Angstrom

Angström was almost a way of life for quite a few people in and around Cambridge from the late 1980’s to the beginning of the 21st Century.

The band originally formed in 1987 as a jamming outfit, the nucleus being Mark Torpey on guitar, Mark 'Bargain' Harding on drums and Alex Tsentides on bass. When Mark Bargain & Al expressed an interest to play live Mark Torpey left and was replaced by Mark Page sometime around 1988/89. At about the same time, the band was augmented by an additional drummer, Chris Lambart and keyboard player, Kenneth Lee.

The first gig took place in the inauspicious setting of Fulbourn Hospital under the guise of Angström Jam and was an experience in itself! Anyone local to the Cambridge area would understand!

The line up settled down at the beginning of the 90's with Mark Page on guitar/vocals, Mark Harding on drums and Alex (Al the Greek) Tsentides on bass/vocals. Regular gigging ensued as a 3 piece which included contributing towards helping turn Cambridge’s legendary Boatrace Public House (now redeveloped as a wine bar) into a recognised venue, plus numerous ‘uninvited’ appearances at the City’s Strawberry Fair. (This eventually lead to an invitation for the band to run the ‘Official Blaggers Stage’ and in 1996, the East Stage).

At the end of 1990 long time friend of Mark Page, Chris Beament joined on Keyboards and vocals. However, preferring to dedicate his efforts to home recording, and the production of spoof taped radio show, Radio Bucket, Chris left in 1992.

In 1990 the band gate crashed a party in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, where Al & Mark Page embarked upon the premature, and wholly uninvited decimation of a sumptuous buffet. This drew attention from the fabulous Gwenda Wood, who just happened to be the party’s host! A year later, realising their limitations as singers, Al & Mark advertised for a vocalist. By sheer chance, this advert was answered by Gwenda, who, upon arrival at the audition obviously recognised the incredible ingesting duo. Appreciating a mutual contempt of etiquette where party buffets are concerned, Gwenda decided to join! Angstrom was complete and they took on a furious gigging schedule encompassing festivals and ‘circuit’ venues across the Country. The band and entourage comprising 14 people even made it into France in a single old ambulance for a gig at a derelict Chateau. However, they had to limp home after rain stopped play, but not until they’d consumed most of the beer & food on offer! In 1993, the band recruited saxophonist and general groovy guy, Dom ‘The Hat’ Latter from another band Al was working with, the Nameless Blues.

Various line up changes around 1994 saw Mark Harding replaced by Martyn Mackie (another ex-Nameless Blues member) plus keyboard duties taken up by Tina Davenport. The inimitable Mollo also joined the band in the capacity of sado-masochistic dancer and general visual curiosity. This line up subsisted until 1995 when the band decided to call it a day. At the band’s last gig Al was invited to audition for The Enid who were on the same bill, and he was promptly hired by them.

Two years later, the band decided to reform after much cajoling by the owner of Riverrun Records, John Mercer, who was keen to record them. A new line up was assembled around the core members Mark Page, Gwenda and Al. Dom remained resident saxophonist and host of many a messy party. Another long time friend of the band, and former member of the David Cross Band, Dave Kendall joined on keyboards, bringing with him a wealth of bubbly noises and kitchen utensils. Al managed to recruit the exceptional drumming services of Steve Hughes, another Enid veteran, and Essex drummer Fred Harris on percussion.

In 1997, on the morning Princess Diana died, the band assembled at Riverrun Studios in Potton to commence work on a new demo. The project eventually morphed into a live album after the recording of a sold out reunion gig in November 1997 back at the band’s spiritual home, The Boatrace. Real Virtuality was released on Riverrun Records in 1998.

Steve decided to relocate back to London and the amazingly talented, and then teenage Merlin Matthews joined. For the next two years the band gigged sporadically and a number of new songs were recorded, tentatively released to a limited audience on the Tatu EP. Angstrom played its last gig in March 2000 to another packed house at the Boatrace.

Angstrom have now re-formed especially for a few select gigs in 2011, featuring Mark on guitar, Alex on bass, Gwenda on vocals, Fred on drums and Dave on keyboards. They will also be joined by Tom Cory from The Pink Floyd Dimension on additional guitars and backing vocals.