Jon and Phil started the band after their previous band Schizoid Embolism split. Andy was recruited for his first band. And the original line up was completed with Dave. Former Life After The Kill member Paul replaced Dave after he left the band. And this has been the line up for the last four years.

They've been gigging steadily since the start, playing many of the established venues in Oxfordshire, including The Bullingdon Arms in Oxford (during one of the heaviest thunder storms the city had ever witnessed), the "T In The Pub 2" event at The Hobgoblin in Bicester in December 2000 (it poured down with rain again that day too), and on several occasions The Mill Arts Centre in Banbury (where it's stayed dry each time, so far!)
Sump were pleased to play outside of Oxfordshire at the Chipping Sodbury Bikers Rally last year, partly because it didn't rain (in fact it was very hot) and partly because the organizers gave them drink afterwards. There are some photographs of that performance in the Images section.
You can book the band for your own venue via the email form in the Contact section of this site. Remember, the weather won't affect the performance and they'll play anywhere and everywhere.
Keep checking the Gigs page for any upcoming gigs.

The weekend of the 7th & 8th April 2001 were spent at Dungeon Studios in Oxfordshire recording four new tracks for release on CD.
Ten hours were spent on Saturday 7th recording all the music and most of the vocals.
The remaining vocals were completed in five hours on Sunday 8th along with all the mixing expertly mastered by Dungeon's resident engineer Richard Haines.

Clips of the results are available to download from the Music page of this site.
If you'd like to order a copy of the CD after listening to the clips please complete the online e-mail form in the Contact section with you details and we'll get back to you. Please don't send any credit card details on the form, this is not a secure site.

In the near future the band are looking forward to contributing a song to a benefit CD, "Insufficient Evidence" in the US. Click Here to find out more details about the A.B.O.R.T.E.D. cause.

Saturday 2nd June saw Sump perform a storming set of their own songs at the Wolverhampton Little Civic in the Battle Of The Bands contest. With a crowd pleasing opening song Chains Of Life and following on with equal intensity with Don't Blame Me, Hollow, Fire and finishing off with Devil Friend, the band have breezed through to the second round of the competition which will be held at the same venue. No dates have been announced yet, but rest assured, the details will be posted here as soon as they're confirmed.
Another band, Vae Solis, also went through to the second round. They're a particularly heavy band and performed one of the loudest sets ever!
Their site has some samples of their material but nothing can convey the sheer volume they played at.
Check out the Images section for a photograph of the two winning bands basking in their deserved glory.

Sump's supporting slot at Hobson's Choice in September went down so well they've been invited back for another event. The details can be found in the Gigs section. It was a fantastic night. Apart from the stunning crowd reaction, another bonus was the gig was reviewed by Nightshift, the Oxfordshire music magazine. The review included some very complimentary words about the band. The full review can be found by clicking here. In return for their kindness, we've added a link to the online version of the magazine to the Links section.

The 2nd round of The Battle Of The Bands also proved to be an enormous success. The band came first on points because "We kicked ass!" according to Paul. (See the Wolverhampton Civic website for details on the scoring system they use).

The 3rd round contest date has already been set. Check out the Gigs page for more news.

The band were extremely pleased to make it through to the quarter finals of The Wolverhampton Civic Battle Of The Bands after winning the 3rd round on June 9th 2002. The next gig has been announced and is featured on the Gigs page.

Any further band developments will be documented here in the Biography section.

Here's their equipment list. If you'd like to visit any of the manufacturers websites click on the equipment.

Jon Drums

Phil Guitar & Vocals

Andy Guitar

Paul Bass & Vocals