Bluer than Blue

Pete Farrugia Remembers...

So after 8 years, sadly Bluer than Blue are no more. Our grateful thanks are due to everyone who ever came to see us, bought our CDs and tapes, wrote about us, or booked us at their venues.

The band was formed by guitarist Tony Skinner, drummer Andrew Kelly (both pals and musical partners of mine since schooldays), and vocalist/songwriter Harry Lang.

Plagued by a hand injury, Tony left after a few years to concentrate on teaching. He now runs the Registry of Guitar Tutors, and organises the official UK and International grade exams for electric, bass and classical guitar.

After many line up changes, I was invited to join, and the final role-call was: Harry Lang (vocals), Pete Farrugia (guitar), David Gwilliam (guitar), Ivan Thompson (sax), Adrian Wallis (bass) and Andrew Kelly (drums).

This version of the band took the name Bluer than Blue to ever new heights. We appeared at all of the major UK Blues festivals, supported artistes like Peter Green's Splinter Group, Sherman Robertson, Larry Garner and Angela Brown, and released the album Through the Storm.

When it finally came, the split was mainly due to the dilemma faced by many a modern musician. We had to decide whether to treat the band as a fun thing to do at weekends, or to take it more seriously and promote the message to ever bigger audiences. On this subject, we were divided into two factions, each with the opposite view. Wanting to step up the pace, release more albums and play to ever larger crowds, first I left, and then so did Harry. The other guys decided not to replace us and carry on, so Harry and I recruited Ivan and formed our new band Mo'Indigo.

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