Raven

RAVEN were formed in mid to late 1976 when Steve Lines started a graphic design course at Swindon College. It was here he met Dave Seal. They discovered they had a mutual interest in rock 'n' roll so decided to form a band. Their playing abilities were rudimentary to say the least, Dave and Steve were the guitarists and were lucky if they knew three chords between them. The original bassist was to have been Steve Williams, because he had a bass guitar. The trouble was he couldn't play it, so he was out of the band. This setback didn't dissuade Nick Dawkwins however. He had a bass and he couldn't play it either, but for some reason he joined the band.

The band struggled to learn material as Steve taught Dave the few extra chords he knew that Dave didn't. Both guitarists try to teach Nick how to play 'one note' bass, which he masters to an extent. Now they have to teach him to play the right 'one note' at the right time.

As Steve was an art student at the time it was no surprise that the band spent more time photographing themselves than actually learning to play anything, much to Dave's annoyance.

A couple of rehearsals in the cellar of Dominion House were photographed at this time, which was a much better way to document the event than a live recording.

Frustrated at Nick's inability to improve on the bass, the remaining three decided to terminate the group and then immediately reformed, without Nick. A classic method of sacking an unwanted member of a band. For a while they toyed with a new bassist named Ian something. Characteristically he appeared at a photograph session but not at any rehearsals.

The band were still struggling to learn three chord songs such as Bad Moon Rising and Alright Now, but they weren't really getting anywhere. Their influences at this time included Hawkwind, Led Zeppelin and Wishbone Ash amongst others.

But a change was coming. Steve heard the first Ramones album and overnight cut his hair, straightened his jeans and saw the light. One evening he took the album to play it to the rest of the band. Reaction was mixed - horror, scorn, ridicule. Steve pointed out that they now didn't need to play the guitar solos they couldn't play anyway and they already knew the three chords needed to play punk.

Slowly the idea was adopted by the band, and it wasn't too long before a name change came along with the new attitude and THE INDICATORS, Calne's first punk band, was born