(c’96-’19) William Ballintyne (guitar), Barney Jeavons (bass), Anthony Read (drums) and Inga Leru (vocals).
Kilter is the phoenix of Summersalt. Leru, who’d previously been in Three Times The Crow, joined the Summersalters after auditioning for the band in an auditorium at the University of Surrey, Guildford. Their first gig was supporting Jolt at the West End Center, Aldershot in ’97, when they were billed as Snowball.
The bands track “Solar” got included on The Best Of Splatch! CD compilation released in ’97 on the Mother Stoat Recording Co. label [STOAT 006] as the 16th, hidden, track and on The Farnborough Groove Vol.7 (Geography Sucks). The seventh volume of Farnborough Groove was launched at The West End Centre, on 20 September ’97, at which Kilter performed.
On 11 October ’97 Kilter supported Dream City Film Club at the West End Centre, and a couple of months later they were back at the venue, wrapping up ’97 on the same bill as Enertia, Disturbing Guests and Spillage on 20 December. On 22 May ’98, Kilter played the Cranleigh Arts Centre with Jetpak & Vex Red. Then three days later, on 25 May ’98, “Solar” was released as a double A side 1,000 copy limited run, with “Call The Day” on the flipside via the Shifty Disco [DISCO.9805] label, that resulted in some airplay with Peel and Lamacq. On 30 October ’98 Kilter, along with Scapegoats, supported headliners Stony Sleep at Splatch!, held at the H.G. Wells Suite, Woking. Late that same year the band toured with Dream City Film Club, supporting them at Bristol, Bedford, Southampton, London and on 14 November ’98 locally at Cranleigh Arts Center. They were back at H.G. Wells Suite on 18 December ’98 for The Christmas Best of Splatch! that also featured Redwood, Jetpak, and Enertia.
The next year the CD compilation “It’s A Shifty Disco Thing – Volume Two” [SHIFTY 9902] included “Call The Day”, as did two further Shifty Disco compilation in ’99 and ’02. Also in ’99, Bluefire Records Snakebite City compilation series added “Snakebite’s Coming Home” [BLU13] which featured Kilter, as did the following years Snakebite City Nine [BLU15]. In March ’01, Jeavons got together with Pete Cole and Ric Melia to compile “Please Take Off Your Shoes Before Entering”; a compilation of mostly soundscene bands, on Badmusic [BMCD004] that included Kilter’s “Sunday”.
Ballintyne and Jeavons were replaced by Stu Crawford-Browne (guitar) and DJ Pennell (bass) and several years later, in October ’12, “Catching My Breath” was included on the Vive Le Rock compilation “Music for Pleasure” and described as “a sleazy rumble slightly reminiscent of Garbage (the band)”. Two months later “Kilter – A History Of” was self-released as MP3 and distributed by CD Baby. Two after that, on 25 November ’14, the CD album “We’re All Waiting To Be Alone” was self-released, having been recorded at The Rooms and mastered at Close To The Edge, with distribution once again handle by CD Baby. In September ’19 the band e-released the “Wolves Will Come” EP. This was followed shortly by the news that Kilter were wrapping things up in October after over 20 years.
Jeavons was the West End Centre director between 2001 and 2019, the former manager of Reuben, a member of a number of local bands himself, and promoter of Spaltch and other events. In 2019 Jeavons set up Kick Arts UK working across artist management, tour booking and one-to-one arts consultations. There have also been four successful Arts Council funded projects. He was also Music Venue Trust’s Regional Coordinator for the South East and is an Associate Lecturer in Music Business at University for the Creative Arts.
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