It is with a heavy heart that I report the demise of Surrey’s, Meet Me In St. Louis. After the departure of vocalist Toby in late 2007, the 4 piece decided to continue, playing instrumental sets and inviting audience participation/sing-a-longs on some occasions whilst they searched for a new set of lungs to fill the vacant frontman slot. However, after a particularly emotional gig on Monday night, the band issued a statement on their myspace, giving reasons for the split. It reads:-
“Hi,
I’m writing with great regret to inform everyone that Meet Me in St. Louis has reached its end. This is due to a loss of another member (Paul) and the agreement that the band would not be the same if that member were replaced. It came as a shock to the rest of us as our plans for the next few months were extremely positive after such a bumpy ride at the end of 2007.
When Toby left, we all felt pretty low but we got through it because we knew that the music would be written by the same 4 people and essentially be the same. Although he had input musically it was minimal and was mainly focused on vocal melodies and lyrics. We were able to carry on with confidence and either get a new singer or continue instrumentally. Unfortunately, the same could not be said in this instance.
I cannot tell you precisely what the reasons for Paul’s decision are. I think it was a snowball effect of events over the past 3 years that made being in a band extremely hard to deal with and eventually became too much. So that’s it.
On a positive note, I personally have had the most exciting 3 years of my life. I think that we’d all agree on how proud we are to have been able to create music with each other and perform it to so many people. Writing and playing shows, whether it be to 20 people or 200, was what we lived for. It was what we were, for 3 years. At times, it was fucking gruelling but overall, incredible.
It wouldn’t have been possible without the help and encouragement of so many people: Our family and friends, fans (a lot of whom have become friends!), BSM and Xtra Mile, promoters, every band we’ve ever played with, everyone who’s put us up for the night or more, anyone who’s given us a review, anyone who’s ever taken pictures for us, every sound man that let us play really really loud, even those who didn’t I guess… Without these people, we wouldn’t have an album and playing live would have been really fucking dull. Although the band has come to an end, I’m pretty sure we’ll never stop playing music and hopefully other projects will be as exciting if not more.
So once again huge thank you’s and many apologies to everyone.
The end.
Oli and MMISL”
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There we are…another promising young band bites the dust after just 1 album and 1 EP. Meet Me In St. Louis were one of the most hyperactive and interesting bands I’ve seen…their presence, sound and general attitude was so fresh and vibrant. They will be missed. Good luck for the future guys. (Past feature on the band with an MP3 can be found here.)
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Junior Vice President of Keep It Fast. In other news: I work in social media, talk about dinosaurs, run a book club and have amazing facial hair. I am also a male man who is still not dead.
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