Spikedrivers profile picture

Spikedrivers

About Me

Ben Tyzack formed Spikedrivers in 1992 when he returned to London after living in the US. Born in London he'd moved to Iowa City when his father, Michael Tyzack. became visiting artist to the School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa. His early years were spent roaming the cornfields and playing on the railroad tracks - the Rock Island Line came right through town. The big skies and mile long freight trains are regular motif in his songwriting.
Later the family moved to Charleston where his father remained until his death in 2007. There's a page dedicated to his paintings on our main website.
Ben's father also played trumpet in a Dixieland jazzband and that's where Ben got his early musical training. Later on he moved to Atlanta and started absorbing Southern rock before discovering slide guitar and fingerpicking.
The band went through several lineup changes over the next few years and released two CDs, 'Delta Boogie' and 'Whisky River Blues'. These are both out of print but a compilation of the original songs from both albums is due to be released sometime in 2008.
Bass guitarist Constance Redgrave and drummer Maurice McElroy joined in the year 2000. Although both had put in appearances as deps earlier on. Turns out that Constance had auditioned for an early version of the band although she doesn't remember a thing about it - so she says.
Constance's musical background is a mixture of Deathrock and country. Born in Hollywood, California, she came to the UK as a member of Christian Death following a year studying at the Musical Institute of Technology in LA. She's been here ever since.
Maurice McElroy is from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He started playing Blues in the 60's although, at the time, he thought it was pop music. It took a while before he found out that most of the records that got him excited were covers of songs by Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and other blues guys.
The band has put out fourCDs since then. 'Delta Roots' 2001 which is a mixture of original songs and covers; 'Blue Trash' 2003 which is all original songs and 'Ain't it real' 2005 which has one cover song. Their latest album 'Live at High Barn ' was released in August 2008.
Spikedrivers have a sound that is completely their own and is proving incredibly popular with live audiences no matter what their taste in music. You're as likely to see them at a folk or world music festival as a blues fest.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 9/10/2006
Band Website: www.spikedrivers.net
Band Members:Ben Tyzack, Guitars, Vocal, Harmonica;Constance Redgrave, Bass Guitar, Vocals, Washboard, Percussion;Maurice McElroy, Drums, Vocals, Udu Drum, Cajon, Percussion
Influences: Robert Johnson; Big Bill Broonzy; JJ Cale; Fleetwood Mac; Emmy Lou Harris; The Band; Ennio Morricone; Rev Robert Wilkins; Pops Staples; Little George Sueref; Dr John; Astor Piazzolla; Miles Davis; Alison Krauss; Paco De Lucia; Paco Pena; Lo Jo; Duke Ellington; The Rolling Stones; Pink Floyd; Led Zeppelin; Muddy Waters; Doc Watson; James Brown; Traffic; Otis Redding; Al Green; The Chieftains; Clannad
Sounds Like: The Band, Ry Cooder, Little Feat, JJ Cale, Fleetwood Mac
Record Label: Scratchy Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

December Tour with the Ben Waters Big Band

We're going to be touring with the Ben Waters Big Band in December. For those few of you who don't know, Ben is without doubt the best boogie woogie piano player this country has and for this tour he...
Posted by on Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:08:00 GMT

The Live CD is Finally Here!

Hooray! We can finally announce the arrival of The Spikedrivers Live At High Barn CD. We actually have it in our own sweaty little hands. For the moment, it is only available at gigs, and will soon be...
Posted by on Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:23:00 GMT

Constance’s New Site Goes Live

Our bass player Constance first came to the UK with the original death-metal band Christian Death and recorded the album ’Catastrophe Ballet’ at Rockfield Studios in Wales. Then they went ...
Posted by on Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:54:00 GMT

Were Finally Up and Running

Hi Folks,we’ve finally got this page up and running. Apologies to all those of you who have asked for a link and who haven’t had a reply. Your emails shunted into an unused email account f...
Posted by on Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:09:00 GMT