In the beginning there was a band called 'ERINA' that featured me (drums), Willie Gillum (guitar), Tommy Hodgeson (bass) and Ken Tredwell (vocals & keyboards). We were aged between 14 and 16 years old, played classic, pop rock covers, had Chris Cowie (of Top of the Pops producer fame) as one of our fans, did one gig at our old school disco, then split up.
Not strictly true though, as me and Willie Gillum stayed together and eventually put together what I still class today as one of the best bands I've been in, with Phil Cleaver on bass, Ian Ryan on rythmn guitar, and Lorraine Martin on vocals. We ended up playing the club circuit and had the distinction of never being paid off from a single gig. Although we probably came quite close a few times, due to our insistance of being something different by slipping the occassional Groundhogs or Sex Pistols song into our sets...
It was actually the arrival of the Punk era that caused this band to split due to musical differences, and I then further honed my skills in various other bands - with people such as Paul Baker and Terry Smith being a pleasure to work, and get drunk, with. Eventually I was introduced to John Fannon and Keith 'Geddy' Sewell, had a disastrous first and only rehearsal where amplifiers and speakers fell over, exploded and burst into flames, and then never saw either of them again. Until one day I was aproached by Jim Bunker, who was managing a local band that were due to go into the recording studio, but needed a drummer at short notice and I had been recommended to him by John and Ged (who just happened to be in the band). What started out as a two week session job ended up as a full time stint in one of the most fun, extravagant, visually creative, tempermental and worst named bands ('Deathwish') I have ever been in! Jim eventually left to work in Saudi Arabia and I can still clearly remember the last band rehearsal, about two months after Jim had left, where only John and I turned up only to find individual messages from the rest of the band that they had quit - without them knowing that the others had also done the same!!
This prompted me to take some time out until about a year later when I was suprisingly invited to the engagement party for Dave Poole who I had only met a couple of times in the pub. All became clear when I was introduced to his friend Ian Elliot who happened to be a Bassist and they came clean about my being invited to the party as Dave was a guitarist and they were setting up their own band, were looking for a drummer and had been pointed in my direction! A certain Mr Fannon joined us on second guitar along with our vocalist who was only known as 'Tinks', and 'Hall Of Mirrors' was born.
It was while being in this band that my whole meandering musical life was to be suddenly brought into focus when I answered an ad in the local paper for musicians to run their own venue at Washington Arts Centre. I was given the job of organising the first meeting with all others who answered the ad and so it was that in April 1985 the six representatives of their relevant bands met with Arts Centre Staff, were given the free use of the main theatre and all its contents and told "Get on with it"... This scared half of those present into not turning up for the following weeks meeting but the three bands left ('Hall Of Mirrors', 'Amonto Amendez' and 'McCarthur Park' were joined by John Kirtley and his band 'Last Look', and we became Washington Music Collective. This was to become one of the main points of my life for the next 15 or so years and I am proud to have worked with (just about) everybody that either did gigs with us or were in the audience over those years - too many to mention, but you all know who you are!
However, in those first few weeks of the Collective I met a fairly young surrealist artist named Peter McAdam who later persuaded me to play drums in his band, Daddakoph. Later in life he again tricked me into playing drums for a band he was putting together which became 'Tel Quel' which then (after Peter left) evolved into the band 'Bateman'. Without any shadow of a doubt, Bateman - with Adam Layborne, Scott Hamilton and Mike McLaughlin - was the most unique and creative band I had ever worked in. But, after Bateman's rather unpleasant demise, I continued to work with Mike and our mutual friend Paul Wood as 'Profit In Vegas', where it has to be said that Mr Wood is the most prolific songwriter I have ever had the hard working (just to keep up with him) pleasure of playing with! Check out his live Wednesday night internet broadcasts if you don't belive me!!
Which brings me to where I am now... After Paul put Profit In Vegas on hold indefinately to concentrate on some of his solo work, Peter McAdam once again contacted me to see if if I was available to work as a "two man band" with him. Since then Peter and I seem to have gone from strength to strength, forging the unique experimental music of 'The Monumental Gurus' as we are now known - which has in turn issued the challenge of my creating my own music site here on MySpace. Now you know who to blame...My World Visitor Map!
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