GABRIEL were a band I originally put together around 1987. The very first incarnation of the band featured Bryan Josh on guitar and Iain Jennings on keyboards (both of ‘Mostly Autumn’), Dave Hardy on drums and a guy called Shelly (ex-’Dare’) on bass. However by the time we got to record our debut album ‘ASCENSION’ at Fairview Studios in Hull in 2000, the line up had completely changed: I was now joined by my old ‘Frontier’ band mates Andy ‘Rob’ Swann on keys and Andy Seddon on bass, along with ex-’Mostly Autumn’ drummer Allan Scott and acoustic guitarist/vocalist Graham Hodge. At the time we had no permanent lead guitarist so we were joined on the album by ‘guest guitarists’ Bryan Josh, Liam Davison (also of ‘Mostly Autumn’) and Colin Elsworth. Col went on to join us full time for the next couple of years for the live work that followed the release of our debut. In 2002 the line up changed for the final time with the inclusion of Paul Cusick on guitar and Alex Cromarty (who went on to play with ‘Riversea’, ‘Moon Halo’ and ‘Mostly Autumn’) on drums…

It was always our intention to record a second full album with the band so we spent the next few years writing and demo recording probably over 60 songs trying to collect the best possible tunes. Although we never got to record that follow up album properly, ‘SONGS THAT ALMOST HAPPENED’ contains 24 of those songs all demo recorded at our small studio/rehearsal room ‘The Barn’ in Copmanthorpe, York over a 5 year period. 3 of the tracks featured were originally released on a very limited edition CD called ‘Gabriel Unplugged’ in 2001, 4 more on ‘the Feel EP’ in 2002, 9 were on an extremely limited CD burn called ‘The Demology Collection’ in 2004 and the remaining tracks have never previously been released in any form…

As demo songs it’s worth noting that most of these recordings were made with the band playing live together with just the vocals overdubbed later. So, in other words, there was no ‘studio trickery’ involved to make the band sound better. This is how the band sounded warts and all. Listening back to these recordings in retrospect, for me, the star of the show has been the amazing bass playing of Andy Seddon. Sadly Andy passed away in 2016 at the age of just 46 and it’s to his memory that this download album is respectfully dedicated.

So I hope you enjoy this trip to the past as much as I have revisiting these songs after all these years. It’s good to know that some of these songs will be heard for the very first time by ‘the masses’ and will no longer be ‘songs that almost happened..’

Peace, love and rock n roll… Marc 02/12/2020