THE TRADITIONALS
The Traditionals were first started in November 1997 by Dave Harris, who saw a falling out with his band, the international recording artists The Sussed, and wanted to take his ideas into a new direction. Dave soon talked to his younger brother, Joe Harris, who played drums, and who was toying with the idea of a band with singer Donovan Greenaway and bassist Craig Bolton, who played wiht the well established punk trio, The Kebabs. With these four members in place, The Traditionals started to craft a sound that would set them apart from the Pittsburgh punk scene. The band although rapidly improving, felt their sound needed the fullness of an additional guitar. This role was readily filled by Matt Mosocco, who was known for his work in Buffalo's street punk kings, The Stomping Abrasions. At this Point, the band played some fine local and regional shows, put in a hard 6 months of practice, and tightened their hold on the Pittsburgh punk/oi! scene. In May of 1998, The Traditionals took their first trip to the recording studio, which produced a 6 song demo. After the demo, and a fine summer of playing shows with bands such as Patriot, The Ducky Boys, and Eastern Standard Time, Matt Mosocco returned to Buffalo to pursue a job offer. This left a void on rhythm guitar, which was quickly filled by Rick Janus, better known for his drumming with the local ska band Cut Once. With this addition, the line up was complete, and this is the line up that remains to this date. Dave Harris: Lead Guitar/Backing Vox, Craig Bolton: Bass Guitar/Backing Vox, Donovan Greenaway: Lead Vocals, Joe Harris: Drums, Rick Janus: Rhythm Guitar/Backing Vox. During the final part of 1998 and the first part of 1999, The Traditionals had a fine string of shows with notible bands. The ones that stand out the most would be shows with Germany's finest street punk ban, Oxymoron, and with everyone's favorite, The Dropkick Murphys. In April 1999, an article was written on The Traditionals in Pittsburgh's City Paper. The publicity of this article led to the record contract that followed with local Superfly Records. With this one off deal with Superfly, The Traditionals went back to the studio to record their first full length CD. What resulted was a 12 track disc with some of the bands most popular anthems, titled "No Choice". Following the Cd's release on July 16, 1999, the band set off on their first tour of the East Coast. Lasting one week, The Traditionals played shows in Durham, NC, Virginia Beach, VA, Gaylordsville, CT, Portland, ME, and Long Branch, NJ. Following the tour, the band played a CD release party at The Upstage to a room packed full of their loyal fans. At this present time, the band is busy writing new songs, to catch the eye of a perspective label, and to add more on to the bands successful history.
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