Mark Rogerson

BSc Management Sciences, 1979-1982

John Mason (Man.Sci. 1979-82), Paul Sullivan (Physics 1979-82) and Mark Rogerson (Man.Sci. 1979-82) are University of Warwick graduates who, in their final year, collaborated and performed in a rock band along with two fellow students. The five-piece called themselves "The Interviewees” and played at a few parties in the old SU building and featured in the talent contest organised by the Events committee in March 1982. That talent/song contest did end in controversy and the Warwick Boar issue of the following week famously carried the front-page revelation of result "fixing" allegations.

Moving to the US in the 1990s, both Paul and John have remained great friends since leaving Warwick. Mark however lost contact with the band members after university and moved to Australia in the eighties. In 2021, after a 40-year hiatus, the 'interweb' has allowed the three to reconnect across two continents to create, play and record music again. The new incarnation of the band is named "Ele's Nest" in honour of the bar/room in the old SU which had been the venue of some of those parties we played at back in the day. This time around we are committed to doing original, self-penned material. Thankfully John has the knack for coming up with just the right catchy hook and melody - not surprising, given he’s a 'scouser'. Paul applies his guitar textures with scientific precision. Mark holds it altogether at the back on the drums, dreaming of being able to play a 'proper' instrument.

The wonder of the ’interweb’ has also allowed us to find and contact the two other original band members, who have since made special guest appearances on a handful of the new band songs.

We distribute our material on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPMQx2w75H3gABWkwsK5sNQ) and other music social media sites (https://soundcloud.com/user-524262422).

One recent song project, "Time of our Life", specifically reminisces about our time at Warwick. We were able to incorporate snippets of video footage of the university from material we found online in the Warwick University archives, however, this material relates primarily to the early 70s. We do have a few photos of ourselves performing at the University, which feature in some of the other videos/songs, but would love to include other video material from the exact time ('79-'82) we were there.

So, it would be great to hear from any fellow alumni members from the same era who might have photos, audio (probably on good ol' C-90 cassette format!) or even video footage of us from that time. Maybe even featuring the infamous talent contest of 1982 with the Interviewees! Maybe you were also in a band in the contest and can share your memories with us too. We'd love to hear from you.

You can always contact us via alumni@warwick.ac.uk. Or even leave a comment on our Youtube or SoundCloud channel.

Many thanks in advance, and 'rock on'! (as long as it's not after 10pm)!

- The boys from Ele's Nest