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XCerts

THIS SITE IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF KEV.

About Me

THIS SITE IS FOR THE MEMORY OF KEV WHO WOULD HAVE LOVED THE INFINITY THAT IS THE GLOBAL NETWORK AND THE IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO ALL THAT TALENT OUT THERE.

The X-Certs, from Coventry, England, began life in 1978 and lasted for 3 years. Zero Summers (Kev) had started playing drums about 2 weeks before we got together. A Natural!!! Gray Summers, previously playing 6 string, changed to bass at the same time due to a lack of bass players in Coventry, at the time. Dave Pepper, was persuaded to join by kidnapping and threat of torture. He was pretty good and Gray and Zero didn’t think he would join a couple of novices. Swayed by our lack of good looks (it meant he would stand out!!) we got down to the nitty gritty of writing some tunes. Dave and Gray shared vocals and the song writing. Some decent tunes and a semblance of being able to play a bit materialised and we launched into gigs. Joined by Dave Chalmers (sound) and Chris King (previous manager of The Flys - check them out on myspace, you’ll be glad you did!) we got rolling.

Our image was pretty low key as we thought the music spoke for us. Our following was pretty good, but the more visual bands of the time (the Specials/Selecter/God’s Toys) grabbed a huge fan base in Coventry. We won the Battle of the Bands at Warwick Uni. and suddenly ’got confidence’. Dill of God’s Toys (a superb Cov. band see them on youtube) felt cheated. We’d probably agree with him. Gig after gig, a few recording sessions and interest from record companies materialised and then we sort of drifted apart really. The threat of the single release of ’FEELING IN THE GROOVE’ c/w ’SATISFIED’ didn’t materialise as the Indie record label ZAMA Records kept re-mixing it all the time. (They wanted fairy dust sprinkling over it !!!!!)

Zero joined up with a few mates playing his own songs and Dave and Gray went on to form Team 23 (Soul Band) with Jerome Heisler, Adrian Black and John Hewitt. We did some great gigs of which supporting Dexy’s Midnight Runners was the biggest and then Dave decided the style wasn’t for him. He went and did music more suited to his style of playing.

Gray added a brass section to the Team 23 (Roy Wall-sax and Lynn Thompson-trumpet) and a new guitarist (Jim Landsbury-later of Coventry 80’s band ‘King’) The Team supported the Specials on tour, Madness and the Selecter and played mainly original songs written by Jerome and Gray. A single was released on the Specials drummer John Bradbury’s Race Records label. ‘MOVE INTO THE RHYTHM’ (Gray) and ‘WHATEVER MOVES YOU’ (Jerome) was a double ‘A’ side 7” vinyl. If you’ve got a copy it’s worth a cool collectable £40 now!!! It was after a few radio plays and a change of personnel that Gray started to feel the ’Seeking Elusive Stardom’ thing wasn’t for him and took up making ceramics. He lives in West Wales now and can be seen strumming and playing djembe on the beach in between the busy times that involve studying for a degree in nursing.

Gray’s brother, Kev (Zero Summers) was sadly killed in a car crash at the age of 21 and the lights went out really.

Dave still plays (check out his music and information on his myspace site davepepperband , and again, you’ll be glad you did). He lives in America now and still rocks.

The songs ’SATISFIED’, ’FEELING IN THE GROOVE’, ’ONE OF THE BOYS’ and ’ASYLUM’ are PEPPER/SUMMERS compositions.

To all who have accessed --- Have a golden life.

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Who Is Harry Nilsson?
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My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 8/23/2007
Band Website:
Band Members:

DAVE PEPPER - Guitar/Keyboards/Vocals


GRAY SUMMERS - Bass Guitar/Vocals


ZERO SUMMERS - Drums



Influences:

Dave said recently: ".. at the time we played I had a few influences! Grand Funk Railroad (Guitarist Mark Farner....from Detroit...which Ive just played, and that was a lifelong dream!) The Kinks, Beatles, Lords of the New Church." Dave's Influences throughout his life and the bigger picture can be found on his myspace davepepperband site. Go see what he's up to now!! Cookin', Rockin' and Rollin' as always. Here's a few recent reviews.

