The roots of MelonFarmer go back to bands that Jase (drummer) and Mike Russell (guitarist) were in for over 7 years together. The bands were mainly covers with a few original tracks thrown in. The covers chosen formed the basis of what was later to influence MelonFarmers early style…...Foo Fighters, Green Day, Offspring, Stone Temple Pilots etc.

In early 2003, several of the bands members left, so ads were placed for a new bass player and Gray Del-nevo applied.

Gray - “I was looking around for other bands at the time, becoming musically frustrated with current projects.”

After an audition with the band, he was offered the bass player position on the spot. What was a five piece covers band, slimmed down to a three piece set up (Mike - guitars/vocals, Gray - bass and Jase - drums) and the covers were soon ditched in favour of writing original material.

The next twelve months was spent entirely on writing ten new, original tracks. (a few of these are still sometimes played in MF’s live set list: “Funky”, “Silent Hill”, “Ride”, “Raw Experience” and “Control”).

MelonFarmer’s debut gig was headlining a skateboard festival in Swindon in late 2003 and is still remembered as an amazing experience:

Jase - “while we played, every now and again skaters came close to crashing onto the stage, prevented only by some orange safety netting! The event was filmed and so as well as coping skating crashes, there were camera lenses pointed in our faces all the time. The whole thing was hectic…..it was great!”

A demo album was recorded of the ten tracks, but shortly afterwards, in Spring 2004, Mike decided to reluctantly throw in the towel, as long term plans of emigrating to Spain had finally come around. This left just the rhythm section behind to search for replacements.

It then took another 12 months of exhaustive searching and auditions to find musicians of similar style and experience. It was like the opening rounds of X-Factor sometimes!

Eventually the searching yielded results in May 2005, in the form of Paul Hugo (vocals) and Allan Aird (guitars). Both were recruited at nearly the same time and MelonFarmer quickly went on to gain momentum and started to gig again. Pauls vocal talents and energetic live performances, combined with Allan’s technical excellence, were just what was required to add to the bands abilities and soon gained the band a reputation in Bristol and the surrounding area. MelonFarmer began to play in some of Bristol’s well known venues, such as The Fleece, Louisiana, The Croft and Mr.Wolfs. Other known venues out of Bristol included, Baths Moles club and Stroud’s Fringe festival.

This four piece line up went on to record the much acclaimed “Time” EP in February 2006. (Includes the tracks: “Time”, “Funky”, “Game Over” and “Control”).
Shortly afterwards, however, MelonFarmer and Allan decided to amicably part ways…..leaving an opening for another guitarist.

The position was quickly taken by Jamie Lloyd, previously of band “Kell.”

Jamie - “ The band I was playing in at the time was grinding to a halt and so when I saw the ad for a replacement guitarist I liked what I heard, applied, auditioned and was successful.”

It was Jamie’s speed of learning the bands material, technical ability, energy and creative flair that earned him the guitarist position in MelonFarmer. After only rehearsing with the band for 4 weeks, Jamie and MF played at the famous Bristol BierKeller. Since then, in the last twelve months, MelonFarmer has gone on to play other well known venues around the UK, including, to name just a few, Bristol’s Carling Academy, Agincourt Rock Club, TJ’s of Newport, London’s “Lark in the Park” and “Orange Club” and Devon’s “Urban Lawns festival”.