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What is the Vault, you may well ask? Well, gather round kids, I wanna tell you a story...Many years ago, in the musical wilderness that is West Yorkshire, there existed a fanzine called "Brain Stew". It was dreamt up by a bunch of sixth-formers looking forward to the legendary Sound City '96 week of gigs in a pub somewhere in Bradford one day in early 1996. We thought we could use it to basically review gigs we went to, albums we bought and gain some kudos off our mates. Well, we were right on the first two counts at least...
The autumn of 1997 saw BS relocate to Stoke-on-Trent and, with the author (henceforth referred to as "me") getting free Internet access what with being a student and all, it seemed to make sense to transfer it onto the Net. This marked the start of five glorious years of standing up for what we believed to be the true spirit of rock 'n' roll and generally having a good laugh at what NME/Melody Maker (RIP)/Select (also RIP)/Kerrang! were trying to foist on to the general public this month while raving about bands who we were convinced were going to be in the Top 20 in a few short months (but who, in the majority of cases, simply disappeared without a trace). With an ever-changing cast of reprobates who had very little in common except a burning urge to vent their spleen about the music scene across the Net, much fun was had.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end and the writing was pretty much on the wall when yours truly left Stoke to return to my hometown of Leeds in the summer of 2001 only to find that most of the people who worked on the fanzine before had upped sticks to more glamourous locations such as...erm, Luton and Aberdeen. Ah well... Oh yes, we battled on bravely but, in the face of increasing amounts to do and precious few personnel to do it, we eventually gave in in the face of overwhelming odds and after seven years and 56 issues, we called it a day in December 2002.
But, as they say, out of every end, a new beginning emerges. Hence the arrival of the Vault - BS' bastard son, here to ensure that we continue to kick against the proverbial brick wall that is the music scene today. Herein, you shall find reviews of gigs (nearly all in the Leeds area), albums, singles and much more besides. We're currently working on getting all our files from the BS site transferred across here but while that's happening we'll continue to get all the latest news and reviews up here.
At present this is a one-man site but hopefully more people will be coming on board in the next few months. Keep your eyes peeled for further developments and, above all, have fun!!
Andy James, May 2003
