Chapter 3 - 1987 – 1989

Oh hey, hello! You've returned to a new episode of "Every Band Ever"! Just on time to welcome another band member and discover the release of Remember, Remember. I hope you are just as excited as we are! So where have we left off? Myron and Kirley are in year five, Donaghan is in year four and the Poltergeists are in year three.

With the OWLs at the doorstep, Myron and Kirley were constantly switching between their instruments and their term papers and felt that the band was coming to a bit of a halt. Myron was a very accomplished student and preferred the microphone over quills and ink, but Kirley struggled academically and had to put a lot more effort in achieving good marks. "Professor McGonagall told me, during careers advice that my music better be good or I would make a living sweeping the owlery's floor," confesses Duke (Duke, The journey of the Duke, 2013). Duke confessed to Witches Weekly that he never had a plan B and that if he hadn't succeeded in making music, then his life might have looked very sinister for the guitarist. "I was very good at muggle studies. In fact, although I am a pure blood, muggles have always fascinated me. I love electric guitars and these boxes where the sound comes out" (Duke, The journey of the Duke, 2013).

Muggles use electricity to "amplify" the sound of their instruments similar to an amplifying charm. According to our knowledge, electricity are tiny creatures that speed through metal wires, which heats them and provides energy for whatever gadget the wire is connected to. These creatures live in sockets in walls, muggles cannot see them, but they can hear their buzzing noises, when there are plenty and they occasionally get bitten by them. Also they pay fees to be allowed to keep these creatures in their walls. These muggles are crazy!

"Obviously, electricity doesn't work at Hogwarts and I could never use an electric guitar there, but when we played outside of Hogwarts, I learned how to use one and connect the wires properly so a sound comes out. This, for me, was true magic!" Kirley's muggle enthusiasm, however, wasn't at all shared with Myron, who despised the technology. "I am not against muggles," says Myron, "I just think that their technology does not belong within the magical culture and we should not mix that. I am a purist. I care about our culture and our values." (Bernard, 2010)

"Myron would make me feel like a complete failure during the OWLs. So I knew how to connect wires, but not how to cast a disarming spell? I wish I had his brains", sighs Kirley (Duke, The journey of the Duke, 2013). Needless to say, Myron was a straight O-student and passed all his OWLs with flying colours, whereas Kiley almost failed his OWLs. "Professor Snape gave me a really hard time. I managed to get an A in Potions, but I was never into all this cookery-bakery stuff" (Duke, The journey of the Duke, 2013).

Despite the catastrophic results, Kirley picked up his guitar again the next year and continued writing songs. He was even more determined this time to succeed and became very eager about his musical career. "He was making music like his life depended on in", states Tremlett who wrote his OWLs in 1988 (Triffit, 1999). "I felt like no one believed in me and my art and I had to prove to them, that I would make it one day". (Duke, The journey of the Duke, 2013). Lucky for us, this was the right spirit to produce the most memorable song in wizard history: Remember, Remember.

"It was Halloween and a few children sang this nursery rhyme and I thought it was quite catchy, so why not write a song about it. Also it was the day that You-Know-Who was defeated", explains Kirley about the history of the song, "I was strumming a few chords with Gideon and we fooled around with that poem and tried to make it into a song. Then Gideon came up with the line Remember, remember when we danced all night and let our colours fly and I knew that this was the song." (Lovegood, 2005). In fact, this song should eventually be the title track for their upcoming album of the same name and it would bring them almost immediate fame. The song was played for the first time in Hogsmeade in 1988 and the audience loved it. All demo tracks were sold within seconds and the band made a small fortune that night. "Everyone in Hogwarts had the song. It was just overwhelming how everyone sang along to it. It's the best feeling in the world!", smiles Kirley (Skeeter, Weird Sisters release first Album, 1989).

