Refreshments Bio 1993-1995

The release dates for Ghost Notes and Songs from Memory are set. Both have in-store release dates of March 4, 2008. You can count on pre-release sales to start at my Web site, www.artedwards.com, a month earlier, on February 4, 2008.

Many promotional events in many different cities are being planned, so don't be surprised if I'm in your neck of the woods in 2008. Stay tuned!



Here we have a bio that I, with the help of the other band members, concocted at some point in 1995 to impress record execs. I'm pretty sure this effort was prompted by Marcy Drexler, who was a talent scout for ASCAP and who went way out of her way to help the band find a label early on. Click on the image to get a view you can read. You will see we still hadn't shed our silliness, or at least I hadn't.

This doc gives you a little more insight into things like our first practice, the infamous ranch trip, and Blush joining the band, all of which have been chronicled in more detail at this blog. Click the Refreshments tab on the right hand side of this page to see all Refreshments-related blogs.

There is a reference to our first big gig, leading off for Dramarama at Gibson's in our first few months of playing out. For the record--and don't expect too many admissions like this from me because I think people sometimes get the wrong impression--this is the gig that I fictionalized on Day Three of Hote's journey in Stuck Outside of Phoenix. The band in the book, Bluebottle, was simply Dramarama for a long time.

Here's page two:



Again, a retelling of the night the P.A. flickered in and out, and the night of our record release.

Epiphany Records was a local record label started by Zia Records owner Brad Singer. We weren't actually "signed" to Epiphany, but both the band and Brad benefited by being associated with each other--and we liked Brad--so the record was made to look like it was released by Epiphany. Singer supplied the bar code and the Epiphany logo, I remember, and we did the rest.

For some reason, we left out any mention of Ticketmaster in our bio, choosing instead to note our "showcases in Seattle and Los Angeles." I'm guessing this is Vedder-related, but I'm not sure. It definitely wasn't cool to be associated with Ticketmaster back then.

But you'll notice we outsold Pearl Jam in our Wheelie debut at Zia. Zia used to print off their Top 25 every week and would have the sheets sitting on the counter. It was pretty thrilling to see our names above Pearl Jam and some other bands. We were starting to understand where this thing could lead, and we were ready to follow it.

I'm going to avoid talking about 2005 just yet, since I haven't covered it in the blog, but I think you can see where we're heading. You can expect me to expand on some of these items in later blogs.

Many thanks to Brian J. Henderson for the scans. We'll have more from his collection next week.


Art