Grungy band from Leamington Spa. Short lived career. Influenced by Nirvana, The Foo Fighters, Blink-182, Bush, Marilyn Manson, Cheap Trick, Pickled Onions, Steel Pans, Trombayats, Mr Rayat, Concrete breeze blocks, Broken violins, Electric drills, Broken guitars, Broken basses, Excessive noise, Pink jackets, Yeti costumes, Raw Ginge, Jaded Rose and of course Barry Johns Fruit and Veg. Regular line-up was William Dee, Joy Stephens and Mark Howell but also included variously: Oliver Quinlan (The Vision of the Lampstand, Q, Mysterons), Laurence Jackson (The Vision of the Lampstand), Timothy Southorn (The Jam and Paul Weller Tribute Band, Mysterons), Matthew Johns (Barry Johns Fruit and Veg), Bryn Williams, Polly Sheppard, Benjamin Smith, William Furze, Alastair Geddes and Joseph Hughes. Started sometime in the late 90's by William Dee (guitar), Four Second Delay went through several line-up changes over their 4 or 5 years. Along with Joy Stephens (guitar), William was the only mainstay from the original line-up which also included Oliver Quinlan (bass), Matthew Johns (guitar / bass) and Alastair Geddes (drums). Mark Howell (drums) joined early in the bands development as Alastair was unable to attend practice regularly (he had to get picked up after school) and Mark has an immediate impact on the creative direction of the band. The band were then joined by 2 custom percussionists / tamborineists / steel pan players in William Furze and Benjamin Smith and a DJ / sampler Lawrence Jackson. It was here that the band began to develop their now legendary live performances, noted for its uniqueness and abstract nature. In a famous scene the band were found busking on a street side wearing various costumes from yeti outfits to pink, school dinner lady jackets. During this time their rivalry with other local bands (The Raw Ginge Collective and Jaded Rose) developed and became akin to a turf war, a war which 4SD won. They also struggled to secure a practice space thanks to an oppressive regime being run at a local school where rehearsals took place. Soon after this the band became more fractious as Lawrence and Oliver wanted to take the band in a more progressive direction and left to form The Vision of the Lampstand. Matthew Johns also left to pursue other side projects (there were suspicious he defected to The Raw Ginge Collective and as such was marginalised by the rest of the band), thus ending the bands longstanding relationship and sponsorship deal with Barry Johns Fruit and Veg. The Vision and 4SD stayed on good terms, sharing a practice space, supporting one another's gigs and making several guest appearances on each other's recordings. Indeed, Oliver and Matthew went on to be technicians at many 4SD shows. The appearances of the custom percussionist also became more fleeting as the band looked to streamline their sound. Both William and Benjamin continued to support the band but both were obviously devastated by their axing. There were also rumours about a relationship between William Furze and Raw Ginge and many band members felt that this was in contrast the the bands ethos of not socialising with members of rival outfits. After the departure of these members, Bryn Williams (bass) joined the band and Polly Sheppard (vocals) too. However, the end of a relationship between 2 members of the band led to a Fleetwood Mac style split in the band which ended in the band reducing to just 3 members, Mark, Will and Joy. Timothy Southorn (bass) joined the band and this 4 piece stayed together through the bands heyday, culminating in a slot on a large charity rock event (not Glastonbury) and a support slot at Leamington's Railway Working Men's Club (The Midlands answer to the Cavern Club). Joseph Hughes (bass) joined very late in the bands career after Timothy left to pursue other projects (The Jam tribute band), but sadly the writing was on the wall by this point. Their extravagant live shows and excessive lifestyle took its tole and like many bands of this type they separated in 2003 sighting musical differences. Oliver Quinlan and Timothy Southorn went on to form the successful double act Mysterons