the thinks are a 4 piece band from south east london. the thinks sound is a swirling mix of classic pop, rock, blues, psychedelia and crystal clear harmonies. with influences ranging from the beatles to hip hop, pink floyd to howlin' wolf and nick drake to the beach boys, the thinks sound is unique and ever-changing.
the thinks formed in 1991, though they weren't known by that name then.the name of the band was pure sarcasm and the line-up was a group of school friends, martin guest (vocals, guitar), matt monks (vocals, guitar), michael stephenson (bass, vocals) and john-paul noakes (drums, vocals). initially playing covers, pure sarcasm soon started writing their own songs and playing gigs all over london. venues played at included the rock garden, the powerhaus and the mean fiddler. after a couple of years of playing and gigging together, john-paul left to go to college in somerset and the band were drummerless. for the next four years (!) pure sarcasm continued as a threesome, writing and recording songs but not gigging, and finally changing their name to soma.soon after the change of name the band were introduced to ben wright and before he knew what was happening ben was a fully fledged member of soma. after the arrival of ben, soma started gigging again with a whole new set of songs and played at venues including the garage, the water rats, the astoria and best of all, supporting six pence none the richer at the oxford-brookes student union in front of 2000 people. soma also appeared on live tv, on the backstage show on bbc choice, playing a song and acting as house band for the whole show. recently, the band have recorded a whole new set of demos, changed their name briefly to the cartel and then the thinks [which should be here to stay for a while!], and have now written so many songs that they cannot remember most of them.
band line-up is -
- martin guest : vocals, guitars
- matt monks : vocals, guitars, keyboards
- michael stephenson : bass, vocals
- ben wright : drums, guitars, vocals
