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Kor Mutlu, Paul Silvis and Wayne Hoyle had previous musical associations. In their call for auditioning bass players they found Mark Scott, who seemed to fit the bill. When Mark mentioned that he also played keyboard and guitar, keyboardist Wayne proclaimed that he also played bass. Thus, the musical chairs that was to be one of our endearing qualities was borne.
All four of us sing. We always have been democratic about our reportoire, and play songs to please both the audience and ourselves. We also work up quite a few of our own songs (especially so in concert), which are in the vein of our already eclectric style, and they fit right in. The Inmates always strive to play uncommon mainstream pop/rock music. Not the music you hear every day all the time on the radio. Sure, we play some "hits". We mix it up.
The Inmate's first playing gig was at a wild Halloween pool party in Pinellas Park. But our first paying gig was a wedding in Seminole, Florida (weddings are always fun), and we included "special guest" sax man Johnny Johnson.
After that, we didn't want to play without him, and luckily he felt the same way. So we started writing, rehearsing, and broke into the Tampa Bay club and party circuit, playing many popular night spots like Beachy's and Mugs and Jugs (until they went karaoke) in Largo, Boomerangs and Dirty Moe's in Clearwater, Players, Dilligaf's and Cadillac Jack's on the beaches, and we were regulars at the Green Iguana on West Shore, to name a few.
Dilligaf's on St Pete Beach
Even without a formal management company, The Inmates were able to land some top-notch Tampa Bay area gigs, including concert venues; "Booms Day", Festival of States and several years headlining stages for Gasparilla in downtown Tampa. On separate occasions we opened for B.B. King REO SpeedwagonJohn Cafferty and the Beaver Brown BandColor Me Badd.
In the mid-nineties, we spent some of our rehearsal time in Kor's Pinellas Park studio -- Onkor Productions -- and put to tape most of the original music we had been playing for the past few years together. Sort of a "yours, mine and ours" type situation. In 1996, we pooled our resources and took what we considered to be the best of those songs, and created a limited number of cassettes, calling the project "First Offense". Despite some engineering shortcomings, our initial release of the cassette were quickly consumed by friends and fans.
Our "First Offense" cover
And until recently: Johnny Johnson's "day job" took him and his family to Tallahassee. Having lost our sax edge, we have continued on as a four-piece, with a more hard rock slant.
More? Not likely.
Mark/Cover song ratio: 15/85
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