Vanilla Pod

Vanilla Pod are based in Norfolk, England and were formed in February 1995. After local gigs and a demo, original singer Paul Davis left the band in August and was replaced by 15 year old Rob Bunting. After more gigs and a second demo they released their first single "Rebound" in 1996 on local label Off-Shoot. Shortly after the release they were offered a deal with Corby based label Them's Good the home of Goober Patrol. Hence Vanilla Pod's first full length album "Trigger" was released in 1997 which was followed with a full UK tour. In late 1998 Vanilla Pod returned back into the studio to record their second full length album. The outcome of this was the release of "Faster Disco" in 1999 to much critical acclaim. Again another successful UK tour followed including this time Ireland. 2000 was another good year for Vanilla Pod. In May/June they had a successful 4 week tour of Australia and Hong Kong. After the tour however bass player Steve Campion left for personal reasons and was replaced by Leon Muncaster. With the new input of song writing from Leon it didn't take long to complete the writing of the third album. The Pod decided to try a different label and was released by Them's Good on mutual grounds. After a few phone calls and a free meal they decided to have their new album released on Deck Cheese records who had at that time only done 3 compilations. But as the guys at Deck Cheese were good friends they felt real comfortable with giving it a go. The Pod went into the studio in February 2001 and the aptly titled "Third Time Lucky" was the result of this. In May the single "Dead End Town" was released which had some airplay on Radio 1 amongst other radio stations like Kiss FM and Total Rock. "Third Time Lucky" was released in June and received consistently good reviews not only from the fanzines but the major press too. To back the release up the Pod played constantly through the rest of the year which included a support with Less Than Jake at the Astoria, playing the Urban Games and The Smash It Up alldayer at the LA2 which was probably the most satisfying as all British bands took part in that gig. Toward the end of the year Vanilla Pod decided to become a 5 piece and as Leon's first instrument is the guitar and it seemed like a good idea to expand the ranks and have the advantage of using 2 guitarists. The obvious choice was to ask Steve Campion to rejoin which he was delighted to do. During a UK tour in June 2002 Steve Campion again decided to leave the band due to personal reasons. As a result of this Tom Wicks was enlisted to play bass. After two days of the tour with Leon filling in on bass Tom joined the band and with no practices under his belt proceeded to play like a mad man! As a result Tom became a full-time addition to the band. In October 2002 the band did a two week UK tour with Capdown which was awesome. In early 2003 new bass player Tom Wicks decided he wanted to leave the band to go to college, as a result Tom from Goober Patrol (FAT Wreck Chords) and now The Toy Dolls joined and was promptly taken on a month long european tour with the band supporting MU330. On return from tour Vanilla Pod headed back into the Studio to record album number 4 'Surrounded By Idiots' (SBI). At the time of writing this SBI has been out for 2 months, has recieved airplay from several major stations and very good reviews. In September 2003 and after 8 and a half years drummer Gary Colman decided to call it quits to concentrate on his job as the band began to tour even more extensively. After Garys last gig on October 25th Jon Waterfield stepped in to take over on the drums and Vanilla Pod headed off on another European tour. After touring the Surrounded By Idiots album consistently the Pod over the next 2 years Vanilla Pod slept for a while only doing 1 off and selected gigs. In 2008 Vanilla Pod, alongside many other bands, contributed two newly recorded tracks to a charity compilation CD called Gangsta's Corner. These would be the first Vanilla Pod recordings since 2003. Later that year, Vanilla Pod line-up returned, yet again, to the studio to record their fifth full-length album - entitled Poets on Payday - which would see release in October 2009 on Boss Tuneage and hit the road to promote the release. Check their myspce site for up coming gigs. http://www.myspace.com/vanillapodrock