December 2002: Songwriting begins. Songs like 'Pariah', 'Forlorn', 'Hope' and 'You Swear' are recorded (quite shittily) on a PC. Enda writes the music. Himself, Denis and Ian contribute lyrics.
March 2003: First gig at the launching of Ger Fitzgibbon's 'Voices 2' CD. Dylan Casey is not present. From here on he's no longer really part of the band. The first 12 song home-made album 'Heroes Of A Bitter Faith' is recorded.
April 2003: Denis takes over vocal duties. Ian subsequently takes up bass. Dean Herlihy edges himself away from the band.
May 2003: Stephen Rea fills in on drums 'temporarily'. He is soon the permanent drummer of Purgatory.
August 2003: The band have a gig at the Charleville Golf Club. Frank O' Connell fills in on bass as Ian Ryan is unable to play the gig. He joins the band soon after. Ian Ryan soon leaves as he has to focus on college. The line-up of Denis, Enda, Stephen and Frank is set in stone.
October 2003: Ger Fitzgibbon, Denis O' Gorman, Enda Buckley and Stephen Rea help to organise the first 'Underground Sounds' concert in The Schoolyard Theatre. This gig was a milestone for Purgatory as it earned them recognition in Charleville and the surrrounding areas. Their first little EP entitled 'Mantra' was on sale at the gig. This album featured 7 songs from the band's main catalogue of songs they had written.
November 2003: The band qualifies to the Heats of the Wella Shockwaves Band Competition in the Half Moon Theatre in Cork City. They fail to get through to the next round.
December 2003: 'Underground Sounds 2' is held in Parochial Hall. Another memorable gig for the band. The first full home produced album 'Red Mist' is recorded and distributed at the Underground Sounds gig. It contains 10 of the band's best songs written to date including 'Beast From Air', 'What Could Have Been', 'Farewell' and 'Sun Devil'. Ger Fitzgibbon invited the band to play a memorable charity gig in The Lodge in Ballyhea with famous Cork band 'Fred'.
2004-2005: The band continue to play a good number of gigs around Cork and Limerick. They establish themselves around these areas having played a number of Blast gigs in Cork City, a few gigs here and there in Mallow along with Drunken Leper, and another handful of gigs in Limerick, presumably in the UL scholars bar and 'Riddlers' pub. They enter the Blast Beat competition in April and get to the heats but, once again, fail to get through to the final in Dublin. The second official home produced album 'Between Heaven and Hell' is completed. This album contains the well known 'Call To Arms' intro along with other familiar favourites 'No Mercy', 'Determination' and 'One Last Carress'. The music writing has matured from 'Red Mist'. The band comes second in a Battle Of The Bands competition in UL which earns them recording time with 'Mark Marshall' in his studio in UL (which didn't really come to anything). In December they play with 'Fred' again at another charity gig in The Lodge which was a standout gig.
2005-present: Another handful of gigs played around Cork and Limerick, including a charity gig in Skibereen in April. They had a performance for County Sound on the radio in June. In July of 2005, the band was having personal issues with Denis. He is exited from the band after being a member for almost 2 and a half years. Ailín Kennedy is replaced as vocalist. The band get to audition for 'You're A Star' in late October but fail to get to the next round. The band have entered another BlastBeat competition.
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© Purgatory 2006
