11/04/2024
ICYMI: Triple X: Location: Moot House Club - Minchen Road, Harlow, CM20 3AG
Date: Saturday 06/04/2024 9:00 pm - Saturday 06/04/2024 11:30 pm
Originally formed in the mid-1980s as One To One, with an original line up of;
Andy Cleall - vocals & guitar, Dennis Dance - drums & percussion,
Vince Randall - lead guitar, Grant Bowden - bass guitar & Mickey James - keyboards.
As a reggae band they quickly established themselves on the live circuit in and around the Harlow area, and they were soon in demand across the UK as their reputation grew.
As One To One they entered and won a competition run by welsh rock group the Alarm and Radio 1 to find an up and coming band to support the Alarm on their UK tour at Hammersmith Odeon, as a result of this they were asked to record a Radio 1 session for the Simon Mayo show, which was the first-ever Radio 1 session to be recorded on dat (digital audio tape).
The four songs recorded were; Sweet Love, Only You, Slow Down and a cover of Smokey Robinsons ever-popular hit Tracks Of My Tears, they received rave reviews from Simon Mayo and other d.j's resulting in the session being repeated several months later on the Janice Long show as session of the year, (on the original Simon Mayo show they announced that due to copyright reasons they had changed their name to Inner Spin).
Unfortunately, at such a promising stage in their career, the band decided to split due to financial and family reasons.
Andy and Grant got together on occasions to do studio work which resulted in a minor UK dance hit called Made In Two Minutes by Bug Kann & The Plastic Jam which reached number 70 on the UK charts in 1991 and number 64 in 1994 (bug is Andy's nickname).
After a year or so away from music Dennis and Vince got back together and started working on some instrumental tracks, after a chance meeting with Andy they found out he was doing nothing musically and convinced him to join them to do some live work.
Now a three-piece band they called themselves Triple X, the name taken from the title of one of their songs Triple X blue, they soon built up a strong following in the pubs and clubs they played, doing covers of popular reggae songs and also giving the Triple X reggae style to other non-reggae tunes.
They self-financed the recording and publishing of their first CD album called Never Say Never, which was recorded at the Mad Professor's Ariwa studio in Blackheath.
They also headlined at a sold-out Circus Tavern in Purfleet where they blew the place apart, playing a live set consisting of covers and original material, they also played to a packed Ronnie Scott's supporting local singer-songwriter Lol Williams where they stole the show with a stunning live set.
Their second CD album No Easy Way was recorded at the A-Class studio which is the home of legendary UK reggae label Fashion records, better known for the no.12 UK smash hit Police Officer by Smiley Culture. The album was engineered by reggae producer Chris Lane who has worked with Maxi Priest and too many other reggae greats to mention.
Captain sticky is their third album which was recorded by producer Grant Bowden (A.K.A Plastic Jam).
Vince left due to personal reasons but Andy and Dennis still continue to play as Triple X and wish Vince all the best in his future plans.
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