ARABIAN PENTHOUSE

Having formed in August 1991 and hailing from Baixa da Banheira, Seixal, The original was line up was made up of Paulo Miguel bass, Nuno CC guitar and Rui Pereira drums, who formed the nucleus power trio. Leonel Rosado came in as keyboardist. Whilst the final member, Luiz Silveiro, having recently moved back to Portugal from formal education in the UK, took over as singer and front man. Within 3 days of meeting, the band began to put together a setlist of covers and rock standards to meet the demand for live music during Portugal's summer local festivals. These were often ragtag affairs with very bad PA systems and almost no publicity. Their first official gig was on August 5th 1991, in Baixa da Banheira's main street, playing nearly 30 cover songs. The cover song option was a popular way to circumvent lack of opportunities to play live. These were rare and hard to come by, due in most part by political parties vying to steal opportunities for publicity from other political parties. The performers who stuck their necks out and persisted would end up most often playing in school halls and local community centers, usually for free. Arabian Penthouse was definitely in this category.

The move to write original compositions came both from left over material being worked for a previous incarnation of the band, Control SOS, and from Luiz's prolific writing during that time. The first two songs to really get off the ground were "Dream With Me". This was later demoed in early 1992, but scrapped in favour of a re-recording made later in that year. "Dream with Me (Demo 2)" became SUPERFM's chosen demo of the year for 1992, affording Arabian Penthouse the title of best revelation band for that year. "Dream With Me" had considerable air play and was a staple favourite when played live. The other song demoed twice was 'Midnight Is You'.  

    Arabian Penthouse continued to play at many venues throughout the period 1992-1994. for instance  at the Johnny Guitar venue December 9th 1992, with Black Sheep, or in Pinhal Novo on July 2nd 1993.    

 Among the songs regularly in their setlist were: "Style", "Bed Of Nails", "Opus 12" (instrumental), "Lorenzo's Song", "Sarah", "Believing", "Time After Time", "Again", "War Of Independence", "Shock Value". None of these were ever demoed, although fan recordings do exist in various states of quality.

In late 1993, their then manager, Rui Rim, made it possible for the band to record a full album's worth of Demos, totaling 11 songs in all. On the eve of recording the album, Rui Rim decided to invest his support in his wife's career, thereby leaving Arabian Penthouse with an albums' worth of demos and nowhere to play them. Without gigs or any other possibility of live appearances, Leonel Rosado left the band to pursue an academic career and Paulo Miguel also left for personal reasons. Bruno Stélio, a long time friend of the band stepped in on bass and they continued to do the covers' circuit for a few more years before calling it a day in 1998.  A split tape with Ibéria was released in 1993.

Arabian Penthouse, contrary to the published statement, has never officially split up as can be attested by their single reunion gig in Pinhal Novo in March 2016 when a gig for a strictly limited house heard new versions of songs from their English and Portuguese portfolios, as well as 3 of their most beloved covers. This gig was recorded and will be made available in 2021.

The 2016 gig also marked the official release, for the first time, of their Portuguese demos album entitled 'Rainha Branca' (White Queen). This was a strictly limited numbered edition. 

In 2021, Paulo Miguel, the band's first bass player, passed way in his home. In tribute, and to commemorate he band's 30th anniversary, Arabian Penthouse plan to release all of the recordings they currently hold in a special series of digital EPs, culminating with a live album on their 30th anniversary (August 5th) and the subsequent remastered reissue of 'Rainha Branca' with extras.

DISCOGRAPHY

promo split tape ©1993 audio sample

VIDEO

"Bed Of Nails" live at G.A.C., Baixa da Banheira 1992 // live in Pinhal Novo 1993