MySpacea place for friends

Hipshot are Tony ‘Shev’ Shevlin, Jon ‘JW’ Wilmshurst and Dacre Peck. Shev is a former CBS recording artist in the US, and award-winning songrwriter, and such is his reputation, he has regularly attracted into his band high-calibre musicians such as Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello, Squeeze, Neil Finn, Sheryl Crow), Mike Casswell (Brian May Band, Cozy Powell Band), Bruce Thomas (Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega, Brinsley Schwartz) Justin Hildreth (Joan Armatrading, Thomas Dolby, Blancmange,) Tim Bye (Tony Hadley, Martin Fry, Peter Cox) and Spy Austin (Desmond Dekker, Style Council). He has penned songs for the likes of The Troggs and REM and has written several television theme tunes and advertising jingles for multi-nationals such as BT and Honda cars, In 2005, when Shev was looking for a new guitarist, a friend recommended he check out JW Wilmshurst, a prodigiously talented young player who was fast gaining a reputation for himself on the live circuit in East Anglia. Shev snapped him up for a tour of the South of England, where they quickly formed a firm friendship and began writing songs together. The pair spent the best part of two years writing material to order for various US based recording artists, eventually deciding to write an album of songs for themselves. And so Hipshot was born, and with Shev re-acquainting himself with the bass guitar, and the addition of seasoned drummer, Dacre Peck, the trio began hitting the boards, finding their self-penned efforts - sounding like the bastard off-springs of the Spin Doctors and Crowded House - held their own in the bars and clubs of East Anglia, the south coast and northern England. As their reputation grew, so did their audience and their gig list – not to mention their line-up. “I recall a gig in Arras in Northern France where I’m sure there were at least nine musicians on stage,” remembers Shev. JW is also sanguine about the band’s ever-expanding and contracting line-up. “The more the merrier. It’s a great feeling when there’s five or six of us all feeling the groove. It’s what music’s all about. But I also love stripping it back; there can be no passengers in a trio. ” In the summer of 2007, Shev and JW embarked on a series of UK and European gigs as a duo, where they performed tracks from their recently released Unplugged album, and road-tested songs penned for release next year. “The mark of a good song is if it can be performed acoustically,” says Shev. “There’s no fancy production, nowhere to hide. We’re proud of our songs, and feel that they can stand up with just two voices and two guitars.” www.myspace.com/hipshotuk