» 25 years of And Also The Trees

On the 12-Jan 1980 AATT did their first ever concert at the Grieg Memorial Hall in Alcester in original line-up with Graham Havas (Bass), Nick Havas (Drums), Justin Jones (Guitar) and Simon Huw Jones (Vocals).
Witnesses told that AATT already seemed so very different to all the punk rock bands also playing that day with Simon wearing a long grey coat and reading some of his lyrics from behind a newspaper.
Songs rumored that have been played are: 'Dreamt', 'Hitman', 'Searchlight', 'And Also The Trees' and 'Warpaint 11'.

SHJ: "I can't remember when we first got our hands to instruments. Sometime at the end of the Punk-rock-era. It's hard to tell exactly when And Also The Trees were founded because we know each other for so long."

SB: "We were extremely naive, extremely young & completely self-obsessed, like any good new band should be. Of course there were enormous, painful & demoralising events to follow that left us with a healthy amount of cynicism..."

JJ: "It was weird; we'd be playing in London to several thousand people and the next day we'd be in school doing geography."

SB: "It's easy to forget that we were quite a bit younger than our contemporaries, having started out so young. We were always the 'baby brothers' so to speak, sneaking time off school to do tours!"

SHJ: "We practically have our teenage and adolescent years documented on record because as we have changed as people you can see it on the records."

JJ: "Generally I would like to think we haven't 'stood still' musically. It's easy to keep making the same record but not fulfilling. I feel quite happy with the turns we made, its probably that which has kept us interested. We have also cleverly avoided making any money."

SB: "I think we have a lot to be proud of. We have never made a record that we didn't like...we have never compromised our music for commercial reward...and we have never been part of a fashion or scene. We have an incredible bond of friendship within AATT & this has been the key to our longevity."

[Sources: Alternative Press 1991, Glasnost 1992, CoN 1999, DNASix 2003, The Mick 2004]

To celebrate 25 years of AATT on the fan site you now find a live version of Macbeth's Head from 1996 and an old radio interview with JJ & SHJ recorded during the Virus Meadow tour 1986 (both to be found in Echoes).

To see how the influences for the band evolved over the time you can read an interview for Glasnost in 1992 with SHJ (thanks Mike W. for the translation) as well as an interview for CoN in 1999 with SB.