Music

Music has always been a big thumping part of my life. I am part of the Jam Generation so Paul Weller in his various guises has been a constant joy in my life. I went hard on reggae in Australia in my teens almost to the exclusion of just about everything else but just couldn’t resist house music when it hit. Who could?

I was late to the bass guitar but have gigged a fair bit in Oxford (what a fantastic music scene!) and co-wrote a bunch of Brit Pop-ish stuff with best mate Paul Spencer. Nowadays I’m just as likely to get caught listening to Rhianna and Coldplay as Bob Marley and Desmond Dekker.

Band history

Fifty One Degrees – Exeter – RIGHT NOW!

This is my current band and I love it. Thom on guitar, Rusty drums, me on on my trusty Fender bass and Eilis Hannon on vocals. All very good musicians apart from maybe ‘the world’s most OK-ish bass player’ but have a listen to Eilis sing on the tracks below. Beautiful voice huh? I used her surname because she is the niece of the great Neil Hannon of Divine Comedy fame. He said some nice things about ‘Meet You’ (below). “Moody as anything” I think he said - which made my day! (year actually).

The Senators – Exeter – 2018
This band was fairly remarkable in its formation. In a small office in Exeter a few of us got chatting and realised we had a pretty accomplished rhythm guitarist, lead guitarist, bass player (me) and drummer all sitting within a few feet of each other. We pulled in Mia on vocals and played some fun party gigs. Video of one of these parties at my farm. I should start a mini-festival one day! The recording is bad but you get the idea. Covers only here.

Great Ladies of Folk – Oxford – 90’s
We weren’t all ladies and not particularly folkie. I was back from New York. Spence had missed me. The name came during a pub session when we decided to name the band after the first thing we saw when we opened our eyes after a count of 10. A poster promised a fabulous night of female folk artists and that was that. This band set up was amazing. Spence and I on guitar and bass, Sana on drums and Flo on electric violin. The two girls were incredibly talented. My favourite gig of all time was at the Elm Tree with good crowd. It all just clicked that night. Happy days!

GLUE – Oxford – 90’s
What a blast we had! The Oxford music scene was buzzing. Bands like Ride, Supergrass, and of course, Radiohead had well and truly put Oxford on the map. We played a stack of gigs at the venues where all these bands started out. We were an Indie 5-piece with Spence and I doing most of the song writing. Alas, I headed off to New York and was replaced rather too quickly (immediately) by a much better bass player. Ouch!

Favourite song: (so hard!) Have to go with Golden Brown by The Stranglers. Always brings back waves of memories of a particularly hot summer in Australia cycling, swimming, gymming, and trying to get a girlfriend.

Favourite Album: UB40 – Signing Off. I played this A LOT in my little yellow mini with the speakers that nearly tore the back seat off when on full.

 Favourite Concert: Paul Weller, Prague 1995. Just bumped into this on a boys weekend! Amazing! Had to move my fingers so he could put his chair down to play an acoustic version of Wild Wood. Magic moments!