== The Band ==

Afflicted Quarter started back in 2003 and has gone through
many changes in name and line-up, with only one of the original members remaining (Dave). It is a band of potentially epic proportions and we can expect to see more of them in the future.

The band has 4 members:

Chris Ledsham a.k.a Ledders (Rythm Guitar)

David Walter a.k.a daveyravey (Vocals and Lead Guitar)

James Kendal a.k.a Jimmi K (Bass Guitar)

James Watson a.k.a The Sicilian (Drums)


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James Kendal (or Jimmy K as he is affectionately known to some) was initially drafted in as a keyboard player, but soon learned how to play the bass and has been amazing ever since. He was the first of the two members to join the reformed version of the band. He lives in Penshurst and so has to move a distance to reach practises.
He's the oldest in the group and being the bassist looks effortlessly cool on stage and doesn't have to do much work.

He plays a blue Ibanez Bass through a Laney amp.

Chris Ledsham (the "easily distracted member who collects car number plates" Blam Magazine Oct. 2005) is here because back in 2003 he persuaded Dave to let him join a fledgling band as a second guitar player. Back then the band consisted of Dave, Tim Polaszek, and Oli Fairfax, and things rapidly changed when they got together in Dave's attic with an electric drum kit and wrote a few songs.

After the departures of Tim & Oli, Dave and Chris were the only two members left and rebuilt the band to be much better than it used to be by recruiting Jimmy K and Watson.

He plays a Fender Telecaster through a 50 Watt Marshall amp.

Dave Walter is the founder of Afflicted Quarter, and is also the front man, singing and playing lead guitar whenever he isn't singing! He formed a 3 man band in year 10, and almost 2 years, 2 departures, and 3 new members later Afflicted Quarter were born.

He is well known for his guitar skills and is a naturally talented musician with a well developed taste in music and has been a major part in the writing of all of the bands songs. He plalys not only the Lead Guitar, but alos, the piano and vocals.

He plays an Epiphone Explorer through a 75 Watt Line 6 Spider 2 amp.

James Watson is a resident of Chelsfield, which means that his journey to practice is based around the reliability of the infamous South Eastern Trains. He is the bands drummer, and every now and again performs a "ramble." He is the new guy in the band and was the long awaited replacement drummer. He has appointed himself "artistic director" and is in the progress of designing the album cover. He is known for his tendancy to use too many drum rolls, but he's still a rookie, so it's ok.

James plays a DW Pacific kit with Zildjian cymbals and stick, when he's at home, but due to impracticalities, he leaves them at home.

The Beginning

The Continuing history of Afflicted Quarter

Back in 2003 Dave used to jam on guitar with Tim Polaszek and Oli Fairfax at school. Dave played guitar, Tim piano and Oli the drums.

They used play a few covers of other bands, most notably a classic version of that Muse song Feelin' Good.

When he found out about this, in late 2003, Chris offered to join as a guitar player and joined the others. Although at the beginning he played piano (as the group had no bass player) he moved to guitar when the group wrote their first song "Too Many Questions." Tim sang, Oli was the drummer and Dave & Chris played guitar.

In January 2004 the band did first reheasal outside of school in Chris' sitting room with an electric drumkit Chris had got for Christmas. The next practice was in Dave's attic and for the next 12 months or so would stay their.

The group wrote a couple more songs and Tim bought a Bass, which he played while singing (which everyone else knew was pretty awful, and so was Oli's drumming). Tim realised that he wasn't a very good singer, after hearing the early recorded demos made on minidisc and told Dave one day that he didn't want to sing anymore. This meant that Chris and Dave started to sing, although Chris wasn't much of a singer and soon left Dave to it.

Tim became more and more "busy" and no-one could get on with Oli, especially at writing sessions, so after a final session (in which Tim had a go at singing an infamous rendition of Stacy's Mum) said that if Oli wasn't thrown out he'd quit.

Everyone had been planning to throw Oli out at one stage, but delayed it due to a lack of available drummers. So around Easter, Oli was fired and Tim quit anyway.

This left Dave and Chris with a handful of songs and no-one to play them. During the summer Dave came up with a great rhythm and lead riff, and then wrote some lyrics with Chris. This became what is now Ode To Democracy, which was originally about an idiot Chemistry teacher.

When the summer ended and year 11 began, James Kendal joined as a short-term piano player. This meant that there was now a three piece band (with Dave on guitar and vocals and Chris on drums) and that the band was reborn, although not complete. Within a couple of weeks, James got a bass for his birthday and became a bass player, while Chris decided to play the guitar again, leaving no drummer. The band kept writing new songs in Dave's attic. These new songs were much better than before and with no recordings being made, there was more time to write them.

After adverts for singers and drummers didn't ever seem to be answered the band auditioned school friend James Watson to play drums (although he was a novice.) He seemed to have a good sense of rhythm (and was much better than Oli ever was) and was hired just before Christmas.

During Christmas, Dave received a call from a guy with his own drum kit and practice place who had seen the drummer ad and wanted to join, but the place had been filled.

In 2005 the group improved rapidly, with James K becoming an excellent bass player, Dave improving his vocals and mic techniques and Watson improving as a drummer.

For a brief while we had James Eastwood making recordings of us on his laptop, using a mixer we bought, but in the summer Dave bought a laptop and a Cubase programme. We're using this to make higfh quality multi-track recordings which will become an lp sometime soon.

The band decided they were ready to play their first show and arranged back-to-back dates at the TW Forum, but these were later cancelled. The Judd Band Showcase was rigged as it didn't have auditions, and they never got that Live 8 slot they were hoping for. But during the summer they got their place in "the stable" at the Forum, making them one of 70 house bands. This means they could get regular support slots for touring bands. Also, expect some other gigs at Judd and TGGS sometime soon.

During 'The Stable' (24th October), the band came second in their show night. However, they had so many points they were ranked 5th out of 47. On the 14th of December, the band were one of the supporting bands for Monty and the Maniacs (M.A.T.M), and were greeted with great success.

The Future

Currently the band are searching for a record label to sign them. However, their hard rock attitude towards music similar to Queens of the Stone Age, leaves no doubt that they wil eventually gain a contract.