At recess in fourth grade, Seth Wolin and David Webster were talking about music.  Punk rock, rock & roll, metal etc.  And admiring the song that they were talking about, David said something that would change the course of their lives.  He said:  "I bet I could strum that guitar line".  Thinking about this, Seth said that he could sing the song on key, and their friend Lucas Cohen (a skilled drummer, like David, said that he could drum the beat.  They the basis of a band, and that day at band practice, they thought hard.  Who would do what in the band, what they would play, and how they would play it.  This is the initial lineup for the band "British Prodigy" (Working name, because of Seth's accented singing voice, the name and Seth's voice would still change, though):

 

Seth - Vocals

 

David - Guitar (even though David was a drummer; no guitar lessons)

 

Lucas - Drums

 

And that lineup held out pretty good... for a week.  We needed to add a little something more to our band; we needed that extra kick, especially in the field of guitar.  So we recruited a prior friend and developing acoustic guitarist, Ari Finkel.  We had it down... for one more week.  We needed to get moving, get recording, and add some effects to our songs.  So we invited computer hobbiest Charles Passalacqua into our group.  Once again, not enough.  During our songs we didn't get that rumbling rock feeling in our bones, no bass guitar.  As it turns out, Emma, Seth's sister, was taking bass lessons.  So she was signed on to the band.  The roster read:

 

Seth - Vocals

 

Lucas - Drums

 

David - Guitar

 

Ari - Acoustic Guitar

 

Charles - FX

 

Emma - Bass

 

And, miraculously, it worked.  But there were minor problems.  Lucas was scheduling play dates with his preppy friends and missing practice, David was ten times better at drums than at guitar, and Charles was always criticizing everything (S.T.F.U. solved that, though), Seth wanted it his way, Ari wanted it his way, and Emma just plain had better things to do.  So the core members (Seth, Ari, and David) had a talk.  A long talk.

 

The topic?  Who will stay and who will go.  They evaluated each member according to performance and commitment towards the band.  Here is a chart of the results of the talk

 

 Seth:  Something to prove, committed, eager, control freak - STAY

  

David:  Great drummer, listens to other ideas, likes his own taste too much, mad connections - STAY; but as drummer

 

 Ari:  Developing MAD skills, Next Hendrix, much potential, soon to receive electric guitar - STAY; as lead guitarist

 

 Charles:  Discouraging, helpful recording, critical of band - GO

 

 Emma - Developing MAD bass skills, open to new songs, wrapped up in mad connections - STAY

 

 LUCAS - doesn’t give band enough attention, good drummer, nice kid, misses practice - GO

 

Band name changes to Great Fields of Fire (G.F.F.) for Seth's pyro obsession

 

 And these results were to be read formally to the band, as not to hurt the two that would leave us.  But somehow, the results got out before they were supposed to.  At recess one day, we were going to ask Charles and Lucas to leave, but Charles had already found out, and dignified, he said "I quit, and Lucas, they're cutting you from the band the say you don't give the band enough attention and that you're hyper."  And Lucas broke down.  He couldn't take it.  He didn't want to have anything to do with us anymore.  So that was that for Lucas Cohen and Charles Passalacqua.  But there was more to come for G.F.F.

 

For 1 year, Great Fields of Fire played in the dark, nobody knew whom we were, and we didn't play at any shows.  But then we got a gig.  "Skate Nite", as they call it.  It was in a gym, skaters skated while we played.  And i'm sorry to say, we mad a bad impression.  Seth was off-key, Ari and Emma were NOT in synchronization, and David was David, loudly emotionless.  On the way to school the next day, some 8th grade sh**head yelled "F**k Great Balls of Fire!"  Not encouraging.  But we needed to move on, get our act together, so we practiced every Friday from then on.  Then came the block party.

 

We were invited to play at the block party on our street, for the whole block to hear.  And this time, everything was clean and simple.  No screaming, wailing, cracking, just singing.  And Emma and Ari found a baseline for our songs that they could play in harmony.  And David was now an edgier, more powerful David than the one cough syrup at Skate Nite.  We cleaned up our act from 4 months ago.  And then some.  It was uphill from there; Reznor, a local recording studio, who is expecting a demo tape late April 2005, noticed us.  And we played at many more shows after that.  Some small (Emma's B-day), some big the biggest show we played was at the Baird center to benefit the tsunami victims. We raised 4,800 dollars and played a good show.  Our most recent show was at the battle of the classes at MMS. We played Brain Stew with our old drummer Lucas because David doesn't go to MMS.  GFF may is playing a few shows this summer.  Check out the shows/events page for details.