Remember, remember when we danced all night and let our colours fly

A killing curse was just a shooting star in the midnight sky

And all the tears we'd cried bundled in a baby's cry

"I felt so sorry for what happened that night in Godric's Hollow", says Duke regretfully, "the atrocity of this crime only hit me, when I turned 21 and we celebrated Halloween and I thought, man I cannot die yet. I haven't started yet." (Duke, The journey of the Duke, 2013). But while Kirley moaned the casualties of that night, did Myron become more and more obsessed with the massacre that took place the same night in which 12 muggles were brutally and insidiously killed. For the best part of fifteen years, it was believed that Sirius Black was a faithful Deatheater, who betrayed the Potters and killed his friend Peter Pettigrew, when in fact it was Peter Pettigrew, who committed the murders and escaped that night.

"No one had ever received a sentence like Sirius Black before. The case was unique and I was fascinated with the legal status of the sentence, since he never received a trial. I surely would have become a lawyer, if I hadn't been a musician", tells Myron, who always flirted with the idea of studying magical law (McTavish, Myron Wagtail - A portrait, 2000). His performance in school would have probably enabled him to pursue such a reputable career. In 1996, Wagtail joined a group of activists that dedicated their lives to solving cold cases and reinforcing a fair trial for prosecutor and accused. And one of their most famous cases was the Sirius Black case that was closed in 1997. The satirical song Lucky Streak (Wagtail, Duke, & Tremlett, Remember, Remember, 1989) was inspired by the case and was written from Sirius Black's fictional point of view.

In the midst of the song writing craze and while recording demos in order to get a record deal, the band gained a very special fan by the name of Orsino Thurston. The first year Slytherin was a huge admirer of the Weird Sisters and started following them around. The boy from Zadar, Croatia, spoke only broken English, but offered to work as a roadie. Wagtail was very intrigued by the opportunities a roadie provided and allowed him to work as his "personal assistant". "We were all wondering why Orsino willingly degraded himself by working for Myron, but he was such an admirer of him that he was ready to do anything", remembers Tremlett (McTavish, Myron Wagtail - A portrait, 2000). Quickly they learned that Orsino, who didn't play any instruments, had a good sense of rhythm and liked to drum a few beats with his wand.

"It's a wonder the wand never broke", jests Thurston, "because I used to always sit in lessons or during concerts and drummed it on my thigh. And everyone would just go, or so you are a drummer? But I wasn't." (Lovegood, 2005). Although Donaghan played the drums during concerts, he was secretly looking out for a replacement and he recognized Orsino's talent at once. "I said, you love music kid, so would you like to learn play the drums? He didn't even think about it and said yes immediately. Always on the lookout for an opportunity these Slytherins", laughs Tremlett (Duke, The journey of the Duke, 2013). Eventually, Tremlett taught Thurston how to play the drums until he was good enough to play at gigs, which allowed Tremlett to add a bass to the line-up.

With the new line-up and with the help of the Poltergeists the Weird Sisters recorded a small mixtape that they were going to send to a record company. The tape included Remember, Remember; Scarlett Engine and The Kiss. But the way to success was, as always, windy and crooked. Most record companies rejected it and deemed the music "not suitable for airplay". Barthemus Barnaby, former chief editor of WWN revealed that he was among the record companies that rejected the Weird Sisters (we bow our heads in shame).

"We were invited to a small studio in London", tells Duke, "everyone said that this was the place to be if you wanted to become famous. But London never really suited us. Of course all the great bands were there, but we didn't belong there." (Lovegood, 2005) The band eventually rejected the record deal and went to seek fame in Scotland.

At the end of the 80s, the wizard rock community was relatively small and only a few bands existed; therefore, catching a record deal was highly difficult and unlikely. A small number of musicians resided in Hogsmeade and struggled to make money on the streets. Sometimes they could scrape enough money to stay at the Three Broomsticks, but other times they couldn't even afford a daily meal. Most musicians spent their time on trains and waited to be carried to the next location that looked promising or just any destination where they were offered a place to stay.

Kirley eventually found himself living the very same life that many musicians lead. When he and Myron left school in 1989, their lives couldn't have been more different. Myron spent the summer at his parent's house in Salford and planned to pursue a career at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Kirley, on the other hand, left his parental home and decided to lead a life as full-time musician. "Not that my parents did not approve of my ambitions, we were always on good terms, I just felt that it was time to move on", explains Kirley (Duke, The journey of the Duke, 2013). For the most part of the summer holidays Kirley found himself in the same place he'd been when he started making music: alone with a guitar. He played on the streets of Manchester every single day apart from a few gigs when the whole band got together.

