About Me
Barbed Wire was formed to fullfil the needs of everyone wanting a true rock and roll band. Not playing what we want, but playing what you want to hear..Michael Coutts-Lead Vocals,Guitar, Drums, and all round good guy. Michael has been playing guitar since he was 12. First influences were The Who and Led Zeppelin and by 14 was influenced much more by Rush. He played with a couple bands in his late teens and early twenties most notably The 3 Dicks and Fossil who opened for the Ramones at CBGB in Manhatten. Coming off the stage at CBGB and getting a high five and hearing "cool set man" from Joey Ramone is certainly the highlight of his "career" in music. Playing on and off for years he has played guitar and fronted several cover bands focusing mostly on hard rock which included music from Alice in Chains, Godsmack and Drowning Pool. So get yourself ready for this electrifying frontman to party hard with you all night long...Michael “SpiggyMonster†McCarthy
Guitars, Bass, Keys, Vocals and LunaticSpiggy became interested in guitar after hearing ‘All Along the Watchtower’ for the first time at age 12. Prior to this, his primary musical interest was divided between playing “Ol’ Susana†on the harmonica and trying to master the back-up vocals for Sha Na Na in the hopes of one day becoming Bowzer’s replacement. Thank you, Jimi.
In 1978, his first band: Spiggy and The Spigtones, performed their first show at a high-school talent show. The Spigtones original ‘Vegetables Are A Girls’ Best Friend’, though a hit with the class for it’s irreverent raucousness, received rather different reviews from the faculty members; and in particular, the school principal.
After a stint in the US Navy where he was introduced to many different styles of music from fellow ship-mate muscians, he returned to his hometown of Buffalo, NY.
From 1985 to 2000 he devoted his spare time to writing, and was the guitarist, chief songwriter and founder for many bands; but most notably, and in order: The Same, Slave,1087BC, Big Dogs, PillBox, Worm and finally Undertow, which was the best of his bands so far. It was during the Undertow years that he penned his best material with the collaborative effort of his friend Mark Lewis on vocals. Undertow enjoyed air-play from local radio-stations with their songs: She Lived At Home, Twenty Years and Unfamiliar Life. The break-up of the band hit hard. Spiggy gave up music for over a year after this.
In 2003 he joined Jive 5 (formerly Jive Injection) as the bands 5th bass player in their 10+ year history. Spiggy loved his new role as a bassist. But after 18 months, the decade old band spewed it syllable and faded away into already forgotten history.
In 2005 Spiggy moved to SC, but found it near impossible to find anyone to actually play. Finally in June of 2008, he formed the 5-piece band Ex Oblivone, which performed one show at Furman University. After losing the drummer and rhythm guitar player, Spiggy convinced two acquaintances of his to join the band as replacements. The band was renamed to Trend Kill Omega and after paying for their demo at a local studio, Spiggy was told to ‘take a hike’ by the other snot-nosed Y-generation members of the band who now out-numbered him 4 to 1. Crushed from being fired from the band he had founded by those no-talent two-bit punks, SpiggyMonster retired to his cave to nurse his wounds and to re-think everything he had ever believed about music, bands, and the music business.
His solution he found in two words: ‘Barbed Wire’ (2009-20??)Dwayne Grassie on bass and vocals was Born in a grass-sod hovel on the shores of Lake Erie, Dwayne demonstrated very early in life his prodigal musical abilities and developed his eclectic, off-beat and off-key playing style on a multicolored Fisher-Price Xylophone. Uprooted from the comfortable squalor of inner-city Cleveland as a young teen, he was traumatized by the oppressive and overpowering Southern culture and the smell of fried okra and fried green tomatoes in the Upstate of South Carolina. Fortunately, it was at this time of his life he discovered the bass guitar and the blues. Permanently scarred by the waste of 4 years of college, whose tone was set the summer before his freshman year with the cinema release of “National Lampoon’s Animal Houseâ€, we can all be thankful that he was able to spend thousands of hours idling away his time playing guitar while skipping classes. He settled down after graduation into the mindless and impersonal existence of a corporate drone, unfortunately putting away the guitar for years. Poor job satisfaction led to another try at academics, and while he was successful academically this time around, he discovered that a graduate degree makes one unemployable because of excessive education coupled with experience. Finally, because of a dangerous level of low self-esteem, income and shamelessness, Dwayne once again picked up guitar, and more importantly, the bass, re-acquiring the long-lost chops of the wasted college years. Fortunately, Barbed Wire was looking for a bass player to fill the low-end of the sonic spectrum and in a little more than one rehearsal’s worth of audition, he had completely mesmerized and hypnotized Barbed Wire into thinking he could actually play the bass guitar. The rest, as they say, is the ongoing creation of living music history.Billy G. on bass guitar and vocals... Billy G the senior of the group aka the Geachyman has shared the stage with many many stars in his career. Bill has spent the last 30 plus years sharing his musical talent with all walks of life. Bill has shared the stage with Brenda Lee, Jumpin Gene Simmons, BB King, The Hitch Hikers and many many more.. Bill has had many songs recorded..Joe Rossi on drums and vocals.. Joe comes to Barbed Wire with many years experience. Joe toured with Taragon and Blitzkrieg.. He also has many recordings to his credit..So when you find yourself wanting to know more about us, come check out a show and ask us.. You won't be disappointed and maybe you might get a set of Barbed Wire beads....
