MUSIC ALWAYS SOUNDS BETTER LIVE!!           LETS KEEP IT THAT WAY

 FIRST MEMORIES

The Kings Arms Kettering  was where I first heard  The Margin. The pub has since been demolished, which was a shame because It was a very lively and popular Live music pub in Kettering. The Margin in the  mid 1980's and nearly all of the 90's were well known in Northamptonshire, as a Rock Band who were well known for their Beatles songs.

 What I liked about them, was the quality of their Own  songs, Paul Stefanowicz  on  Lead guitar/ Vocals would write most of the material.   They were a  tight band, and their harmonies were very strong.                 Here is the story of The Margin as told by Paul Stefanowicz.

PRESENT

Overcaste began life at around 1.30am on 1/1/99.  The members are Myself Paul Stefanowicz and my brother, Pete Stefanowicz.  I must start this account much earlier in time; I must take you back to September 1983.

SCHOOL DAYS                             

The Margin started practicing then and played their first gig two months later.  Two of the lads, Paul Corbett (right) and John Lafferty(middle) had started the band at school.  However it wasn't until they found a drummer, Colin (very soon replaced) and myself on rhythm guitar that they were able to have the means to find gigs.  Now we had a band.

MANAGEMENT

Paul Corbett,  was the one who told Colin it was ok for me to be auditioned, and they also took my Dad up on his offer to manage us and find us work.  My Dad did this for nothing.  He was busy then, he was in his late forties, and he had a good job and still had dependent children, yet he was still able to find time to make the necessary efforts involved in finding bookings.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

We practiced hard.  Later we became flippant.  We got so good at learning covers quickly we'd slope off to the Off License and drink beer after just a quick run through.  We would only spend time if it was an original song.  We all had a go at writing and we'd all had at least one of our songs played in front of a crowd by the spring of  '84.

TOO LOUD ! 

We were good, for a young band.  We often played too loud but this was often down to inexperience.   Our harmonies are what everyone talked about.  We were doing three part harmonies in all songs that we thought needed it; it came so natural to us.  We did a lot of Beatles covers a bit of The Jam some Squeeze, some rock and roll, our own material  and very little modern.  We felt it was a time when everyone had gone mad with synths.  We were a guitar band.  Paul played lead guitar, John played bass, we now had Barry Bryden on drums and I played rhythm guitar.

BIG TIME

We were so typical of the so young musician, we thought we'd  '' make it ''.  I was only 16 John 15 and Paul was 14.  Barry was older than us, and he was married and soon to become a father. Later there were arguments.  I wanted to play more lead guitar and Paul eventually agreed to share it.  I was improving and I felt I wanted to express myself.  Looking back I was crap but I was only really going to learn if I could start  to express myself.  In December of 1984 Paul and John left only to rejoin in June '85.  During this time Barry and me gigged under the same name using stand in musicians.   Eventually Paul left in March 86 after a row with me again.  We had become friends and I would miss playing with him for a time.

GROWING UP

To my surprise John stayed.  Because he was Paul's best friend, I expected him to leave  when I told him this he was disappointed to hear it.  I'd forgotten that we'd started growing up and John wanted to stay for himself. At this time we were contracted to play in clubs but some of the clubs we played we needed  four  Band members.  My brother, now 14 wanted to play.  John (everyone called him '' Laf ‘‘) quickly put him through a crash course in chords on keyboard and soon Pete was playing for The Margin. Soon Barry left.

New Drummer        

 In April of '86 and after a stutter a girl drummer, Lisa Knight, replaced him. Lisa and I had a relationship, which developed to engagement.  We had a good summer of gigs but in the autumn my Dad (managing) had a row with John and they agreed to Part Company.  I was pissed off with John for that.  I felt he was out of order and he didn't need to be.  Vocally, before, Paul Corbett had formed a vocal partnership for lead vocals with me, when he left John took over as my partner.  Now John was not in the band I thought the harmonies were not so good. 

Enter Pete                            Pete, Paul, Sid, Lisa.

My Brother was very young, yet he was already able to slot straight in and we formed , in November 86 what was to be the vocal sound of The Margin and now Overcaste.

Settled

By now we had an old friend, Sid on bass.  He was 25 and I was 19 but we had jammed and he used to see the band before  he was also a friend of my Dad's.  We settled with this line up and Pete's playing also began to improve.  We played through '87 unchanged in our personnel until Lisa left in December '87.   Then in January 1988 Jerry Sullivan took over on Drums Our  personal relationship continued for another year after that.  

BASS PLAYERS                         'Snake' and Paul

All through the first 4 years of the Band's existence we'd been used to changes, we even had Stuart 'Snake' Neale fill in for us a few times, he is another Local Musician who has been in Bands such as Tobruk, and The Wildhearts to name just two. But from 1988 until January 1998 the only changes to our line up would be on bass.  Myself, Pete and Jerry found  a friendship and belonging and stuck together.  Our sound began to mature.  That is not to say the Bassists at this time and beyond did not fit in because they all did and we were sorry to see each one go, but the fact remains that whilst the three of us stayed together so did The Margin.

                                                        The Margin. (Jerry, Paul, Pete, Steve)

Part 2 To follow ......   with more story and photos as soon as Paul gets some spare time. 

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                                                Copyright ©   Paul Stefanowicz 2000  

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