The story of the Distractions

After I finished my PhD at the University of Stirling in 2004, I was meant to become a popular music/media studies lecturer. But instead, I spent the next year playing rhythm guitar in a covers band named the Distractions. It all went wrong when a bunch of postgrads from the Film and Media Studies Department at Stirling Uni decided to go out for a meal at the very cool Ecco Vino in Edinburgh. At first, we were reluctant even to have a meal as most of us were too skint to afford it. But at the end we were all so hopelessly drunk that we decided to form a band and perform at the annual F&M party held by the department at the end of the Spring semester. There were three guitarists among us and it was easily agreed that Adam Behr would be the lead guitarist (because he could do solos), that I would play rhythm (because I couldn't) and that Mark Percival would take bass duties as he had been playing bass for a while with his band in Glasgow. Matt Brennan was the drummer but no one seemed keen on stepping forward and take the mike. Eventually, Mike MacDonald, media technician in our department, seized the place first but we ended up with three singers when Maggie Magor and Christine Lohmeier decided that they wanted to sing too. This caused some havoc because when we performed on stage the backline was hidden behind the singers and at the end of the gig I was given a compliment for my visceral soloing and Matt was asked what he thought about the guest band. Only Mark was easily recognised because he jumped a lot on stage.
The Distractions were meant to be a one night act but the student crowd at the F&M party was so drunk that they cheered us and so we went and dominate the thriving Stirling campus scene for the next year. We played uptempo 60s rock classics, 80s new-wave pop hits and contemporary rock favourites. Basically, anything between the Ramones and "Bohemian Rhapsody" on a difficulty scale. We even gave "Mamma Mia" a decent twist in our hunger to be as successful artistically as commercially.
As a testimony to that year which changed the lives of the student community at Stirling, I have managed, with the invaluable help of a certain Weirdal, to produce a slideshow of the Distractions in their glory. You can watch it here.