Danny Bastable

Danny was born in Lewisham, South East London on 3rd June 1976. From as early as he can remember, his Father’s love of 60’s music, or most forms of proper band-like music (“None of that boom, boom, boom crap”) has been a major influence on his musical tastes, none more than The Beatles.Danny has been playing guitar since the age of 10. Not satisfied with the classical compositions that were forced upon him in his school’s guitar lessons, he set upon learning the chords from diagram’s drawn by his Dad to teach him the chords to ‘House of the Rising Sun’. It was from here that Danny would pick out the chords to other favourite tunes and set about learning until he was satisfied they were ready to perform to his adoring audience at family parties.“We used to have these crazy family parties were everyone would drink heavily and dance and sing to extremely loud music. Then as the night would draw to a close, my Dad would always bang out a few tunes on his guitar for us all to sing along to. Then when I started to learn guitar, I would duet with him (our all time favourite being ‘I’ll Be On My Way’ by Lennon & McCartney)”.Danny left school at 16 to continue his 2 year employment at a local bicycle shop in Catford. “The work was great but not that great in pay. So after a year I joined WH Smith at Waterloo Station where my sister was already working”. It was during this period he met Neil Coshan, then a boyfriend of Danny’s cousin.Thanks to a mutual love of music and playing they naturally hit it off straight away. It was during a jamming session that Neil popped the question to Danny. “Do you fancy joining the band?”“I was sceptical about joining the band ‘cos I never considered myself good enough. But I plucked up the courage and went to a rehearsal”It was here he met Luigi Leccacorvi (Bass & Vocals), Rob Jenkins (Drums) and Andy Barnett (Keyboards). With Neil on lead guitar and Danny on rhythm guitar and vocals a jam session went into full swing. “I didn’t think I was that impressive and thought I’d bollocksed my chances. Then at the end of the session Neil nodded towards me and told me to play The Beatles ‘Girl’ on my own. I started playing while everyone packed the gear away. I didn’t think anyone was that interested until I finished and Lou turned ‘round and said ‘If I were listening to that on tape I would’ve sworn it was John himself’From then on, with Danny’s new found confidence fuelled by his new band-mates they got to work. “We didn’t want to be a covers band so we just wrote our own stuff. We started doing gigs which was great especially when we were on form. Even when we weren’t that great we’d still have a good laugh getting pissed afterwards, but at the time we were very serious about the whole thing”4 years, various demos, and quite a few gigs after, Danny looked at the band from the outside and realised they were more and more relying on cover versions. “We were becoming what we didn’t want to be and I was no longer feeling the love for playing live. I think as a band we got as good as we could get which was merely good, not good enough. So I announced I was leaving”Danny wanted to leave the band but not the friendships, especially with Neil. “Neil and my cousin had split but I really didn’t want to lose touch but we just never spoke. Not for any reason mind, we just never contacted one another. Like typical blokes”2 years later Danny answered a knock on the door only to find Andy Barnett on the other side inviting Danny to his birthday party. “He told me the rest of the band were gonna be there and I couldn’t resist”. Danny met up with everyone at the party and rekindled his friendship with Neil. “We swore we’d meet up regular and start jamming again which we did. We were talking of maybe playing the pubs together just doing covers and stuff. I started building up a songbook and was looking forward to playing pubs again but Neil didn’t seem as eager. In fact we only ever played once in public at my Dad’s 50th”What was to come next was a major turning point. Danny decided to move to Cornwall. “The job I was in was terrible, the flat I lived in was manky and far too expensive. I had been seeing a girl in Cornwall who was the daughter of friends of my aunt who lived in Cornwall so I thought sod it, I’m gonna start over.“I was in two minds when I moved. I was ecstatic to start over, but distraught that I was leaving my parents, sister and niece behind. Also Neil, I was gutted to think I wouldn’t be jamming with him every other night but my life needed to change”Within a month Danny had found full time employment and was hoping to play the local pubs but this time on his own. “I was back to square one there. Was I good enough to front myself? Was I mad? Would anyone listen? A local karaoke entertainer I’d got to know helped me get equipment and showcased me for an evening in front of invited friends. The encouragement everyone gave me reluctantly spurred me on to hit the pubs. I dunno what I was worried about!”3 years after his first performance Danny is growing in both repertoire and popularity. “It’s just been getting better all the time. Since moving down I’ve been blessed with a beautiful daughter, I got married, and started recording all my back catalogue"And it's here that you can hear those songs that were created in the days of Danny's band days. In amongst them are songs by the whole band and some by Danny himself. "I've always felt that some of the songs we had never got finished as they should. I decided I would do just that, get them into demo form, along with songs that I wrote after I left the band and put them all together and see what it sounds like"So there you are. Grab a beer, sit back and enjoy. Coments always welcome, bad or good! But most of all remember...."If music be the food of love, then he's the indegestion"'GET IN'