Nick's Smashing Pumpkins Page

Welcome to my Smashing Pumpkins Page

Sorry for the amateurish nature of this page. As a learning student of web page design, I promise to improve my skills as a designer, and eventually this page will reflect that improvement. I'll try to stay as up to date on news and issues surrounding the Pumpkins, with all their upcoming releases. For timesaving purposes, my Smashing Pumpkins discography page will not come into existence for some time. Once I have more time to devote to this site, people will come, yes they will. Thanks for enduring the mediocrity of this place, and please come back often, and tell your friends of how wonderful this place is. Once I figure out Frames on the excellent Dreamweaver software, we'll be ready to go. Enough prattling, it's time to get started.

The (abridged) History of The Smashing Pumpkins

The Smashing Pumpkins got their humble roots in Chicago. Billy Corgan, lead singer and guitarist, hatched the idea for the band after returning from the unsuccessful expedition that was "The Marked", his first band. He had a friend that knew someone named James Iha, rhythm guitarist for the Pumpkins. One night after seeing a concert, Billy got into an argument with a girl named D'arcy over the quality of the band they'd just heard. Somehow it came up that she knew bass, and she was brought into the fold. The band started out like that. After a few shows using just a drum machine, someone hooked them up with the masterful drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. After a couple years, they caught the attention of a record label and released their first album 'Gish' in 1991. Their first single, 'I am One,' got the group off to a fairly good start.

After a horrible six-month bout of writer's block, Billy Corgan released the Smashing Pumpkins second album, Siamese Dream, in 1993. The songs contained on it were much happier than their previous record. This album brought much recognition to the group. They had a sold-out world tour and released a video all about it. Their singles, 'Today,' 'Disarm,' and 'Cherub Rock' tore up the charts. Things were definitely looking good for the band.

1995 marked the pinnacle of the Pumpkins' careers. Doing the seemingly impossible, the Smashing Pumpkins released their third album in the form of a double CD. There were 28 songs total, just on the CD. Billy Corgan showed off his songwriting expertise by later releasing 'The Aeroplane Flies High,' a box set of the five singles from 'Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness.' The singles set released an additional 31 songs, with five of those being covers of other groups' songs. An 18 month sellout stadium tour followed. Unfortunately, some problems the Pumpkins had previously managed to deal with boiled out in New York City on July 12, 1996, when paramedics found touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin dead in his hotel room from a heroin overdose. Jimmy Chamberlin was arrested the same day and charged with possession of a controlled substance and was sent to a drug rehabilitation center. The group decided to remove him from the band.

Released in 1998, the Pumpkins next album, Adore, was a great departure from the "classic" Smashing Pumpkins sound. Most fans didn't like the change, and the group lost much of its following. The record was considered a failure by many top industry executives because the record only went platinum a single time, whereas Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness went platinum a record-breaking seven times. The sound has been classified as 'alternative electronica' due to the near absence of recognizable guitar riffs and sounds. Their world tour sold out but they weren't able to fill stadiums as before, despite the fact that all proceeds from every concert went to charity.

Then on April 13, 1999, the Smashing Pumpkins officially announced that Jimmy Chamberlin had been accepted back into the band. The group soon went on a very small tour of about 12 cities, playing only small venues, to show off their new sound. Dubbed the 'Arising!' tour, it showcased the new sound, and the return of Jimmy. Unfortunately, the band never came close enough to Atlanta for me to attend one of the concerts.

The Pumpkins dropped another bomb in early September of 1999, when they officially announced that bassist D'acry Wretsky had left the band. It was later revealed that she had been pursuing an acting career and had been missing band practice. Rumors are flying that she was fired, others say she quit, and I still haven't heard the complete and totally true story, if anyone outside the band knows what it is. But on November 25, 1999, the Pumpkins announced her replacement, Melisa Auf der Mar, formerly of Hole.

Soon afterwards the band announced that they'd be doing a couple small shows in Chicago on Dec. 20 and 21 before kicking off their European tour. Me, being the fanatic I am, decided that I had to go to this concert, ignoring the fact that I had no tickets and the concert was a few thousand miles away. So, me and a friend flew to Chicago from Atlanta to try to get into the concert of a lifetime. We arrive December 20, in horribly cold weather and make our way to the Metro, where they'll be playing that night. We were greatly disturbed by the total lack of anyone willing to give up two tickets. But then our saviors arrived. Two great guys from Canada showed up and offered us tickets to the show. The price: to return the favor to someone else sometime. So we got into the show and had a great time hearing all the new stuff. I am one of the proud 1200 to be the first to hear the new album live, before its release.

That is the end of the history of the Pumpkins. In the future, I will take expired news events and add them to the end of the history.

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