Gareth profile picture

Gareth

GARETH HOWELLS

About Me


Currently I am in Bemis - an acoustic duo with a big sound!
"' you've gotta see bemis. the songs churn into little hurricanes, the sweet parity of their vocals so reminiscent of latter day CSN&Y' paul simmonds/the men they couldn't hang
I started off on the folk club scene in a duo called "Before and After", becoming a kind of resident at the Railway FOlk Club in Portsmouth but travelling to other bits of Hampshire and Sussex to play too. That duo lasted a couple of years.
Nowadays, I am getting my name known, having played support for The Men They Couldn't Hang, appearances on the radio and frequent jams with people, happy to harmonise.
As well as the solo appearances you will see me do, there is also my current duo, BEMIS - working with the lovely Ritchie Leo, man of sweet voice and massively versatile guitar.
a quote about BEMIS:
"The second Special guest was Bemis who also performed for 1 hour. It was a great set with plenty of enthusiasm from both the duo and enormous crowd who turned up to see Gareth and Ritchie demonstrate their great songwriting skills, tight harmonies and brilliant guitar work. Well done and good luck for 2007." Nick Courtney
In July 2007, Bemis played at the Catch Beachclub in Phuket, Thailand for 5 weeks - 6 nights a week, four hour sets each night. We loved that experience and have used it to develop our style and our repertoire.
"Thank you Bemis for your excellent performance during your one month residency at our outlet 'Catch Beach Club' in Phuket, Thailand. Our guests enjoyed their visits very much. Your friendly and warm approach to the audience as well as to music made many come back for more. Again thanks and best wishes for your musical careers.
Miguel Kirjon Director of Entertainment Twinpalms Phuket Resort
CHECK OUT THE BEMIS CD "TIME ENOUGH AT LAST" NOW AVAILABLE ONLY £5 FROM US
Despite my solo work and my work in Bemis being the most "me" of all my work, there are a few other things I can tell you about;
In "Before and After", we had the fortune to play in front of people like John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, Roy Bailey, Lee Collinson and, on many occasions Show of Hands. In fact, Show of Hands were a great support to us when we played. We also had a fantastic day playing in the Gosport Folk Festival in 1992.
We did well with our cassette "Trial by Tradition" until we split in August 1992, as John Dilloway my partner realised he'd had enough.
"The Sotchek Guitar Duo" was an, up to now, one off recording project that started with a work colleague and very good friend Arran Toomer getting together with me to try some improvised guitar duos. What was interesting for me was that Arran is a very accomplished classical guitarist with a completely different approach to me and I was intrigued to see how it would come out. The result was a CD called "World Without Mirrors" that we sold in a specialist shop consistently until the shop was sold. As the CD sounded more classical than folky, finding another venue for selling it was hard but I am extremely proud of this CD nonetheless.
The Mod Con Trio was a recording project that lasted a few years - basically a chance for me to grow as an instrumentalist - as we were playing improvised music with no rules - and the 3 of us had completely different styles - the rock guitar of Simon Henderson, the classical piano of Steve Le Poidevin and my more folky guitar (and bass) - we all benefitted from the experience but decided to call it a day a few years ago - i've been concentrating solely on my songwriting since then.
My frequent appearances with Dirty Hippy (Del) last year are likely to get reprises - one planned for the end of the year...
I have been given a new lease of life in 2006 and have written a lot as a result of this - I think the sound is still there but like any writer, i'm finding new ways to express myself.
I am on the lookout always for new places to play - hope to see you in one of them soon!!!
This is the myspace page for BEMIS - www.myspace.com/bemisuk - please check out the page and listen to the songs - I love working with Ritchie - we've known eachother for years but it's only this year we've actually got round to working with eachother.
I AM ALSO CURRENTLY BEING PLAYED ON:
http://www.live365.com/stations/virginiaprograsser
I recommend the station anyway for it's great selection of music - Steve is good at finding stuff to play and does interesting interviews too...
I RECORDED IN 2006 A CD CALLED "BY CHOICE" - IT'S 13 TRACKS AND WAS RECORDED AT SOUNDCHECK STUDIOS IN FARLINGTON. IF YOU WOULD LIKE A COPY PLEASE BUY ONE FROM ME IN PERSON FOR A FIVER OR CLICK ON THE PAYPAL LINK BELOW FOR A COPY TO BE SHIPPED - IT'S A BLANKET PRICE AS IT WOULD BE EASIER, EVEN IF SOME DISTANCES ARE A HIGHER POSTAGE COST. THANKS LOADS.
GARETH HOWELLS - BY CHOICE 2006
THIS IS A COMMENT ABOUT THE ALBUM FROM MANU, SINGER SONGWRITER FROM GUILDFORD: "I went to work today one tired bunny after spending half the night lying in bed with my headphones on mesmerised by Gareth Howells 'By Choice.'...With a voice not too disimilar to Weller, your songwriting tells a story just like Mayer (lyrics on 'Displacement' particularly sticking in ones mind)....as you say: "it might not be as glossy as yours" but what you lack in finished article, you certainly tower above me in soul....'heavy soul' you might say.
THIS IS BEMIS IN THAILAND !!!!!
Bemis

