Artist Bio
Taking there cues from a striving local underground metal scene the band WASHED clearly set a course all there own playing their style of catchy EUROPEAN influenced Hard Rock! Born to a an Irish father & Italian mother JJ BELLEW formed the band in September 1986 in Allentown, Pennsylvania with JOHN ROEBUCK and PHIL MAHR. In January 1987 MIKE WHITMORE completed the line up for 1 demo and 6 months of gigs opening with "I NEED AN ANGEL" led the band to be thought of as Christian Metal.
November of 87 brought change to the line up DANNY BROWN was recruited from NASTY NASTY replacing WHITMORE who joined OMYNUS. Locally the band was widely considered the first of the Music Hall bands to break the mold buy performing strictly original music & within a year from its first gig (Apr-87) WASHED became the most popular hard rock band in the area.
Sam Younes & (Pat Lenover who now works for LIVE NATION) booked the band as much as possible in the NORTHEAST USA. Which included the "Empire Rock Room/Trocadero-Philadelphia" "Metron-Harrisburg" "Hammerjacks-Baltimore" "Cat Club/NYC" and select clubs through out Pennsylvania/New Jersey with artists such as SKID ROW, WHITE LION, JOAN JETT, KIX, TT QUICK, ZEBRA, PAT TRAVERS BAND, GREG HOWE, DIRTY LOOKS, TRIXTER, BRITNEY FOX & BAD ENGLISH.
Networking with regional bands "SCREAMER/JIM DOFKA-Ohio/WV" "BACK TALK/Swizzles-York, Pa" and "SHOUTS/Club Narcissus-Boston" opened for the band locally as they reciprocated with WASHED going to their home turf.
The band recorded the Power Ballad "ALONE" with producer KURT SHORE at Kajem Studios in Philadelphia the track received strong airplay locally from WZZO/RICK STRAUSS-WAEB 104.1! College stations WMUH/WLVR and specifically WXLV's-MATT METAL-KAMAKIZE CRAIG-HEAVY METAL HEATHER gave the band an incredible amount of exposure!
In "Sept of 89" on the strength of local support WASHED was voted by record company reps "WZZO Z-95's 1st BACKYARD BANDS" winner at the Allentown Fair. Which was followed buy additional airplay from Philadelphia radio stations WMMR/CINDY DRUE and WYSP/RAY KOOB as the band performed for the Philadelphia Music Foundation at the Arch Street Empire.
Concrete Marketing & Promotions Convention sampler in 1988 & 90 included "ALONE" and "TURN IT AROUND" respectively garnering the band international exposure in countries that included CANADA, AUSTRALIA, ITALY, UK, GERMANY, FRANCE, SWEDEN, GREECE & SPAIN.
RICK STATKUS who engineered and co produced various tracks for WASHED came aboard in 1990 replacing JOHN ROEBUCK (brother actor DANIEL ROEBUCK). With almost 3 years of intense rehearsing, gigging, and recording WASHED released the 13 track BLUE album in October 1991 selling several thousand copies worldwide with very little promotion getting the attention of ATLANTIC, ATCO, GEFFEN, WARNER BROS and ELEKTRA Records.
A record deal never came with the rise of "Seattle Grunge" in the early 90's the landscape musically was changing & it was not to long after that they stopped supporting hard rock music of the 80's altogether when MTV joined in by dropping HEADBANGERS BALL officially marking the end of hard rock/metal in main stream America for the time being, how smart was that people do remember the album sales you idiots?
WASHED disbanded in January 1992 before they where due to perform at the legendary "L'AMOUR/KEN KREITE" in Brooklyn, NY! WASHED never had any regrets the song's speak for them self, they put forth a great effort laying the path for record companies to sign area talent in the 90's most notably FUEL!
the guys dispersed never performing ever again as BROWN went on to front IRON BOTTOM SOUND 1994-98 producing 2 CD's & continues to work to this day at MARTIN Guitar's since 1990. STATKUS kept up his studio production work with the area musicians and is still very active to this day. PHIL MAHR performed in several bands and JJ BELLEW continued his song writing, recently performing with SARAH AYERS (Oct/2004-June/05 non metal).
Fast forward to Oct. 2006 the bands MYSPACE page was posted, followed buy "GUILTY & ALONE's" inclusion on the LEHIGH VALLEY ROCKS 1984-94 compilation.
It was only a matter of time before the world heard the vibrant & catchy "I NEED AN ANGEL" posted on the eve of one of the most important elections in American history to protest this leaderless country as the GULF COAST ravaged Katrina continues to bleed.. 2007 will bring us to "FIREWORKS MAGAZINE/UK" CD Song Sampler out now, and will include the underground anthem "I NEED AN ANGEL" followed by the bands CD release in May as momentum starts to build for the band to perform live..
www.myspace.com/washedpa
