This page is about the defunct late 90s band the Wasp Factory, based in Bristol and fronted by Ed Donnell. If you found this page looking for the homepage of the 2000s Grimsby band called the Wasp Factory, it is on MySpace, here.
This page still a work in progress. Please bear with us!
While work on this page continues, you may be interested in checking out the old Wasp Factory website, which is now mirrored on this site. Apart from minor coding fixes it hasn't been updated in many a year (so don't blame me if it doesn't work properly!), but might give you a little bit of background about the band while we get this page written...
The band was named after the book of the same name, written by Iain Banks. At the time of formation, only Séb had actually read it, which lead to some confusion.
It's a little difficult to remember exactly who was in the band, as there were so many bands with similar line-ups during the school years. The main members were Ed on guitar and vocals, Pete Donnell on guitar and bass, Olly Butterfield on drums, Séb John on keyboard, piano, guitar and bass, and (when he actually turned up ;-) Mike Collins on bass. As you might have guessed there was a certain level of argument about who was going to play which instrument at any given time! However, the music was almost entirely written by Ed, with occasional collaborations from other band members (notably Séb). Very few recordings were made with the whole band. However, you can hear a lot of the songs that the band used to play on Ed's “10 songs” and “Waiting for You” demos. Except where noted, all the instruments on these recordings were played by Ed.
| 1. | <the happy song> | Mp3 | Ogg | Lyrics | Tab * |
| 2. | Exit | Mp3 | Ogg | Lyrics | Tab ** |
| 3. | A Million | Mp3 | Ogg | Lyrics | Tab ¤ |
| 4. | Channel Crossing | Mp3 | Ogg | Lyrics | Tab † |
| 5. | Sunrise to Sunset | Mp3 | Ogg | Lyrics | Tab ** |
| 6. | The Incarnate Darkness of Troubled Minds | Mp3 | Ogg | Lyrics | Tab ‡ |
| 7. | R | Mp3 | Ogg | Lyrics | Tab |
| 8. | Plastic | Mp3 | Ogg | Lyrics | Tab |
| 9. | Bright Suns | Mp3 | Ogg | Lyrics | Tab ‡ |
| 10. | Last Letter Home | Mp3 | Ogg | Lyrics | Tab |
* There is another version of <the happy song> featuring the rest of the band, but no vocals, here.
** Tasteless lead guitar played by Pete.
¤ No final recorded version of this has been found, but there is a demo on Ed's Concept Demos recording.
† According to the 10 songs track listing, Channel Crossing was supposed to be recorded with someone called ‘Tim “the Ripper” Sharpe’ playing piano. It's fairly certain that this recording was never made. However, a demo version played by Ed on guitars is available on the solo music page.
‡ At the moment we have no recordings of these songs. There are still more tapes to be mastered onto the computer, so maybe a recording will turn up in the future.
| 1. | Tomorrow is the End | Mp3 | Ogg | Lyrics | Tab |
| 2. | Dead End Town | Mp3 | Ogg | Lyrics | Tab |
| 4. | Waiting for You | Mp3 | Ogg | Lyrics | Tab |
Here are some photos of the band. This was the only photo session I'm aware of, and Olly's mum wouldn't let him out to play or something similar, which is why he wasn't in it ;-) However, to compensate for the lack of photo of Olly, we present Moist for your amusement (not for the faint of heart!).
The photos were taken by Chris Wyatt in exchange a bottle of vodka. Click on a thumbnail below to view a large version of a picture. WARNING! some of the files are quite large and may take a moment to display!
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| Mike | Séb | Full band 1 | Full band 2 |
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This music free to share under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License.
