The new member to the band would be James Kook. He had known David for a while and often talked about coming down to jam with the band. In a cold mid January 91 he did just that. James was very versatile .playing guitar and keyboards , this is just what the band wanted to add a different side to their music. On Saturday 26th Jan James was asked to join Heavens Echo.
The set list was charged as the band set to writing new material with it`s newest member and it was not long before James made his gigging debut. 25th March 1991 Heavens Echo played the first of many gigs at the Bull & Gate pub in Kentish Town. The band went down a storm.
Heavens Echo were committed to play the record release party for The Vinyl Underground album, however because the band had changed so much in the 7/8 months since recording the track they no longer played or wanted to play that song anymore. A compromise was agreed , the band would play the track from the album and in return was allowed to play two extra songs ( no other band from the album played more then one song ). The band played great even after the many drinks that were flowing!!
In June 91 the band went into a small studio to do some demos, this would be called the Ocean Woman demo ,and have the songs Ocean Woman , Icarus and Criminal on it.
By late July it was time for the band to find new rehearsal space ,the local youth club was changing hands and could no longer support the band any longer. They found some rehearsal rooms in Mill Hill called unit 25 , this would lead to much bigger and better things. The band continued to rehearse and play gigs for the rest of 1991.The band changed it`s name for the final time in Nov 1991,now the band would be called The Sway. Early 1992 the owner of the rehearsal studio, Roger Tichborne became very interested in helping the band. First he helped do a small 4 track demo,then started to manage the band. The first gig Roger got the band was at the Dandylion Pub in Barnet.
The show was a real 10 out 10 show. The Sway had hit onto something, real good indie rock/pop. This gig would go on to be one a the bands favourites for many months to come. The time was right for the band to get back into the recording studio and record a great demo. The band chose St Marks studio in North London. 3 tracks that day got laid down. This demo went onto known as the Society demo. The songs were Society , More then this ,& 1000 days. The demo got a lot of interest from A&R at various record companies, it also got the band plenty of gigs. The band wanted to record more stuff and it was now late summer 92 before the band got back into the studio again. This time the band had moved on again and the songs were getting more sophisticated. Songs like Walrus and Carousel were using samples, and had more depth to them. The band were happy with themselves and what they had done ,and so Sean,David and Paul along with many friends went off to the Reading Festival weekender. After seeing so many great bands The Sway knew that the hard work was only just beginning....
The band decided to take to the road for the first time, they wanted to see what a gig outside London was all about. They Traveled to Boston on the 10th Nov 1992.The band played well but hardly anybody was there , in fact the band took more people up to Boston then there was in locals, however the band enjoyed it and the traveling was to their tastes. The bands first radio exposure was on Gary Crowleys demo clash, the band finished 2nd out of three , but the excitement of hearing their own stuff on the radio just pushed the band further. The year finished with one more trip to the recording studio to record `Shine` ,an interview with the local paper and a new year gig ( 30th dec ) at the Bull & Gate. The new year would bring better things yet again!!