'This band blew the roof of theClub! Raw power, loud as f**k!' Chicago Tribune.

"I couldnt believe the wall of sound these guys create!' Detroit Sounds

Talking to Dave after the 9-30 show,he said he hooks all his amps in series!'That explains the almighty power that the band have!' Washington Post

'U gotta hear this band' Its Pistols meets Pop in the loudest form!Awesome...and the Brit guitarist rocks the hell outta that guitar!!" Boston Times

'Dave Pepper, as to be expected, is still rockin' with The Dave Pepper Band, now based in Washington DC" Pete Chambers, Coventry Telegraph.U.K.

Space Cowboy or what??

Gray's influences were Deaf School (how COOL were they?), Marc Bolan and T.Rex, The Flys (Songwriting geniuses), Northern Soul, Atlantic/Stax and Tamla Motown. And OF COURSE..... Harry Nilsson who is the best of all time. I do tend to listen to a huge variety of styles of music nowadays. Music is entertainment that is good for you....... your heart and soul. And you don't need a prescription.

Zero's were The Kinks, Bill Nelson & Be-Bop Deluxe, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, David Bowie, Wire, John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett. Especially John and Wild Willy. John's quirkiness hit all corners of the household in those lovely days.

WE RECORDED 'SATISFIED', 'FEELING IN THE GROOVE' AND 'ASYLUM' AT SPACEWARD STUDIOS .


Sounds Like:

New Wave of the Time. The late 70's meant Energy and Tunes.

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Record Label: Zama Music (a few rare copies) and Race Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Photographs

Hi. Most of the photos in the album 'Forever Haunted and Aching with the Memories' are of local landscapes. I prefer to take pictures of people in the main but I don't want to put their images up on s...
Posted by XCerts on Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:34:00 PST

Work, Rest and Play.

Hi. Just finished a huge year 'nursing wise' and now have a week to draw breath before the final push to blue shoulder epaulets and staff nurse status. Tough one too and the next steps apparantly tou...
Posted by XCerts on Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:36:00 PST

Old songs

Frustration!!!! It's a real problem when you know there are about 40 songs from the past and all you have are a bunch of old worn out cassettes with about 20 songs with tape blips on them. We recorded...
Posted by XCerts on Sun, 03 Feb 2008 05:55:00 PST

2007? A good year.

It was a good 'MySpace' year all in all.  Finding and reminiscing with an awful lot of people from the past. Or should that be a lot of awful people from the past ??? No! Right first ti...
Posted by XCerts on Fri, 04 Jan 2008 05:38:00 PST

New song.

I wrote a new song about my brother. Can't show you the music until next year. Busy times ahead with exams and trying not to hurt people with needles, bandaging wounds, etc. Song for Kev. There ...
Posted by XCerts on Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:12:00 PST

Studying for the next 4 weeks.

Hello all, Today I begin the difficult task of the next nursing essay. Four/five weeks and I can't be distracted by the lure of all that great music out there. I'm gonna get withdrawal symptoms! Tell ...
Posted by XCerts on Sun, 30 Sep 2007 08:02:00 PST

Coventry Bands

Hello people, I've just spent a couple of weeks looking at Coventry bands/musicians both past and present on the www. and myspace. You know something? We are blessed to have something in the air ...
Posted by XCerts on Sat, 29 Sep 2007 04:56:00 PST

Satisfied??

Just a quick note to say a big thanks to the people who've given me positive feedback about 'Satisfied'. Me, Dave Pep and Kev were at the start of a practice session and I had this idea to shove ...
Posted by XCerts on Sat, 15 Sep 2007 01:56:00 PST

Birthday

Hi, It's my birthday today (51) and I'd like to say thankyou to my lovely family for the Edward Scissorhands soundtrack that I am playing whilst typing this. What an amazing thing music and film ...
Posted by XCerts on Tue, 11 Sep 2007 02:01:00 PST

How to get more friends shown on the profile

Hello! I need advice. It seems a bit difficult to get more of 'my friends' on the main profile page. How do you do this??? I'm a bit of a useless prat when it comes to the technical bit of all this. S...
Posted by XCerts on Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:57:00 PST