From the outset Kick Asteroid (or simply “The Asteroid”) was always destined to confound people.
For a start, the vocals were always going to shared between Andy Moloney on bass and Andy Meakin on the drums. This arrangement seemed to contradict conventional wisdom that if there wasn’t a dedicated singer, the vocals would at least be handled by the lead guitarist, who would effectively be the front man. The two Andy's happened to have voices that complemented each other’s, lending a hint of harmony to the lyrics, something that was lacking in their contemporaries.
Tony Ware had a unique guitar sound, an overdriven manic cacophony that, despite its predominant aggression, seemed to retain a tuneful melody that planted the songs into the listener’s head. His guitar was always fizzing about above the steady, rock solid sound of Paul Mabe’s guitar. Paul insisted on only ever playing open chords, never barred chords and refused point blank to play sharps or flats. This led to what Tony called a “harmonic grating” quality to the Ateroid sound – had he been an excellent guitarist they would have never acquired the unique Asteroid sound. His “wall of noise” was solid. Solid was all he knew and if something required anything other than pounding the beat, he would just stop altogether and then come back in when he felt solid was required again. Simple, but deadly. Paul Mabe’s rhythm guitar was never going to set the world on fire, but it dovetailed perfectly with Tony’s lead work, adding to the melody.
Neither of the guitar parts sounded “nice” – they didn’t, nor was nice what the band was aiming for- but they worked together, producing a not unpleasant overall sound. As for Moloney’s bass work, it was almost as if he was a frustrated lead guitarist, the baselines being much more than the root note progressions that are so commonplace. Yet in other ways his playing sometimes possessed an almost percussion-like quality, supplementing the beat whilst at the same time driving along the melody.

	Black & Blue		Pop
	From Where The Sun Goes		Pop

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