Hey, Rayne Berry here. Yes, I do still exist! (:
For those who don't know, I've written a bestselling autobiography, "Have Your Cake (And Puke It Too)", which includes a lot of things about my life as a musician, learning to sing and play drums, joining Moronic Changeling, becoming a soloist, releasing my album, falling down and getting up again .... also, there's been a lot of talk about whether you started out with nothing or had it all thrown into your lap.
For example, take the Kitena Dale vs. Kamikaze Kate rivalry, four years ago. Kitena grew up in the lap of luxury, and had everything she wanted straight out of the box, fame as soon as she stepped on the scene. Kate had barely grown up, and she was very poor, she had to fight to get her name out. Are you a Kitena or a Kate, or somewhere inbetween? Also, about family support. Though Raven Comatose had a tough time, her family wanted her to be a musician more than anything - while Madbirds' Nick's mother wouldn't even let her strike a drum in front of her. What were your family like?
What about any defining moments? The moment that Raven was sure that she wanted to be famous, was when her brother died - she's told me before, she does it all for Nathan. For Firecracker 47, it was Joshy Firecracker getting dropped from his first record label and wanting to sing a big "fuck you" at them. For me, it was the first time I went into remission from anorexia. I wanted to do something with my life, and be remembered as someone, not just waste away.
Sorry if this is a bit "probing" .... but what are your stories?

(OOC : This is mainly out of interest. I have loads of backstories for my artists and like reading things like this, I wondered if anyone else has made anything up!)

Well, my story is of one from been dirt poor to making something of my self. I've scraped by trying to earn a living, not been able to afford to have even dinner sometimes and going without because I had spent every last cent I had on making my bands debut album. Us guys then lived in a caravan (we were too proud to ask our parents for help) and parked it up and slept whever we could to try and save some money when we travelled to gigs. We got arrested several times for theft, did short jail stints, stole some more and didn't get caught. The band nearly broke up on three seperate occasions before we got our debut album out and along the way the guys in the band we had just dropped away. Firstly the drummer who was a violent alcoholic maniac, then the bassist who was a lying, backstabbing scum fuck and then it was my time...my darkest period in life...when the band effectively ceased to be when I was jailed for assaulting my ex wife who I had divorced several months before hand. That was as low as it could get; your liberty been taken from you and you been at the mercy of the state officials who controlled everything you did. Still, she was an utter slut, deceitful and manipulative and I probably should have pushed her down the stairs.

Thankfully I hadn't fucked up too bad and I was able to leave and make my way elsewhere. I could restart the band, bring in new musicians who did not know of the past and shared my new found passion for music and now the journey continues on taking us to along different paths all the time. I could go on but I wouldn't want to bore you.

Rick Fisher
The Black Gates

Herr Fische probably wouldn't have been if it wasn't for a sequence of events that brought us all together. Most of us attended the same secondary school in our home town of Hartlepool but none of us really knew each other. In fact, Kii Kii and I hated each other. She used to hang around with the wrong crowd you know smoking and drinking behind the bike sheds and taking people's dinner money. She used to take my money and bully me but since she was a girl it was kind of embarrassing to admit that to other lads or teachers. Anyway one day we were in a music lesson and she was again bullying me (we sat next to each other). Anyway I snapped and told her and the teacher to fuck off or words to that effect. She then attacked me but the teacher intervened. We were both given detention and we had to write and perform a piece of music that was to be used in the school show later that year (which I think was around 2001/2002). So we were forced to work together. She was a complete bitch who tried to take over but after about 3 weeks, the ice thawed and we started to be able to work together. I wasn't particularly bright at school but music was my strong point. However, Kii Kii hated music and saw "no point in it". I knew how to read music and write it so I helped Kii Kii try to understand it. There was a turning point when I asked Kii Kii if she played any instruments. She said she could play guitar. It turned out she was a kick ass guitarist as her dad was a member of several local bands and a Hells Angel and taught her how to play. So we wrote a piece based around the guitar and piano. We later used it on our first album in a song called The Madagascar Plan. It went down a treat at the school show and we became friends. Our music teacher who was as mad as a box of badgers encouraged us to start our own band. He also gave us some advice which has stuck with me ever since. He said something like "Don't tie yourselves down to a particular genre because you'll become boring and cliched". He also said something like "Music is another world so explore it". So we did. We advertised around school and local area and got nowhere at first. The first person we recruited our former keyboardist Leeroy Jones aka Zoo just because he was the first to enquire. After a few weeks we got nowhere but then two foreign exchange students, Hetti Steinberger and Helga Borgen enquired. They were at our school for a couple of weeks from Frankfurt in Germany. Hetti could play all sorts of instruments, some i'd never even heard of and Helga could play bass. So now we were a 5 piece band but we still had no drummer. However, Kii Kii knew someone who could play drums. This turned out to be Brenda Hatch aka B*Atch. Anyways we wrote more music and after about 6 weeks or so we played our first gig at school. We were terrible in my opinion but it was a great feeling to be onstage. The teachers and other students loved us too. After our first gig, we were approached by another two people. These were Thomas 'TomTom' Thompson and another dude who shall remain nameless. They were in a band that had played earlier in the night but they had just split up. It turned out Thomas was a rhythym guitarist and Mr Unknown was like Hetti a multi instrumentalist. So now we were an 8 piece. So we continued to write music as we studied for exams and shit. We played a few more gigs here and there and got quite a name for ourselves over the years as we studied at college. Hetti and Helga moved to Hartlepool to go to college and we fired Zoo after he stole some of our cash to buy dope. We replaced him with my brother Paul and the rest they say is History.