Gallows Pole

It?s almost ten years ago since the band GALLOWS POLE appeared the first time on the german scene. Their history started when three young musicians, from the former Yugoslavia whose musical success was cut short by the war in their country, hit the german stage. The first apperance of GALLOWS POLE was short because bassist/vocalist and mainsongwriter John A.B.C. Smith left to join the band SCANNER in 1993.

The first apperance of GALLOWS POLE was short because bassist/vocalist and mainsongwriter John A.B.C. Smith left to join the band SCANNER in 1993. Two yeas later, after Scanners '95 release "Mental Reservation" John left the band consenquently, because there he could not find his inner peace and startet again to work on his own songs. In a rented studio he took up the work to his selfnamed project "John A.B.C. Smith". The project was conceived, played, arranged and produced by John alone and resulted in the CD "The Revelation of John".

The foundation for the GALLOWS POLE reunion were unwrittingly laid with the release of this CD.
John began to look for a suitable group of musicians to release the music in a live setting. Only two people immediatly sprang to mind - his old Gallows Pole collegues Zokk Milosh and Hakan Topcu. After a few gigs and sessions with their old friend Amir Jesenkovic on second guitar, Adnan Davidoff was quicky recruited as the fourth core member of the band.

In 1999 Gallows Pole's hibernation came to the end. The right music and the right musicians came together and their three track demo "Over The Rainbow" beat hundreds of other bands to be included on Rock Hard magazines sampler CD in february of 2000. After this first introduction to the europewide music scene, the band earned good reviews. About the same the band securred a deal with Shark-Records and released their debut album "GALLOWS POLE - Gallows Pole" at the end of march 2000.

GALLOWS POLE are often compared in reviews to bands as Iron Maiden, Helloween and Amored Saint, as which is where most paralles are accidental, especially vocal comparsions to Helloweens Andre Deris. On the comparsions with IROM MAIDEN Gallows Pole say: "we?re all big Maiden fans and sure influenced by them strong, so we take it as a compliment".

Nevertheless the band and their fans recognise that Gallows Pole music is Gallows Pole music, above all songs which contains influences of the homeland of John, Zokk and Ado. Original songs in combination with the Balkan folk music, with it?s odd time signatures and tonalities and retor exotic themes, songs like "Balkan Rhapsody" are for sure uniqely in the scene.