Ghosts make their debut at Twa Tams

May 20 2008 by Andrew Welsh

A BAND featuring some established figures on the Perth music scene kick off a new era this weekend.

Ghosts In The Arcade, who are headed up by former Tenesee Kait stalwarts Craig Ross and Scott James, make their debut as a six-piece at a free show in the Fair City’s Twa Tams on Friday night.

While the duo have been generally keeping a low profile in recent times, singer-cum-acoustic guitarist Craig told Music Scene they’ve been keeping their hands in on the live circuit of late.

But the frontman says Ghosts have “a totally different sound” to TK, insisting the new line-up has been influenced as much by Tom Petty as Foo Fighters.

“We’ve been dabbling with the occasional solo acoustic gig in front of the more mature singer-songwriter audience,” Craig revealed yesterday.

“While trying to keep the guitars lower and control the nervous twitch for a distortion pedal, the idea was always to try and mix the ‘Yeah it’s an acoustic gig’ factor with an ‘It can also be rock’ reaction.

“The outcome was always good gig feedback, but it’s just never as much fun on your own.

“After much discussion, heads where cracked together and it was decided to try and keep the acoustic flavour but with a full band.”

Craig and his fellow vocalist/ acoustic strummer Scott turned to Chris Ward (bass), Mark McCabe (drums), Frankie Hill (keyboards) and Alan X (lead guitar) when they were looking to put together a new band.

Wardy and Mark are old friends with the pair, having also been involved in Tenesee Kait, who attracted a large following to gigs a couple of years back.

The new line-up finally rose from the ashes of TK early this year.

Ghosts In The Arcade play the Twa Tams in Scott Street at 9pm on Friday.