and next single “Fairweather Friend” was the biggest success of their career, almost breaking the top 20 and marking their only ever Top of the Pops appearance, another mad rendition with girls throwing their pants on stage and the crowd ending the song by moshing on stage with the band.

They released a mini album, One Day At A Time, which although only eight tracks, was a strong showing, full of the great tunes and energy we had come to expect from Symposium. However, next single was a bit of a disappointment for the band.

Infectious insisted on releasing “Average Man”, a song Symposium had played live a number of times, but weren’t completely happy with. They where dead set against it, but the record company went ahead, and it was released against their wishes. It wasn’t backed up with tracks to their usual standards, and they lost a lot of momentum, the single failing to make the top 40.

The boys put their heads down and came up with a lot of new material. The first piece of which to see the light of day was “Bury You”, a track that had been knocking around live for a few years, which they changed around a bit and polished up a bit. It was a super, really powerful song that deserved to do well, but didn’t do as well as it should have. They had lost a lot of support in the music press, and “Bury You” got very little airplay, as did follow up single, “Blue”. Both showed a new, more reflective and darker side of the band – the songs where less loud and seemed to have a lot more direction, but a lot of people just didn
’t take to them.

The album, On the Outside, came out before the summer of 1998 and received a lukewarm reception at best. It was a fairly patchy effort, and wasn’t at all what we had come to expect from the band – a lot of the songs had become almost poppy, and they had lost a lot of the aggression and edge we had come to love. It was the beginning of the end for the band – the old musical adage “Musical Differences” was coming into play – William and Hagop wanted to retain the poppy edgy to the sound, whilst the rest of the band wanted to take a whole new aggressive edge to their songs. They continued touring and at the Festivals especially, you could notice a lot of tension on stage – gone was the easy moshing, replaced by a feeling the band where about to snap, and at Reading they did, and trashed the stage after one of William’s guitars developed a technical fault.

A disappointing reaction from the press and low sales of the album saw Infectious drop Symposium, only for them to set up their own record label to release what was to be their final release, the single “Killing Position”. This was the harder direction the more influential members wanted to take, and first time you heard it, it was very strange – gone was the poppy essence, replaced by a wall of sound and angry lyrics.

With the music press now largely ignoring the band, and most of their fan base having moved on to pastures new, the band decided to call it a day and move on. I tried to find out what the rest of the band where up to, but the internet was surprisingly devoid of information. The official site is no more, and most of the fan sites turn up “page not found” errors now. The last I heard, Joe, Wojtek and Ross where forming their own band, Hagop was in an acoustic band and I don’t know about William. Feel free to correct me if this information is wrong, I’d like to know my
self!

It was very sad to see a band with so much potential just fizzle out the way they did. I always thought they would go places, and I never got to see them play live, as the venues they played in Northern Ireland always had age restrictions. But I’m lucky enough to have a few live shows on tape, and there was a posthumous live album comprised of live tracks and sessions released in 2000, which is well worth a look, it captures the essence of their live performances and energy, and it also has a few tracks that where never recorded before the band split up, as well as the legendary Top of the Pops performance.

As I grew up, it was nice to see them grow up alongside me, and it was great listening to their lyrics as I went through the same kind of thing they where going through. I wish they had released more, but such is life – you have to enjoy these things while they’re still around.

If you’ve never heard of them, and you enjoy some fun music, great riffs and loud guitars, then you’re going to love this band. If you’re looking for an introduction, the mini album One Day At A Time is in my opinion better than the longer On The Outside, being more consistent and more energetic and upbeat. Definably worth a look if you haven’t heard them before.

DISCOGRPAHY

SINGLES
Drink the Sunshine
Farewell To Twilight
Answer To Why I Hate You (2xCD)
Fairweather Friend (2 x CD)
Average Man (2 x CD)
Bury You (2 x CD)
Blue (2 x CD)
Killing Position

ALBUMS
One Day at a Time
On The Outside
Live on the BBC

Summary: