In the late 80's John Gill and Eddie Fenn were mucking' around with some tracks they'd been working on in their collective Bunker Studio(Eddie,John and Phil Almond) when it was suggested that they could do with more outside input. Both had collaborated with several bands/projects previously and had several working projects on the go. Why not invite people in to become members?
No No No, not session musicians but floating members. So the idea of the Stepbrothers was conceived - to step in/out of a studio project at any given time or upon invitation/inveiglement/coercion. Anyone who can or cannot sing/play/whistle/talk/fart was asked to contribute.
Its earliest incantation was with Moey(ex Hamsters). Edd would write the music, John would record it and add a bit of bass and Moey would clag some vocals on. The idea was and is for all musicians involved to be equal in partnership. Royalties would be split equally amongst the main contributors and anybody else involved would also get a share. This meant that anybody who had the balls to get up and have a go could call themselves a Stepbrother.
This blossomed with the introduction of Phil Almond(Rhodes Middleton) and Phil Duncan. Phil Almond had been working with Eddie for several years on various projects such as The Avant Gardeners, Implied Consent, Bargepole, The Blazing Snowmen and other quirky setups and Phil Duncan had worked on other separate projects as well as being a sound engineer and electronics whiz.
The foundations had been lain and girls and boys alike were invited to demonstrate their in/capabilities on many occasions. They included the likes of Tom Greenhalgh(Mekons), Lou Edmonds(PIL), John Hyatt(The Three Johns)
WAL, John and Gavin(Edward the 2nd and the Red Hot Polkas), Bernadette Bovel, Gary Lomax(Waterfoot Dandy),Larry Gott(James), Mike Losban, and a host of zillions of other contributors who are too many to mention. The band will from June 1st 2007 start to add 4 new songs to the site every month for the rest of time. Should anyone online wish to contribute a slice of their quince with a runcible spoon please feel free.
CD's available on request. Apologies to anyone missed. If you contact us we will most certainly put you up in the Stepbrothers Hall of Fame and credit you
