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Caricature were a progressive band based on the South coast of the UK between 1978 and 1985.
Founded in late 1978 from the nucleus of singer/multi instrumentalist Chris Fleming and Guitarist Tim Dunn. The initial line up of the band consisted of Chris Fleming, Vocals/Flute/Sax/Acoustic Guitar, Tim Dunn Electric & acoustic Guitar, Andy Mills Drums, John Hampton on Bass with Steve Kent handling the Keyboards. This initial line up recorded the first album ‘Vegatables ‘in 1979 consisting entirely of original material, the material was largely a mix of Progressive and Jazz rock .
Steve Kent was to leave shortly after the album was recorded and the band carried on performing with a new keyboard player Rob Morton for the next year and a half.
By 1982 both Rob and John Hampton at left , John eventually turning up in southern rock band County Line before eventually emigrating to Australia. Rob Morton went on to follow a career in Psychology. The Band recruited Gary Shaw on Bass and went through several Keyboard players before electing to record their next Album with Tim Dunn handling the Keyboard duties as well as Guitar. The resulting Album ‘Legends’ was recorded in 1983 and again consisted of entirely original material. Shortly after release the band was augmented by ex Yggdrasil , Keyboard Man Ian Peplow and this line up continued to perform until the band split in 1985.
Tim Dunn went on to Form the Busted Fender Blues Band with Andy Mills and continued to play around the UK, and release four albums with them until 1994.
Chris Fleming and Gary Shaw remained in contact and played in a few bands together with different line-ups mostly playing old Caricature numbers.
Like many stories of bands there is a coda,and in 1995 Chris Fleming and Gary Shaw started to put a band together with Gary’s Brother George Shaw on Drums. Tim Dunn who by this time had left Busted Fender and was playing in the blues & RnB band ‘Step On the Gas’ agreed to play in parallel with the new band. This line up was called ‘Silicon Strings’ but anyone listening would draw obvious parallels with ‘Caricature’ . This new line up recorded ‘No Strings attached ‘ in 1997 , seventy percent of the material was original and largely culled from Caricature’s 1984/5 set. In 1987 Kevin Brazier from Busted Fender joined and the band released a final album ‘Finishing Touches’ in 1999 which featured newly written material.
Since 1999 Tim Dunn continues to perform and record with the three piece blues band ‘This Way Up’ Chris and Gary occasionally work together.All the members of the band continue to talk about a possible reunion almost 30 years after they initially came together. Chris Fleming recently added some Flute to some Classical guitar recordings that Tim Dunn was working on as recently as 2005.
In celabration of Chris..s 50th birthday in 2010, he asked Tim Dunn, Gary Shaw, Andy Mills and Kev Brazier if they would do a re-union gig which they agreed. After having a few practices since then it seemed that the 25 years they were apart just disapeared and was just as much fun as it was then. The re-union seems to be on course for the 17th April 2010. Free (Tickets only)
