Dayglow

Dayglow were without a doubt the most improved band in the Torbay area during the 18 month (or so) period with which we were familiar with that whole scene. The live music scene in Torbay just after the turn of the millenium was fantastic, largely thanks to The Live Stage run by Joe and Mel at The Hideaway and another orange venue before the Hideaway became home for all the live music shenanigans that went on every week.

Dayglow started out as a three-piece grunge band. These recordings are almost certainly from their early days. Their first show was at the orange venue and they played support to another act, possibly Murdock or Kickdown or Outcast or Torna-K, who were all quite big on the scene at the time. Also on the bill were Parafinalia and Goodstaff. Goodstaff played every week and opened the proceedings.

The first Dayglow performance we witnessed was not particularly spectacular, apart from one highly memorable comedy moment. There was a song they tried to play that involved a somewhat twiddly riff on the bass, and during the first three or four attempts the string on which the riff was being played kept popping out of the nut of the bass, so the poor bass player had to replace it and try again.

After several attempts, the guitarist, singer and frontman of Parafinalia stepped up to hold the recalcitrant string in position, and continued to do so for the remainder of the rendition of that particular number. He held it in place rather firmly, effectively putting a massive bend on the whole string, so it was entirely out of tune with the rest of the band. The two of them cavorted awkwardly around the stage in a weird comical dance, like conjoined twins in a 19th century cabaret or two wounded beetles trying bravely to reproduce. The few of us that noticed what was going on found it hilarious. At the end of the song, the assistant was warmly thanked and Dayglow continued with their set.

Dayglow played the Hideaway two or three more times after that, each performance better than the previous as the band grew tighter and more accomplished as they gained experience. The last time we saw them they had grown to a four-piece having added a second guitarist. This latest performance was fantastic and the band probably had the best sound of any performance anybody ever gave at any of the Live Stage shows we remember.

There was one other thing that was rather striking about Dayglow. Their bass player was ludicrously tall. There were several extremely tall bass players for some reason at that time on that scene, and Dayglow’s was probably the tallest.

We hope you enjoy these tracks.

Grain of Sand Demo by Dayglow.

All tracks copyright © 2000 Dayglow.

We found this demo amongst our archives and felt it deserved to be shared, along with a somewhat incomplete biographical history of the band Dayglow based on our memories.

It’s very important to say that we have no information accompanying the demo CD. All that is written on the CD is ‘Dayglow’ and ‘Grain of Sand’.

So, dear gentlemen of Dayglow, we know not what your names are, or who wrote the songs, or where or how or when they were recorded. We also don’t know for sure the names of these tracks, we simply guessed based on what we could hear in the lyrics. If we got it all horribly wrong, please let us know!

*** JANUARY 2022 UPDATE !! ***

The following information was provided to us by Myke, the band’s drummer.

Performers:
Ross Sanders – Vox & Guitar
Myke Heath – Drums
Will Little – Bass (yep an ironic name for a bloke who is 6ft 4” tall)

Later on Rob Duncan joined Dayglow on guitar and eventually the band changed their name to After The Blackout.

Myke and Ross carried on together with another band, which was a continued evolution of Dayglow, called Drawn On Empty Faces. That lasted until 2009, when Ross gave up on playing music.

Myke is still playing and writing with a band called Fabulous Weapons, which you can listen to by clicking here.