"229" have been together since 1989. Bizzo currently lives in Vancouver, Canada. Alan lives in Australia, and I (Jerry Peal) live in London. So that makes us not together anymore....which is a slight inconvenience, but we're working on ways to send midi files and sample ideas to each other over the internet.
left to right Dave Bizzo
Vocals & PaintingsAlan Dweck
Guitars & VocalsJerry Peal
Keyboards & ProgrammingWe play rock/jazz/reggae....sort of. Influences are Floyd, Sting, Marley, ZZ Top...
I first met Alan at school (Stowe) way back in 1977, where we formed our first band, "Twilight Fisheries". Rumour has it, I was only in the band because I had a drum kit.
The band is now called 229 because Alan and Bizzo both lived in a block of flats in Maida Vale, London and the number of the block was 229. We had our studio there and lots of our musical ideas have come out of that building.
In the early days at Stowe, (long before we met Bizzo) we rehearsed in the geography classroom at weekends, so luckily for everybody else at the school, we were rarely ever heard. We were awful, but also popular, as we represented musical rebellion. Classical music was the only style of music that was "approved" by the school music department and few kids ever chose to go to the school orchestra's concerts. We played a few times to packed out halls.
Alan was working in Paris in the late eighties, and his flat mate, Laura used to like the tapes he took back to Paris after a weekend's jamming with me, here in London. She sugested we should try busking on the streets of Paris.
We said....."Don't be stupid, you can't "busk" with a 16 track studio, computers and synths, racks of studio gear etc...."She said....."Why not ?"And so in a moment of madness, we decided to try.We completely dismantled the studio, hired a van and a petrol generator for power, chose a sunny weekend and drove over to Paris. We set up in "Place St. Germain" and busked all day. We had a friend of Alan's who was an artist, paint a giant picture whilst we played. The idea was to try to catch the interest of as many passers by as possible. Some "Eye candy" as well as our musical "Ear candy"....It was a great success and we ended up doing it again on a much bigger scale. See 229 Tour of Eastern Europe
We are currently working on new material for the next 229 album.
