THE FORGOTTEN MAN

Dave Johnson – Guitars, Keyboards, Bass, Programming

Phil Corrigan – Vocals

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Bio

Formed in County Durham, England in 1985 by Dave Johnson and Phil Corrigan.

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The Intention was to start a band together and composing songs came quick and easy, however, a stable band line-up could never be found so the pair decided to just work as a two-piece.  At the time they were called Nirvana and were one of the first bands to play the newly opened Riverside venue in Newcastle. They played pubs and clubs in Durham and Newcastle until finding out that there was another Band from Seattle with the same name who seemed to be getting more recognition and so changed the name.

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At the time of formation they did not set out with an agenda, or any particular style in mind, and just did what came naturally. Influences were varied from classical to punk and everything in between.  The one Band both liked was The Doors, and then later the Icicle Works and Divine comedy. Earlier listening for Phil was Elvis, Scott Walker and 60’s Ballad singers, and for Dave it was Genesis, The Faces, The Stranglers and OMD.

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The initial ideology was to escape from the mundane and strive for something different and better and they tried to capture that in the music. Most two-piece bands playing live at the time were synth duos so this was somewhat different with a more Rock orientated sound with the odd synth pop tune. At the time of playing gigs in Newcastle, they caught the attention of an A&R guy from Elektra Records who was interested but wanted the line-up to expand and incorporate a brass section to make the sound more “funky”, however that was taking  it too far from how they wanted to sound so the deal never materialized and the band they signed was Simply Red.

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Eventually after gigs further afield in Oxford and London the pair ended up going their different ways in life but neither left the music behind. In 2016 Dave (now living in LA) was lamenting the fact that there were no good recordings of the band from those early years, only a few decaying cassettes, and so set out to re-record some of the original material from the early days of the band. Tracking down Phil in Co. Durham he brought up the subject and found that Phil was just as eager to record together again and get their music heard. 

What started out as a few re-recordings developed into an ongoing project under the name of “The Forgotten Man” which so far has resulted in the 2018 album “Oceans Apart”, consisting mainly of older material,  “Back once More”, a 4-track E.P. of newer songs, and in May 2019 the single "Dreams of L.A. followed by the album "postcard from L.A."