Roger Humphries

Bio:

I've been a pro musician (off & on .......... at the moment "ON") since 1962 as either a bass player or fronting bands playing guitar. I was born in Gravesend, Kent, England on 2nd July 1947 and first became really interested in making music in 1956 when some friends & I from school formed a "Skiffle Group" .......... I'm currently involved in several projects including working as a bass player for anyone who'll have me. I also front 2 bands. "Bite-The Bullet" - a financially rediculous 6-7 piece country rock/country blues band & "Alive 'n' Pickin' who I front playing bass. I also play solo, doing my own material, playing acoustic guitar (with no bloody backing tracks whatsoever). I'm a prolific songwriter ....... always have been, Oh and I also do f.o.h sound engineering using either my 3k - 16 channel (small) rig or larger 10k - 24 channel (monster). I've toured all over Europe, Scandinavia & North America & in 2005, I had 2-trips to Austin, Texas which really re-vitalised me musically ........ amazing live music scene over there. 2006 was quite busy, touring with my own band and doing European tours with visiting U.S artistes John Permenter, Steve Haggard, Joel Alan Lehman & Joe Sun to name but a few. I also acted as tour manager for the amazingly different Ned Evett from Idaho. 2007 promises to be a busy year with tours both here in the UK and overseas, recording a brand new album, getting some new downloads on this site etc. etc. MySpace is certaily helping me to achieve so many goals! I currently have 3 albums available, (2 Bite The Bullet, and my most recent offering "Unplugged, Solo & Acoustic" which does everything it says on the tin! Oh yeah, I almost forgot ......... I also build custom made flightcases for amps, guitars etc much cheaper than you'll get them anywhere else! 2007 has so far been literally amazing! My band Alive 'N' Pickin' are becoming known as a band who visiting American artites want to use as their backup band when touring the UK & Europe. Following an incredible 15 consecutive night tour where I was the tour manager for an indie-pop/rock band from Atlanta, USA called GRINGO STAR, I, along with my partner from Alter States Ian Flavill are now Gringo Star's UK & European Management team and are currently organising a 22 night UK tour for the band in May 2007. I personally haven't been so excited about a band for years and I truly believe that Gringo Star are going to be "massive"! It is planned that they will tour the UK again towards the end of 2007. Another artiste who I'm now acting as tour promoter/ UK & European representative for is NED EVETT from Boise, Idaho. Ned is a phenominally talented singer-songwriter, a world virtuoso & inovator of the glass necked fretless guitar & dobro, & he currently has a brand-new cd released entitled "Middle Of The Middle". Ned will be touring the UK from 24th - 31st August 2007. In September last year, I worked in Germany with a singer-songwriter , originally from Texas, but for some years now based in Nashville named, JOEL ALAN LEHMAN. I am currently organising a 13 date UK & European tour from 7th-19th August, where my own band Alive 'N' Pickin' will be working with Joel in the UK and culminating in an appearance at a festival in Vilnius, Lithuania. I am also on Soundclick and so far, 2 of my songs, "PLAY NO GAMES" and "WE'RE GONNA HAVE A PARTY" have reached the number 1 position in both the Country chart & Alternative Country chart. 2007 was an extremely busy year. My band & I played some huge festivals in Norway, France & Lithuania both in our own right & backing US songstress Cheyne Pride as well as Joel Alan Lehman, also from the USA. Joel was one of several US artistes that my company 'Ave-a-Ball Productions arranged tours for, the other artistes being the incredible "Gringo Star" from Atlanta for whom I'm their UK & European manager, and who did no fewer than 3 UK tours in 2007. In February they played 15 consecutive nights, in May, 22 consecutive nights and finally in November/December they did a marathon 27 consecutive nights, making a total of 64 nights played in the UK alone. The other artiste for whom I'm closely associated is Ned Evett and his band from Idaho, USA and who toured in November 2007. This band are in my humble opinion the very best & innovative live band that I have EVER seen .......... and that does include Jimi Hendrix !!!!! .......... I never thought that I'd say that, but its true........ The Ned Evett Band returned to Europe in May 2008 and part of this tour included dates in the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe where the band opened for none other than JOE SATRIANI ....... Ned & his band, which now includes Kofi Baker (Ginger Baker's son) on drums are hoping to return to tour in 2010. I also brought over my good friend from Nashville, Joel Alan Lehman for a short UK tour. Accompanied by my own band, this proved to be very successful and a lot of fun. I relocated to the Isle Of Sheppey, (off the north Kent coast) in 2008 and shortly afterwards underwent hernia correction surgery which really stopped me dead-in-my-tracks for a few months, but I'm currently re-launching my career and even if I do say so myself, this enforced lay-off gave me the time to re-evaluate everything in a positive way and I reckon that I'm now playing and performing much better than I've ever done in my whole life.

Member Since:

April 08, 2006

Members:

ALIVE 'N' PICKIN' ....................................... WHOEVER IS AVAILABLE OUT OF THESE GREAT PLAYERS STEVE CRISPE (LEAD GUITAR/VOCALS) - JOHN STANNARD (LEAD GUITAR) - RUFUS RUFFELL (LEAD GUITAR) - "HARLEY" DAVE HUGHES (LEAD GUITAR) - CHRIS SHILLING (LEAD GUITAR/VOCALS) - STEVE ANDREWS (DRUMS) - BOB POOLEY (DRUMS) - KEVIN "BINGO" SPRATT (DRUMS) - BARRY DAY (BASS GUITAR) - MICKEY BYRNE (PEDAL STEEL GUITAR) - NICK HAMPSHIRE (PIANO) - OCCASIONALLY: CHRIS SENNER (PEDAL STEEL GUITAR) - MICKY HEWITT (PIANO) - ROGER HUMPHRIES (BASS/LEAD VOCALS) - ....................................... BITE THE BULLET ....................................... ROGER HUMPHRIES (GUITAR/LEAD VOCALS) - CHRIS SHILLING (LEAD GUITAR/VOCALS) - STEVE CRISPE (LEAD GUITAR/VOCALS) - CHRIS SENNER (PEDAL STEEL GUITAR) - BARRY DAY (BASS GUITAR) - WHOEVER IS AVAILABLE - (DRUMS) - OCCASIONALLY: DONNA GRIMWOOD (BACKING VOCALS) - JACK STOWE (PIANO) - DERRICK SPENCE (ELECTRIC VIOLIN) -

Influences:

Country music - particularly all things "Texas", (Not the crap thats been marketed out of Nashville in recent years). Southern Rock, Celtic-rock. Roots/Americana & some folk. Jimi Hendrix (God!) Jethro Tull - best UK band ever George Jones - the voice Willie Nelson - for being Willie Nelson & "rock'nroll personified Stax/Atlantic Soul Music - not this modern stuff that people call soul music Keith Richards - my all-time hero & definitely rock'n'roll Lefty Frizzell, Don Gibson, John R Cash and finally: Something inside of my soul that makes me musically what I am ......... being myself!

Sounds Like:

Me

Record Label:

RED ADMIRAL RECORDS (UK)