The Verge

The origins of The Verge are traced back to the Adelaide foothills suburb of Rostrevor in 1980 where two neighbours, guitarist Andrew Piper and bass player Rohan Belton met through a mutual friend and started jamming with their favourite Beatles songs. They teamed up with another neighbour, drummer Grant Middleton and the three high school students soon became a pretty crappy outfit, yes they were learning.

In time, Rohan met Lance Storm at photography school and they discovered they had similar musical interest and tastes. Lance was an accomplished left handed guitarist and he brought along his brother Mark to a jam. Mark was a gifted songwriter and played a bit of rhythm guitar. Soon they were a five piece and played one party.

Friction was imminent between the two brothers. In a reshuffle, Lance wouldn't be in a band with Mark and a new drummer, Scott Morse was recruited.

Soon they shaped this four piece guitar band into the unique psychedelic beat group of The Verge [1st ever known use of the name anywhere in the world, Jan 1981]. A few gigs started to eventuate but they weren't well matched to the bands direction initially.

Wearing paisley shirts, winkle pickers, Haight-Ashbury sunglasses and mullets, the Verge played a show at the outer northern suburban Smithfield Football Club. Beer drinking footballers with a taste for Cold Chisel, Barnsey and AccaDacca were taken aback initially, but with a set consisting of up tempo sixties and seventies covers, they escaped unharmed. Soon came a toga party at the Magill Institute and their first pub gig at the Angas Hotel in Adelaide.

Although cheap instrument and equipment hindered the development of their live sound, more gigs came and Mark Storm's vision of a late sixties style psychedelic / acid band from the Summer of Love soon came to fruition and The Verge carved out a niche in the underground music circles in Adelaide. Mark Storm was a talented art student and provided art direction to the band's image as well as the odd gig flyer.

During spring 1983, Mark recruited Belinda MacQueen as keyboard player and vocalist to broaden the possibilities with the sound. The five piece started becoming sought after and was often on the bill with the likes of the Screaming Believers and Fools Apart. The scene in Adelaide was about to explode and crowd numbers at gigs suddenly expanded. Many packed gigs at pubs like The Tivoli, The Cathedral, The Princess Berkely and The Union soon cemented The Verge's popularity.

During this time, Mark Storm became a volunteer announcer at community radio station TripleM (now 3D Radio) with his own show, Surrealistic Shower. This provided a valuable shop front for demos and recorded works by Adelaide's underground bands for regular airplay, The Verge amongst them. The band recorded a demo at Concordia College's studio with their live sound engineer Mike Longmire. Although is was not of high quality, 'I Will Make You Live' started getting a regular airing.

During 1984, local label Greasy Pop Records was picking up momentum with more frequent releases. The labels founder and owner Doug Thomas owned the inner city record shop Umbrella Music. Everything was in place, the bands, the label, the retailer and a vibrant scene. Some time in 1984 Rohan Belton suggested to Thomas that Greasy Pop should release a compilation album. By the next year, the compilation 'An Oasis in a Desert of Noise' came to fruition.

During Christmas 1984, The Verge recorded two tracks, 'Here With No Fear' and 'Outside Eden' at Studio 202 with engineer Kim Horne. Drummer Scott Morse was unavailable for the session so Andrew Geue of Dead Astronauts and Dust Collection played on these recordings. Also, Vic Conrad of The Garden Path and Fools Apart featured on Organ. These became the opening tracks of 'An Oasis in a Desert of Noise' which was to become and Australian indi classic. Soon, Thomas negotiated a distribution deal for the Greasy Pop releases with Festival opening up the label to a worldwide market.

Early in 1985, drummer John Gilbert replaced Morse but before long, tensions in the band were starting to arise. Rohan had started moonlighting with The Garden Path and Dust Collection. Mark Storm's ideas were not being supported by the rest of the band and he was soon to depart. The Verge played their last show at the Tivoli Hotel in March 1985 to a packed house and yes, jelly babies and panties were apparently thrown. The band regrouped with singer and rhythm guitarist Ray Brown of The Hairdressers under the name of The Affection and continued gigging for a few months before Belton left to concentrate on commitments with his other bands.

In March 2006, after 21 years in the real world, The Verge played an explosive reunion gig at the Grace Emily Hotel in Adelaide with members and fans coming from around Australia to participate. This gig was superbly recorded by Dave Lokan and several live tracks will appear on The Verge's fi