"This time was very inspiring," says Duke, "I've never met so many people in my life and I've never lived so dangerously. I remember I was invited to some muggle's place and we played music and had a few beers. They had women and something to smoke. The place was a mess and in the morning no one could remember a thing so I left." (Duke, The journey of the Duke, 2013) Fortunately, it was one of those nights that would secure the entire band's future.

When Duke played at a small bar in Leeds, he was watched by Earnest McTavish, an influential impresario and wizard rock fan. McTavish was so taken with Duke's performance that he invited him to his music hall in Glasgow, where he recorded a Demo of Scarlet Engine (Wagtail, Duke, & Tremlett, Remember, Remember, 1989). It didn't take McTavish long to recognise the potential and he invited the whole band over for a whole weekend in order to write more songs and plan the release of their first album.

"I cannot believe I almost applied for the ministry of magic. The invitation came just in time before I made a mistake," laughs Wagtail (Corvus, 1999). Despite being happy to have landed a record deal, not all of the boys were offered a contract. Since the Poltergeists and Orsino were still underage, McTavish refused to sign them, but they were listed as musicians on Remember, Remember. However, they were promised a record deal as soon as they turned 17.

The weekend at the studio turned out to be less than productive. The band only finished one song, which then didn't end up on the album. Instead, Poltergeist songs filled the void. Three songs from the Poltergeist's demo were added to the album: Bitterness and Old Shoes, The Giant Squid, A Banshee's Cry. Bitterness and old shoes was written about their potions teacher Severus Snape, who died in the Battle of Hogwarts. The professor was known for his ill-humoured demeanour and strictness.

A Banshee's Cry is based on an urban legend that a Kerry Banshee is haunting the dungeons of Hogwarts. The word banshee (bean sídhe) is often misinterpreted as "Fairy of Death"; however, it only refers to a woman coming from the Sídhe (a magical community in Ireland). According to the legend, the Banshee is bound to the castle by an ancient contract and protects the students and the castle. In the song, the banshee is described as a young witch who waits for her true love to set her free. It is said that the song was based on Máire Óg Ní Séaghdha, the first bean sídhe (literally meaning: the woman of the Sídhe) to attend Hogwarts.

Although the Giant Squid seems an obvious choice of name, the lyrics are rather surprising. "A girl I fancied once told me she'd rather marry the giant squid than go out with me. So I thought, there you have it!" laughs Herman who wrote the song, which is really about a girl marrying the giant squid and leading a rather unhappy life with him (Wagtail, Duke, & Tremlett, Remember, Remember, 1989).

The first part of the album was recorded in one go. The boys had played the tracks a million times and fouled around with the versions until they decided which one would make it on the album. "I wanted the album to sound just like the listener is attending a Weird Sisters concert. The boys are amazing live and I didn't want any of the magic to get lost on tape", explains Earnest McTavish (McTavish, The Sound of Music, 1989).

The album has some deliberate noises and cracks in the audio track in order to make it sound more handmade and authentic. It was praised by the critics and well received in the wizard rock scene. The songs are sung by different singers and with different musical arrangements. We have included the record booklet and some of the lyrics and we hope you will be able to enjoy it like you did when it first came out.

We conducted a small survey among our editors on their favourite song from the album and here is their ranking.

1. Remember, Remember

2. Scarlett Engine

3. A Banshee's Cry

4. Bitterness and Old Shoes

5. Lucky Streak

6. The Kiss

7. The Giant Squid

8. Hogwarts Anthem

What is your favourite song and what do you connect with it? Your first kiss? A won Quidditch match? A breakup? Whatever it is, be sure to return to another episode of "Every Band Ever"!

Author's Note: Hey, thank you so much for reading the story and all the kind words! Keep rocking!

A special thanks to Sarapha and NaomiWonder and acwwluver for showing their support!

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