The Sunshine Crowd was formed in Sydney in 1994 and was largely a vehicle for the song writing and performing talents of the singer songwriter and former Widowed Isis,Bob Armstrong and The Navigators , The Tall Poppies , AKA , violinist Marvin Druid. It rose from the ashes of a band called Alpha State. After watching Alpha State perform as a first support to his own band Blackboard Jungle, John Botica was so impressed that he soon offered to join as the bass player after hearing the band's original bassist had left to pursue other commitments in his homeland of China. His desire to play in Alpha State was purely based on the strength of the band's material which in Botica's opinion was among the best he'd ever heard and thought it was by far superior to what Blackboard Jungle was doing at the time.
Following Botica's joining, Alpha State continued on its quest of performing its unique songwriter driven material in venues all around Sydney and secured a Friday night residency in the Old Windsor Tavern on Castlereagh street. It was here that the band aimed to hone its style whilst building up a following which was slowly but surely beginning to emerge.
Unfortunately, as is all too often the case, friction's began developing in the band. The lead guitarist and vocalist often complained that the band had lost its original direction and everyone began to feel quite insecure and disillusioned. He began to skip rehearsals and recording sessions and on more than a few occasions chose not to even turn up to gigs! The band finding itself on stage without a main singer and lead guitarist would often be forced to improvise extended instrumentals consisting of wild electric violin and bass guitar solos. Although this sometimes proved to be quite exciting for the gathered punters it was decided that the band could no longer continue in this fashion and the remaining members eventually came to the unanimous decision that the troublesome lead guitarist and founder of the band just had to go!
The sacking duties were delicately handled by the band's drummer Brendon Venner who graciously took it upon himself to deliver the message via a swift and stinging three second phone call. It was quite a sad situation as the band regarded him as an integral part of the overall chemistry. He was an above average singer and a pretty nimble guitarist as well.
Within weeks the band had changed its name to The Sunshine Crowd after one of Marvin Druid's songs of the same title. They also recruited a new bass player, ex Labrats and Ironheart bassist Mark O'Connor, Botica switching to his more familiar role as lead guitarist. The band went into full-time rehearsal mode and at the ripe old age of 3 days performed as part of the Society of Australian Songwriters festival at Tumbalong Park in Sydney's Darling Harbour. Druid, realising that the band needed more material, went into an absolute song writing frenzy and wasted no time in setting up recording sessions for a debut album at Damien Gerards Studios in Sydney. The bass player from The Angels, Jim Hilbun was suggested as producer for the album and produced a number of the tracks, the sessions were engineered by Russell Pilling with whom Jim had worked extensively.
The album was a raw collection of songs that might be described as Rock Folk Fusion. The material was largely co written and entirely arranged by the band with production on some tracks by Jim Hilbun . Songs such as Suicide , Now that I'm Back , Tug of Love, Get to You and Success were creations that were born in jam sessions whereas other tracks such as The Stone, Revolution and Ice Cream had their roots in Marvin's life experience.
Sadly, Marvin was taken seriously ill and was sidelined for six months. As a result the Album produced at Damien Gerards was not pressed or released even though it was mastered at Festival Studios in Sydney. The Sunshine Crowd was subsequently assigned to history with the various members pursuing their individual careers. Marvin has since recovered and is still writing and recording material for his next project. Brendon, after briefly joining John in the alibi has since traded his kit for a woodturning lathe and is pursuing the creation of the perfect set of drumsticks and possesses a strange fetish for wooden egg cups. Mark occupies his time playing in a Sydney covers band and is busy raising a family. John is busy promoting his current album and working on his next musical project.