Listen to more JWB at Last.fm, click here!

Biography:

Joff was born just as punk was becoming new wave and 'Star Wars' had been out for little under a year. He learnt stuff at school and found the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to be quite revelatory. By the age of six he had started guitar lessons, and thus followed much practice and the listening to of much that was fine in the way of rock with Dylan, Neil Young, Bowie and Hendrix particularly high on the list. By his late teens Joff had begun writing, playing and gigging in his first fledgling bands.Following a trip to New York Joffs song writing went into overdrive and he began compiling songs onto a 4 track cassette recorder that eventually became a 3 track machine for reasons only it knows. This taught Joff a valuable lesson in economy. Even so, some of these early recordings would a few years later receive their radio debut on the Xfm unsigned session.Working at his home near Oxford Joff has developed a perspective from which to write, avoiding many of the clichés of current pop music. To this end some of the things that Joff has chosen to write about include: kite flying, train theft, and growing things in his garden. But songs need a band, and as lovely as a lone voice and guitar can be they are simply no substitute for bashing bass and drums and he needed a keyboard player as well.Fortunately, sometime in the early 80s, in Paddocks Playgroup somewhere near Oxford, just after milk time, probably in the sand pit, Joff met one. However, at age 3 Joff and Matt were for some reason unable to get a band off the ground and it was to be another 10 years before their first musical jams took place. Essentially, these sessions involved scrounging for amps, setting up in Matts front room and desperately trying to sound like Pink Floyd. This often failed, not least for the fact that the digital delay pedal that would have made it totally bitchen was round at Richards house in his brothers room, and he was out. However, these joyously fertile times did yield a firm resolution in the minds of Joff and Matt that music was indeed the best, and that the formation of some type of rocking teenage combo was indeed the way.But then: HORROR!!Matt was flung a distance beyond all teenage comprehension Lancashire! Any hope of a band was now doomed, and yet somehow, a focus remained on one day re-uniting. As Bowie foretold, they had five yearsto wait. Meanwhile, Joff busied himself with his 3 track (nee 4 track) as mentioned above, and songs were born. Once Matt had made it back down south a band was soon formed to play, what could essentially be described as the Neil Young piloting Steely Dan under the baton of Mr Frank Zappa in a nutshell, with Brad Waissman on bass and Paul Mallyon on drums, both of whom Joff had got to know during Matts exile. This catchy little ensemble was known to the few as Antique Seeking Nuns and for a time they very nearly played a gig. However, almost without realising, Joff had found a band that was capable of giving voice to his songs that had for all of this time been steadily stacking up on un-labelled c-90 cassettes. And thus, Joff Winks Band was born.JWB played their first gig at IN THE CITY Manchester, which kind of dropped them in at the deep end, even so it was a great success and the band went on to sign a first publishing deal. Since then JWB have appeared live with Ray La Montagne and Long View been play listed twice on XFM with single releases Someone else’s words and Share My Blues, recorded 2 live sessions for XFM’s Claire Sturgess show, appeared live on John Kennedy’s X-posure night along with Regina Spectre and the Earlies. Appeared live on BBC 6 music’s Gideon Co show to promote touring with Joseph Arthur and won Zane lows fresh meat battle of the bands competition on Radio 1.