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Alan Bruce Alan Bruce began his playing career back in the 1970’s as a teenager wanting to emulate his then hero, Marc Bolan. He learned how to play a twelve-bar, taught by an older friend named Andy Cope whose brother Mo played bass in a band called ‘Alan Avon & The Toyshop’ who had supported ‘Black Sabbath’ in their early days. The first song Alan learned to play was ‘Down The Dustpipe’ by Status Quo - a twelve bar boogie. He claims to have been in the first ever 1974 tribute band to play a set of 30 songs, 26 of them from Quo! Alan had always sung from an early age in school choirs, progressing to drums and percussion in his high school orchestra alongside his out-of-school bass playing activities in various bands. He recalls that they changed the name of the band almost weekly before settling on ‘The Harley Street Blues Band II’ and this led to a string of self-penned numbers which still barely survive on ‘tape’ to this day. For most musicians, it all sounds rather familiar. In those formative years, some great musicians and friends were made as well as even better stage clothes including platform boots and winged tops. All these were great fun and always just past trend being a rock music fan as in ‘Rush’, ‘Yes’, ‘Genesis’ and ‘Black Sabbath’ was not good in the UK in the mid to late 1970’s. Various bands and line-ups came and went as he found himself playing with’ Heartbreaker’ between 1980-1983, a voracious touring band who played the Northern UK rock circuit with other contemporaries such as ‘Twisted Sister’. Alan recalled “We supported ‘Demon’ several times and secured a deal with a very minor label”. Alan wrote some of his best songs in this band at that time with some excellent musicians, very much a mix of ‘Genesis’ and ‘Level 42’ if you can imagine it. Taking To The Boards Around this time Alan met Jazz dancer Janice through a mutual friend. Jan introduced him to the world of local drama groups. His love of performance gained a new direction, taking to the boards, singing and acting in many shows over the years, including award winning productions, playing in pit bands for a couple of shows too. Alan has always loved gadgets and gizmos of all kinds and photography is one of his passions; he loves to try to capture the essence of the moment! A brief period of show performance inactivity followed for Alan and Jan with the arrival of children Michelle and Mark. Both have naturally followed in their parent’s footsteps playing, acting and performing in shows and bands. They were both involved in the world premisers of GRUeSOME, Mark on drums and Michelle as Mary Kelly, co-producer and dance captain. Whilst recovering from a serious illness, his close friend Tony Mckenzie was working on his ‘Eniac’ album on which Alan had the opportunity to play bass, some rhythm guitar and sing as well as providing hints and ideas for the production. The album spanned a twelve month project with on and off interruptions here and there. Tony inspired Alan to produce his own album based on his existing in ‘Altered States of Consciousness’. No, he wasn't drunk when he thought that up; he was just waking from a dream about being water! Alan had about eight tracks lined up for that album in various states of readiness and no doubt they will make the studio one of these days. “Tempus Fugit” as they say. Alan's album had been put firmly, albeit in a gentle way, onto the back boiler, slowly simmering. The Berner Street concept started off with Tony asking Alan to work on his new album – playing bass, guitars, writing lyrics and performing the vocals. From this it became an all- encompassing joint project. There were some very diverse outings style wise for both musicians but that all added to the mix and made life interesting. Alan commented “It is one of the most in-depth and interesting projects I've ever been involved with during the 40 years I've been playing music”. Both Alan and Tony pushed themselves technically and imaginatively on the Berner Street Album. “I've never worked so hard or enjoyed a project as much” says Alan. The Mckenzie-Bruce album ‘Berner Street’ was completed and released back in 2008. The ensuing four years saw Alan develop a basic script storyline for ‘Berner Street’ to become a rock musical. It was during this initial phase that Alan developed a close connection with Stone Little Theatre, playing some key roles in plays, musicals and pantomimes and working closely with his long-time friend and producer/director Chris Bell. Having read through the basic script one evening with several SLT members, it fired both Alan and Chris to take the show further at some future point. For no apparent reason, a four-year period elapsed and Alan's original album had still not made it to recording but Tony had again planned another album. The concept of ‘Gravity Waves’ was apparent and Alan and Tony began working on it. During this period, Tony was struck down with a serious illness from which it took him two years to fully recover but then the race was on again to complete ‘Gravity Waves’. Alan wrote the lyrics, bass parts and contributed 'Al's Blues' to the mix as well as co-writing 'God Particle' which was recorded in just one take in the studio. The ‘Gravity Waves’ album was completed and released on 29th August 2016 and Alan's contribution alongside Tony Mckenzie cannot be underestimated. No doubt that Alan's long overdue solo album will take focus again at some point and who knows that might well be the next course of action for Alan and maybe Tony. Around Christmas 2018 Chris Bell contacted Alan regarding his Rock Musical ‘Berner Street’, wanting to co-produce it locally. Newly renamed ‘GRUeSOMe’, after an often-used phrase from Tony, Chris, Alan and wife Jan began a series of forthnighly meetings which resulted in Alan burning quite a few litres of midnight oil researching, writing and honing the libretto. The rest is history. GRUeSOMe was ready to cast and go into rehearsal by the start of 2020. Regrettably, COVID put a stop to almost every production at Stoke Repertory Theatre including our October premiere. Three years later and with an almost brand-new cast, rehearsals began in April 2023 for the world premiere of the show which finally took to The Rep stage from 24th to 28th October. It was an outstanding success with brilliant 'rave' reviews which you can read by clicking on the the menu tabs above.