Member Since: 8/20/2006
Band Website: members.sibeliusmusic.com/griff
Band Members: As this is sort of a "solo" site and on some of the stuff I play everything here is a sort of "bandology" of all the bands I've been in over the years, both serious and less seriousJunk Jazz and the Swing Kings (1989 - 1991) - the reason I bought a bass guitar and they wouldn't let me play it! Fronted by a sax player called Wendy Herring and featuring the mighty Tim Watson on drum kit. He was a really big influence on the playing style of Nick O'Neill in ChainsawChainsaw (1990 - 1992) - finest band to play a mixture of Abba, puink and classical music ever heard in Oxford.
Line up - me (bass/vocals), Rich Lewis (keyboards), Nick O'Neill (now keyboards with Jebo but drummer back then), Pete Wilman (guitar, now an opera singer with WNO last I heard), Steph Lewis (violin)The Beverley Others (1992) - pub band, one and only gig at The Eagle in Merthyr Tydfil. Apparently we sounded "like chips frying"
Line up - me (bass, vocals and guitar), Gezze (guitar), Klaus (guitar), Marni (tambourine)Esoterica (1993) - Great name, great band...
Line up - me (bass/vocals), Rich Lewis (keyboards), Brian Simpson (guitar), Andy Tullis (drums)The Key (1993-94) - Did our first "proper" recording session with this line up. Brandon is one of the most naturally talented musicians I've ever played with. Met him again recently after many years and it was good to see him and play with him again
Line up - as Esoterica but with Brandon Walker
(now of The Conviction) on guitar and latterly Pete Lewis on vocalsThe Cry (1994 - 1995) - shortlived incarnation of the band but pretty good nonetheless
Line up - me (bass), Rich Lewis (vocals and keyboards), Brandon Walker (guitar), Johnnie McLean (drums)Bliss (1995) - Yet another great name but it was a great band.
Line up - me (bass), Rich Lewis (vocals and keyboards), Dan Davis (guitar), Jake Perry (drums)Stride (1995-1998) - A slightly better name which we only changed as we had to. Most successful incarnation of the band so far unless The Xtras get anywhere
Line up - as BlissThe Xtras (2006-) The current version of the band, still with me and Rich Lewis. You'd think we'd know better by now.
Line up - as Stride but with Keith Haldane playing drums live and Ali Murray of the Graeme Mearns Band on the recordingZoodoo (2006) - OK, I don't really belong in this band, they're some of my senior pupils, but, just in case they become rich and famous, I played keyboards for them at the Halloween(ish) Rock Nite 2006, November 3rd. And djembe on "Tiki Hut" when they recorded it! Line up - Andy Lyon (bass/vocals), Ruairidh Finnigan (guitar/vocals), Eddy Crawford (drums/vocals), me (keyboard for "Ghostbusters" and "Bad Touch" by the Bloodhound Gang) Inspired Lunacy (2006) - OK, they're another band of senior pupils but I did play drums for their recording Silence is Golden when Tobi was ill and now they've won a Battle of the Bands I'll take any fame by association. "The Uprising" is their ultimate song, though. It's terrific!!!! CCJ (2008) - again, predictably, some senior pupils that I played bass with for their last before leaving school and more recently I was dragged out of the audience at a gig at the Forest Cafe in Edinburgh to pluck some bass with them. Great band, great lads, great songs.
Influences: A huge number of influences in no particular order:Lemmy (Motorhead), Alan Lancaster (original Status Quo bassist), Rhino Edwards (current Quo bassist) Kelly Groucett (ELO), Nicky Wire (Manics), Guigsy (original Oasis bassist), Flea (Chillis), Mani (Stone Roses),the guy out of Rage Against the Machine whose name escapes me at the moment, , Walter Page (Count Basie band), Chris Wolstenholme (Muse), Johnny Colt (original Black Crowes bassist), Lenny Kravitz (let's face it he's multi talented and can do the lot from play the bass to produce the album but he really is some player), Steve Harris (Iron Maiden), Geezer Butler (Sabbath), Noel Redding (Hendrix), Bootsy Collins (all the funk stuff), Bruce Foxton (the Jam), JJ Burnel (Stranglers), Sid Vicious & Glen Matlock (Pistols. OK Sid couldn't play but he looked the part), a guy called Dafydd who used to play in the Mid Glamorgan Youth Orchestra (on trombone) who always brought his bass guitar on residential courses and played Bach 2-part inventions on it, Diane Thomas (my old double bass teacher), Big Ger (another bass teacher), Cleaton (got me into bass), Sholto Burns (no a journalist with Telegraph or something but at university we played in a jazz band together briefly, him on electric bass for the sound, me on double bass to look "cool" whilst getting blisters like smarties on my pizzicato fingers) and most definitely NOT Mark King out of Level 42. Other musical influences (ie non bass related) include Bartok, Shostakovich, Britten, Bruckner, Bach, Tom Lehrer, Spike Jones and his City Slickers and ABBA.
Type of Label: None