Forgone Convulsion
Profile of a band active during the late 1980s
Band name: Forgone Convulsion
Genre: Alternative New Wave Dancehall
Years active: 1986-1991, 1993, 1997, 2010
Notable albums: The Evening of Oddness (1988), Number 2 (1990)
Notable chart performances: none[1]
Profile:
Forgone Convulsion is a band who saw some minor success in the late 1980s. They formed following the break-up of Knifefight and Crumpetmania. Both bands were led by the same guitarist, lead singer, and key songwriter Jeremy Sneak, who hired a range of local session musicians to fill in the blanks of his musical knowledge. Sneak had a reputation for being incredibly difficult to work with, having a supreme overconfidence in his own ability coupled with an inability to recognise his vast shortcomings. Both Sneak’s previous bands broke up after they were booked to play the same venue on December 3, 1985, creating havoc among the musicians and crew of both bands, many of whom were the same people. Sneak fired everyone and played a very ordinary acoustic set, witnessed by the bar staff who remained.
The band’s first album, An Evening of Oddness, was a vast rock opera highlighting the events of that December evening. Running to 35 minutes, Oddness, as it was to become known, featured the single “Seven Souls” which became a minor hit in Denmark and Pakistan. Unfortunately for Jeremy Sneak, this success added to his misplaced self-confidence, and he decided to embark on a world tour that took in much of Eastern Europe. He eventually recorded the Gdansk concert and released it as a double album featuring the entire first album played through twice, the first time forwards, the second time backwards. After spending several months trying to think of an album name, Sneak ended up choosing Number 2 - a working title he wasn’t quite happy with.
Following the release of this live album, Sneak, in an act of extraordinary hubris, fired the whole band to work on a solo quadruple album. Having no money to pay for studio time, Sneak sought and got a job working the night shift at a bodega, thinking he would work to save money, and write during the day when he wasn’t working. He ended up enjoying his position so much, over the course of the next few years, he worked his way through the system and by early 2005, owned bodega franchises in seven cities on the eastern seaboard.
Forgone Convulsion reformed three times over the years. Each time because Jeremy Sneak’s mother needed some background music for her book club annual meeting. Sneak was only too happy to oblige.