Mike Check
The Reducer
C Shill
Shruggs
Wellington Spicerack
Token Black
Otto Von ?
Bling Bling
Barron Landscape
Influences
The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Doors, Aztec Camera, Neil Finn, Hank Williams, Little Richard, Split Enz, Roddy Frame, The Raspberries, Brian Wilson, Rufus Wainright, Sam Cooke, Doves, Elvis Presley, Dodgy, David Bowie...
I love music. I really do. I find it hard to function as a well-balanced human being without it. I use my radio as an alarm clock, listen to CDs all day at work, and have an mp3 player that I cant leave the house without (music keeps the world at a safe distance, you know?). But as well as listening to music I write and perform it, so this page is about my music, and the music of the different bands that I play with.
I suppose its probably best to tell you a little about myself and why I do what I do. I guess that I hope by giving you a brief history of who I am, and what goes on inside my head, you might get a better understanding of my music. So from the beginning(ish).
Although my mum and dad always encouraged me to learn an instrument when I was a kid, it was really my fear of competitive sports, coupled with an abject lack of athletic prowess, which got me into music. One day at school we were made an offer: a parent of one of the pupils was offering guitar lessons, and anyone who wanted to learn could sign up. The only problem was that it clashed with swimming lessons, so the choice was one or the other. Well I cant swim, Im scared to death of water, and would still rather have teeth pulled than swimming lessons. Needless to say I jumped at the chance. And within a few weeks I was happily strumming Sloop John B (fuckin love the Beach Boys), beginning a hobby that has gradually taken over my life.
Im pretty sure the first record I ever bough was the Ghostbusters 2 soundtrack, but if you skip that and move on to the first proper record I bought it was Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Chilli Peppers. I was 12 years old, and had just started to develop my own tastes, and although my friends were passing around C90s of the bands that would become the big grunge acts (Nirvana, Mud Honey, Sonic Youth et al) I was always on the look out for something with more of a hook.
When I was 15 (and had dyed my hair red and bough a pair of DMs) my record collection had become a treasure-trove of guilty, and often secret, pleasures. Crowded House, The Beatles, The Las, Aztec Camera, Little Richard, The Boo Radleys, Echo and The Bunny Men, ELO, Paul Simon, Paul Weller, John Lee Hooker, Chuck Berry and more were lining my shelves where Soundgarden and Janes Addiction should have been. So as you can imagine I was made up when Britpop came along.
Ive always thought the fact that the branding of the movement had pop in the title shows you how important the sound was. In the pejorative sense, to be truly popular requires a foothold in the publics consciousness, and Britpop had exactly that. So forget that revisionist music journalists would have us believe that Britpop produced only two genuinely great bands, and besides, how many of them would kill to see real bands filling up the top 40 again?
But anyway now I could be in a band that was loud, but could also be catchy, and sing sweet melodies. Great! By the time Grunge passed away and Britpop took hold I was around 16/17 and really began to think I can do this. Bands were breaking the top 20 with relatively simple, catchy songs; the kind of rock and roll tunes that would genuinely inspire you to pick up a guitar and have a bash. So I did.
Ive been playing in bands ever since, usually on whatever instrument was needed to complete the line-up, but my true love is still guitar. And while 99% of my musical contemporaries from my teenage years have called it quits, Ive kinda resigned myself to the fact that Im in the grasp of a compulsion that will never set me free.
What I could do next is try and explain to you what the music I play sounds like, but the truth of the matter is that writing about music makes about as much sense as dancing about architecture. So click on some of my tracks and let me know what you think. Each of the bands that I play with have an official website, so if you like what you hear you can find out info on each of them by clicking the links on the left hand side of this page (in the band members list).
Thanks for visiting my page, and if youve managed to read the whole of this bio I commend you. Theres a paperback version out later in the year.
P.S. I still have that copy of Blood Sugar, and listen to it about once a week.
Greetings from Los Angeles. I enjoyed reading your review of the Ray Davies concert in Liverpool. I grew up in Wallasey and have seen Ray perform in Liverpool many times with The Kinks, and also have some great backstage photos. I wish I could have been there.
Get yourselves down to this gig folks! Tell friends, family and animals - it should be fantastic. Details of the Liverpool gig at the top of the flyer below.
Hello there - how's it going with the band? Read all the bulletins that go round. When you playing down in the smoke again? Congrats on the new place too - Lucy said you've just moved. Ness
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