Name: Jon Skoulding
Role: Co-Manager
Experience:
"

"

Name: Dan Jackson
Role: Co-Manager
Experience:
"Why did I become manager of Out Of Touch? Well, Jon, my flatmate wanted to manage a band. We listened to Dan Coomber's band, but much to our Chegwin, they only wanted to do funk and try to be the Sussex answer to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I met Joe and the guys a few months ago, when we were running Woo Woos Internet Café. I think I was "forced" to "judge" a Battle of The Bands at Haywards Heath and I heard Out Of Touch play (they may have still been 'Abusement Park' in those days). They did a version of "99 Red Balloons" that I fell in love with. And the rest, as they say, is history. I spent the whole summer getting arse-face drunk with Lynne, Joe, Max, etc, and then I spent too much time loitering round the OOT message boards like a lonely internet geek. Hopefully one day, OOT will get famous, I'll earn lots of money off the back of their hard work, and all will be happy!"

Name: Jo Haslam
Role: Website Editor
Experience:
"I created the third version of the Out Of Touch official website, and have been involved with the band since July 2002, when Woody joined. Prior to this, I created and maintained the official website of Woody's previous band, One Brain Short (who have since split up). I enjoy being involved with the band, and feel it is important for them to have a website, as it allows them to interact with the fans, and help to publicise them. As well as updating the website regularly, I also take some photographs at gigs in order to provide a large visual library on the website."

Piers and Max had just left another band with Kris Terry and Chris Ridden... which is a long story in itself (and no one wants to hear it). Anyway, Piers and Max were thinking about getting this drummer who Piers used to play with ages back (Phil) but it never hit off. However, one day Max met Damian (from Shut Up Grandad), one of Piers' old mates from primary school, and he introduced them to Phil. Piers already knew Phil from back in the days of nappies and shit, and they got on well as friends and as a band.

Then they began looking for a singer as it was going nowhere: they only had one song - with no lyrics - and all they ever did was play Blink 182. A friend of theirs called Terrence (backing singer for Assignment 49) was considered, but he sucked ass. College had begun, so Max went on a search for a vocalist there. About a week or two into the college term he met Joe. He said:

'Hey dude... you're a vocalist right?'

'Damn straight I am,' Joe replied.

'Nice... do you wanna be in my band?' Max asked hopefully.

'Fuck yes!' Replied Joe... knowing that a simple answer like that would work wonders.

'Right then, well what time do you finish college...?' Max asked, once again, hopefully.

'Erm... two o'clock. Why?'

'We're practicing, man!'

'Oh, woah... cool.'

So arrangements were made and the practice happened later that day. Joe walked into the dark room at the side of 'Phil's' house. He felt quite uneasy considering he had never met any of these people before and had no idea who 'Phil' was. He kinda felt like he was being auditioned. 'But, hell... ' he thought, this is a good chance to get in a band. They nodded to each other as Phil clicked into the song. From beginning to end Joe couldn't help but stare amazed at their shiny instruments. His mouth hung wide open, unable to close because of how good they were. He wanted to explode... or just ROCK to the fucking great song (which was 'Under', with no lyrics). They stopped, and asked what he thought.

'Fuckin' hell... ' Joe said, slowly nodded his head, trying to get to terms with how good it was. He had no idea they'd be this good. He grabbed his lyrics book and opened it, flicking through the many songs with no music to them yet.

'Play it again! I'll see what works... '

So they did. And he found the perfect lyrics that fit with the song, and then he sung it with them. They were also quite impressed; he didn't know what they expected so he couldn't really tell if he was good by their standards. This was merely the beginning of Abusement Park (as they were then known).

Months went by and the band played a bunch of gigs, improving at a steady rate. They then attempted getting an extra guitarist, but that went wrong as a gig loomed over their heads, and they couldn't deal with all the hassle.

As they started to restructure the band, they also questioned the name of the band. 'Abusement Park' seeming somewhat childish and also a tiny bit un-punk. A few names were thought of and one seemed quite good - 'Not A Word', which was one of their latest songs at the time. But this wasn't the one so they came up with another that most people seemed to like: 'Note2Self'. It seemed like the perfect name, but Phil didn't like it so they decided to keep Abusement Park for a while longer.

Then, a month or so later, they decided to give Kal another shot. The first day that Kal (God of all guitar-ness) came to a practice, we got him playing some lead in 'Another Day'. It was completely reformed into a different class of song. This was good enough, but as they continued to practice with Kal, they realised that all of their songs could be so much better with a little lead guitar. They scrapped a few songs (all of which you can read the lyrics to on the lyrics page) and wrote some new ones.

Slowly they started to realise that while they were all improving, Piers (the bassist) was - in most ways - not. So... after some tiresome decision making, and then a long conversation on MSN between Joe (the lucky one, who was sent to break the news), the decision was made to get rid of him. As Piers was no longer the bassist, this second restructure to the band made them, once again, consider changing the name. They pondered for weeks on a new name and many (you can read them all here) were thought of. But in the end, they decided that their name could easily be the same as one of their songs. 'Out Of Touch' was, at the time, Joe and Phil's favourite song and everyone else agreed it was a damn good name. So the name was changed and a search began for a new bassist.

They tried one bassist called Fred, but he wasn't what they were looking for. They needed a bassist who was good enough to be creative and who could move at the same speed as they did. Joe's friend Bolschy was given a CD to learn, but then after putting his hand through a window, he kinda missed the opportunity. Then they found the perfect candidate - Loz Vivian - rumoured to be the most amazing bassist in the entire Eastside. They dragged him along to a practice one day and started teaching him some songs. He picked them up quickly and even added some extra fills, the show off. But he was good, so they couldn't blame him. He became part of the band but, the shitty thing was, he was also in another band. After playing in the band for a week or two he decided he liked it, and remained a member for a few weeks.

They played a total of one gig with Loz...

As summer began they got ready to start full on practice, but then Loz decided to go on holiday without informing the band of his vacation. They were then offered a big gig in Brighton with a Punk-Rap band but they had no bassist for the last 4 weeks and were slightly unprepared. They got in touch with their good friend Woody from One Brain Short and, in one day, quickly taught him a short set so he could fill in. In the end they were somewhat screwed over by the gig organisers, and the gig never happened. They were pissed at Loz and there had never been a time when they even slightly disliked Woody. Thoughts hovered around Max's head and then entered Joe's, Phil's and Kal's as they usually did. Woody rules!

So... to our luck and happiness, One Brain Short had, at that very week, decided to break up. A new EP was recorded, 'The Malta EP', only designed to be heard by close friends. All of them were unhappy with how it sounded... so it was never released properly.

And this is where we are kids, right here. Yay!