On my first night at Birmingham University, I met Robert Illesh. It was a conjunction of Thin Lizzy leather and Deep Purple denim jackets. The meeting was however at a somewhat less-than rock’n’roll freshers barndance.
By the first weekend we were jamming, Rob on his treasured Les Paul, and I on my cheapo metallic blue Aria pointy headstock bass. I learnt Rob’s back catalogue, and presented a few part-formed songs, which we knocked into shape. It remained to find a drummer. I thought I knew just the person. I’d known of Robin from 6th Form college. He’d been in school orchestras. He insisted we introduce him as “percussionist” at all of our “recitals” (gigs).
In January 1990, a name was deliberated over in our student flat, in great detail, over cans of cheap taste-free bitter. Mate/supporter Bob agreed to design our logo. It was of great importance to choose a name that matched our outlook and aspirations. The fact we were a “power trio”.
We eventually decided on Dream Powerhouse.
Before Powerhouse gigged, there were a few more frivolous diversions, as they readied their set.
03 Mar 1990 Dream Powerhouse – Live
16 Mar 1990 – Dream Powerhouse – Cellar Bar Requiem
This gig was to bid farewell to the Uni’s Cellar Bar. Grotty, sticky floored, black walled, but we liked it like that.
It is noteworthy that we supported Birmingham prog band Ark who we liked.
Dream Powershed
In the following Easter vacation, Rob came, along with his Les Paul, to stay at my folks for a couple of days. We crammed in lots of jamming. We played in our asbestos walled garage/shed with negligible soundproofing. We may have loosened a few of those deadly fibres with the racket me made. We made a couple of tapes in there, and the tongue-in-cheek Powershed name was thus coined.
I had played alongside Ivor in the aftermath of Hanging Around, and had introduced him to Rob for these sessions. He picked the drumming up in no time, and instantly instilled the previously lumpen Powerhouse rhythms with a swaggering groove. Also lots of fills, usually too many. Geographical distance meant collaborations were limited.
They were great sessions, and we rattled of most of the the covers Powerhouse were doing adding Zeppelin and Hendrix, as well as some of our originals. My brother Mike joined us for some Iron Maiden, and we even tackled the Rush epic Xanadu.
Forming Jade (Mki)
In summer 1990, in the wake of the Powershed sessions, Powerhouse, like the Cellar Bar, had run its course. We were on the lookout for an expanded lineup – with us hunting for a not only a new drummer, but also a singer, and keyboard player. These came in the form of Neil Robinson (drums), Timmy (Neil Horsburgh) on vocals and Nigel Pugh on keys.
As well as adding vocals, Timmy instantly brought then a more diverse, expanded “rentacrowd”. They were enthusiastic, seemed to like our output, and were quite a lot less feral than the average Powerhouse fan, who would typically be a hardened headbanging heckler.