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The Story
 54 Seconds' story begins with a dream. A dream that Spencer
Gibb had in Miami, Florida, in 1997, urging him to move to Texas. So he did,
and he began performing under the name Jez Spencer (a solo project under a
different name).
The original members of this band were Spencer, JJ Johnson,
Johnny Goudie, Einar Pedersen (Goudie). Johnny left early to start his own band
(Goudie), and for
about 8 months, the band was just a 3-piece.
Then JJ remembered Stewart Cochran, who he had seen play with Abra Moore (no relation
to Ian), and also David
Garza (Dahveed). Spencer emailed Stewart, who at the time was touring Europe with Jimmy LaFave. When Stewart got back to Texas, he hooked up with JJ and Spencer at the ARC (Austin Rehearsal Complex), and after hearing some
of Spencer and JJ's demos, Stewart then decided, that he was in for the long
haul.
It was at this time, Einar also departed, and joined up with Goudie.
For a while, JJ, Spencer & Stewart played with a bunch of other bassists,
most notably George
Reiff, (Charlie
Sexton, Ian Moore),
and for the next few months, they continued playing
shows, until George had to leave. That is when the band decided they wanted
to really figure out their own unique sound, and get serious - and with that,
they found Glenn McGregor.
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The
Name
This
process took about a year, in which at the same time, the Jez
Spencer - 4 Track Mind album was being made. The band was still shopping for
someone to manage them, and at this stage they still didn't have a band name.
It was their overseas manager at the time (and long time friend of Spencer) Mark
Chaplin, that suggested they pitch their music to his London partner John Wadlow
(Seal's Ex-manager). After sending Wadlow a few of their demos, Spencer phoned
him up. Wadlow and Spencer clashed from the word go. Wadlow was not impressed
with the band being un-named, and he only liked one of the songs, "In a
Box", but he thought the chorus came in too late, stating "a perfect
pop song chorus comes in at around 54 seconds". Spencer thought he was
crazy and told Wadlow, "We'll name our band 54 Seconds and you can go fuck
yourself".
It was Mark that said he liked the band name (Spencer had only been joking), but
after talking it over with the rest of the band, they stuck with it! Thus was
born 54 Seconds *Heavenly choir sounds fill the space*
54 Seconds are:
[Glenn McGregor] [Spencer Gibb] [Stewart
Cochran]
Guests Musicians: Brannen
Temple, Brian Standefer, Earl Harvin, Ephraim Owens,
Michael Hale, & Seth
Orell.
Former member: [JJ Johnson]
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