In September 1986, Guitarist John Petrucci and his bassist friend John Myung both attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston. They were, at the time, looking to form a band in their spare time. They met drummer Mike Portnoy in one of Berklee's rehearsal rooms, and after a few days of getting to know each other they decided to try it out. They contacted an old high school friend, Kevin Moore to fill the keyboardist position. Then they called up vocalist Chris Collins, who completed the line-up to be known as Majesty.
The group, “Majesty,” started jamming in their free time, and recorded a short demo tape consisting of eight tracks to be circulated throughout the local area. The demo tape was called the 'Majesty Demos'.
It sold 1000 copies within the first six months. Amazingly, the demos continued to be copied and scattered by fans. It is still highly available today. The following November, the band underwent their first of so many line-up changes as Chris Collins and Majesty split up. Deprived of a singer, the band continued writing and recording demos for about a year following. Instrumental versions of some future DT classics were created.
At last, in November 1987, the band recruited CHARLIE DOMINICI as their singer and front-man.
The band signed to Mechanic Records eventually and started workingon WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE. Unfortunately, before they could explode, as they had wanted, they were contacted by a Las Vegas band also called Majesty and were required to change their name. Names were considered and discarded, until Howard Portnoy (Mike's father) suggested they use the name Dream Theater, the name of a now destroyed California cinema.
Leaving Mechanic records behind them, Dream Theater fired CHARLIE and went in search of a fresh start. But like usual, finding a suitable singer would set them back quite a few years.
Eventually, a demo tape was sent in from Canada. It was from “Winter rose’s” singer, Kevin LaBrie. The band was interested enough to fly him down to their studio for a live audition. Well, needless to say, he worked. It all turned out to be the best. There were a few more hiccups, but they were eventually smoothed over, and they exploded.
Bio written by: victimofthesystem |
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