Guitar & Vocals | Drums | Bass | Keyboard | Tenor Sax |
When I first started to think about putting this bio together I had to think what it was that got me started playing drums in the first place. I couldn’t put it down to any particular event or recording the way some musicians can, like an epiphany of sorts. It was more a combination of things really; a growing appreciation of drums and the technical abilities of guys like Bill Bruford, Simon Phillips and Phil Collins and the New Wave scene of 76-77 that made playing in a band seem easy.
My Dad and Mum bought me a second hand purple Premier kit with Paiste cymbals. I had the kit so I joined a band with some mates from school, we were rubbish but thought we were great, we did a few gigs and then it all fell apart. Joined a rock band did even more gigs and really enjoyed it and played with them through to starting university. So I came to Sheffield to study and immediately joined a band, they were terrible but Justin the guitarist and singer was so off the map I stayed for a while but never gigged. It was in my final year that I joined “Ageton Saks”. I was impressed that they had an independent single and a great singer who wrote some of the best pop music never released. We had some serious interest from CBS and recorded another demo for them, this one they hated and that was that. The band just seemed to fizzle out but I remained good friends with Nick our bassist. From there I joined Sheffield’s famous Mysterons (a case of the being in the wrong place at the wrong time!!!) We took our brand of anarchic soul disco madness to Germany in 1988 for a short 2 week tour and had the most fantastic time. I carried on playing some very strange charity gigs for the Mysterons, going back to Germany once more a few years later and even did a small reunion with them in May of this year at the Lyceum in Sheffield for the Lynda Smith tribute; she was a big fan of the band.
In 1990 I got a gig with She Said, a funk pop band and gigged continuously up to about 1995 playing 3 short tours in Germany via the contacts made with the Mysterons. The ashes of She Said led to Reaction, a soul covers band with about 8 members including brass section, backing singers, keyboards etc. This band made money! We could cover the cost of the practice room, PA hire and still pay ourselves, this was a novelty. We did hundreds of gigs but slowly we started having kids and the whole thing just stopped. After a year or so an old friend asked me to join his band “Sacamarra” and we recorded some of finest pop songs I have ever played on, then we all had kids in the same year and the band stopped. I didn’t play in a band for a few years but concentrated on setting up a studio at home and learning the piano (still trying). In 2005 I got a call to play with Reaction again and landed some gigs in Leeds, Blackpool and Lisbon (don’t those places sound good together). The corporate stuff paid well but was hard work so we decided to stop at the start of 2006... then this guy Grey rang me...”would I do a gig for him?...tonight...”
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