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A Spiv is a British slang for one who uses their wits to avoid a real job; a person without employment who makes money by various schemes, goes about smartly dressed and having a good time. It is also the name of a band from Denver, Colorado, that rocked it like a hurricane for ten years (1998-2008), and then were forced to find employment.

The goal of all spivs is to be gainfully unemployed. This sounds logical when my (Chris') mom actually took banjo lessons from Jerry Garcia at a Menlo Park music store before he formed the Grateful Dead (she was far from a hippie and didn't even know who he was). Ironically, I end up working twice as hard at being self employed than punching a clock!

The first to join up with me was lifelong friend, Sean Sippel, on drums, who was living in Portland, Oregon, at the time. Having had multiple drummers turn into green globules on me, I resolutely made the trek to the Northwest and had all of Sean's stuff packed in under an hour. Then we sat for a drink at a local pub, and heard on the radio that Frank Sinatra was pronounced dead an hour earlier, so we had one more for Frank, said farewell to Portland, and headed to the Rocky Mountains. We joined up with my brother, Jeremy, back in Denver, living not far from many of Jack Kerouac's favorite haunts, and started writing and rehearsing the SPIV sound.

In our time together, SPIV released ten singles and three full-length discs, including Don'tcha Know, (2003) featuring Ken Stringfellow (The Posies, REM, Big Star) on bass, keyboards, and vocals; and our swan song: Double Aluminum, 24 Uncharted Hits (2008). In Spring 2007, ABC Television used the song "Everybody's A Rockstar Tonight" to promote their new show, The Next Best Thing.

John Lennon's cousin Stan Parkes was quoted as saying, "My favourite music is the Glenn Miller band and I used to wind [Lennon] up about Elvis Presley and say to him 'He's not a real musician, he's just a spiv. Glenn Miller is a great musician!'.

We are excited to have been a part of Denver's flourishing music scene as it gained more national recognition. SPIV rocked a show with Denver's breakout band, The Fray, in 2004, and we remain very excited for them and their success, and the others that are sure to follow from the Mile High City!

Thanks to all the SPIVs out there still giving their dreams a go. Thanks to all the fans! And thanks to my biggest fans: Anistacia, Sophia, and Max!