Scotish Sun article

This is a copy of the Scottish Sun article from the 14th Oct. Good publicity as it was a double page spread.

AFGM from their website

The idea for what has now become A FEW GOOD MEN emerged during a conversation Derek and Ian had at a Dead Men Walking gig at King Tuts in Glasgow, late 2004. Derek had joined Spear of Destiny earlier that year and was there to see Kirk Brandon from Spear; part of the Dead Men line-up that night. Ian was there for a happy skip down memory lane. A mutual friend of the pair, James Newall, instigated the meeting after the gig ended. To put together a Scottish version of Dead Men Walking, was the outcome.The next step they took was an unusual one, to say the least. Without anything near a full line-up, a debut show was arranged. Not a quiet, low key appearance, like most bands would have insisted on. They decided to accept headline spot at The Special Olympics Closing Ceremony, Glasgow Green, on July 7 this year. The expected audience, 15,000.The race was on to make contact with the musicians they wanted for the band and hope they were available for rehearsals and the show.Jim Prime, keyboards player with Deacon Blue was first to get on board. Then, Bruce Watson, guitarist, from Big Country. And with Mel Gaynor from Simple Minds agreeing shortly afterwards, the line-up was complete. Well, not quite; Ian brought in Jane Button, who had supplied backing vocals for a couple of H20 gigs in 2003, to add height and weight to the harmonies.But with the final part of the unit in place, things immediately began to go wrong. A string of dates for Bruce's full time project, The Casbah Club were arranged, and he was forced to pull out. Fortunately, Steve Harris from Gary Numan's band took his place. Organizing a time when everyone would be free to rehearse turned out to be a nightmare, too. After frantic rescheduling on every-body's part, a single rehearsal was agreed. The night before the gig. Mel was working in Germany, and was due to arrive in Scotland that evening; the rest of the band had arrived earlier in the afternoon. He didn't make it. All flights out of Germany were disrupted due to the Bombings in London that day.
At 8.00pm, Jane called her husband Malc, who is a drummer in a local band; Big Vern, to ask him if he would leave work and come straight to the rehearsal room in Glasgow. Malc listened to the songs en route in his car. The band ran through the songs twice after he arrived, and they were ready.
Glasgow Green, July 8.
It was a beautiful warm evening; the audience was in excess of 15,000.At 9.30 AFGM opened up with 'Waterfront'. The crowd reaction was amazing, bouncing as one in time with the opening bass riff. From there, the band went straight into 'Real Gone Kid' then 'Dignity' and finally 'Don't You Forget about Me'. A perfect debut.
The Mull of Kintyre Festival, August 21. Headliners of Survivors Night.
Bruce was still on tour with the Casbah Club. And Steve was in Switzerland with his band Archive. Kirk Brandon, singer with Spear of Destiny and Dead Men Walking volunteered to play guitar for the show, with a little bit of friendly persuasion from Derek. The set was a longer one this time. 'In A Big Country', 'Chance', 'Someone Somewhere in Summertime', 'Dream To Sleep' and Kirk performing his own, 'They'll Never Take Me Alive' were all included. 800 tickets for the show sold out in an incredible 54 seconds! Like the Glasgow Green show, the reaction from the audience was amazing! With 3 encores, it was mission accomplished again.

New guitar

The guitar I shall be using in the near future is made by Dave Sharpe who runs a company called KROZKA SHARPE in North East England. I am very exited about this collaboration with him. The guitar in the picture has a glue in neck and one humbucker at the bridge. Sperzal machine heads and string s through body setup. The guitar he is building me will have a P 90 and a bigsby trem. The colour will be white.

Ivory Blacks

A FEW GOOD MEN are the original artists from the Scottish bands who recorded and performed some of the biggest hits of the 80's and 90's.
Lineup includes:
Derek Forbes Simple Minds
Mick MacNeil Simple Minds
Ian Donaldson H20
Bruce Watson Big Country
First gig is Ivory Blacks in Glasgow 10th Nov 05