Fairview are an emo pop-punk band from Birmingham.

The first two band members to meet were Jack and Chris, which was in some room in Muirhead Tower (on the Birmingham University campus) an ugly setting for such a beautiful union; this was the meeting place for the first Ska Society (which Chris formed and was President of) night out of the year. Jack was the first person to turn up and Chris, after giving Jack a warm can of beer asked whether he played an instrument as Chris was on the lookout for musicians to form a ska band. Shortly after this, Jack and Chris jammed and started working on some ska songs; after a few songs were made it was time to get others to complete the band.

Some other people came along and jammed with Jack and Chris in practice sessions in Rich Bitch Studios (Selly Oak, Birmingham) but the songs were not really getting off the ground and it was becoming difficult to get the songs totally complete; especially as we could never seem to get lyrics sorted out for the songs. The ska band was never really fully completed and just kind of faded out after a while.

Jack and Steve became friends after a few weeks of their first term of University
and told each other that they were in bands at home - All This Time (Steve) and Beyond Repair (Jack). After exchanging some demos of these bands, the two of them decided that
they would try to form a band that combined the styles of these bands, namely the deep lyrics and hooks of All This Time and the fast punk sounds of Beyond Repair.

Steve and Jack started to jam in Jack’s lounge area of his halls, with Chris also joining them, adding his cheeky bass style to the band. Steve had written a catalogue of songs, all with lyrics, which basically got rid of the major issue that Jack and Chris’ ska band had. However,
this time the songs were actually getting off the ground and the sound of Fairview was beginning to mould; it was really starting to sound like a band, with each member adding their own distinctive sound to the songs. However, those ska songs still get played occasionally in Fairview’s practices!!!

The first song that band worked on was ‘Deceptive and Misread’ and it was going really well; but there was of course the one missing ingredient, namely a drummer. This is where Chris’ sister played an important part. Her boyfriend, Jon, had previously been in a band with an ‘awesome drummer’ as he put it! This was of course Pinky who completed the awesome foursome! He bought with him the organization and PR skills of his girlfriend Debbie. Who began racking up quite a phone bill calling venues, pubs, bar mitzvahs, children’s parties and anything else she could think of to arrange gigs. This just left the internet wizardry of Richie who was left to his own devices to come up with a web site and also took the pictures for the band. With the songs going well in the practise rooms Steve was keen to record what the band had worked on so far and with this the band enter the recording studio at Rich
Bitch with the help of sound engineer extraordinaire Steve Knight. After two long hard days of playing, listening, replaying, fine tuning and some serious snacking the four songs had been for ever immortalised in the demo! During these two days the bands first gigs had been arranged and all was looking rosy for the band as they entered their first summer together. Will they live happily ever after? Watch this space!