Add to My Profile | More Videos

YOU CAN ALSO CHECK OUT BEMIS ON YOUTUBE (BEMISUK)
CHECK OUT THE VARIOUS PERFORMANCES OF US ON YOUTUBE!!!!

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 1/29/2006
Band Website: bemismusic.com
Band Members: Me and my guitar.
- EXCEPT WHEN I AM BEMIS - in which I am half, with Ritchie Leo, my partner.
- but yeah, if it's a solo thing, it is mostly me and my acoustic seagull.
- more and more though, it's Bemis songs on the profile and Bemis gigs on the listings.
Influences: Influenced by Michael Hedges, Rory McLeod, The Men They Couldn't Hang, Adrian Belew, The Bears, Ani Difranco, Ben Harper, Richard Thompson, Stephen Stills, Joni Mitchell, Shawn Colvin, Tracy Chapman, Billy Bragg, REM, Warren Zevon, Steve Earle, Kings X, Paul Simon, Martin Carthy, Bob Dylan, Barenaked Ladies, Bruce Cockburn, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin, Paul Weller, Roy Harper, Loudon Wainwright 3 and John Martyn mainly - although that's just the main ones.
It's an impossible task, saying your influences, if you're as obsessed as me - but you can hear these people occasionally drifting past in my stuff - hopefully not so they drown out my personality! LOL - the mix hopefully ensures that.
- and my sound has evolved over the years anyway. The article that was written about me in "Folk on Tap" magazine in 1992 mentioned the "angry young man" side to me a lot - that's still there but sitting with the hopeless romantic. (maybe they're the same thing)
Sounds Like: Impossible question to answer really - too subjective...Ultimately, I guess, it's the list of influences combined in one massive musical biscuit.

THIS IS US IN THAILAND DOING ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER:

THIS IS US IN WINCHESTER DOING A SONG I WROTE CALLED "THE JIGSAW SONG"

- and THIS IS US IN BOURNEMOUTH DOING "THE BATTLE IS OVER":

Type of Label: None

My Blog

BEMIS at the Cellars

Last night Bemis supported Ben Griffith at the Cellars. It was a great night.   We've been together for almost 2 years now - we've known eachother sonce 1993 but took this long to realise we sho...
Posted by Gareth on Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:22:00 PST

Steve Earle - at the Anvil

Finally..... FINALLY!   I get to the see the one and only Steve Earle - I say that as there's no one like him. He's been hovering around my cassette and CD players since I was a teenager and i've...
Posted by Gareth on Sat, 26 Jan 2008 07:37:00 PST

Secrets we dont want to keep!

So another rehearsal finishes - we have a think about what we've achieved/gone through in the session - and realise we've got a big bunch of songs that have been recently written, that are all potenti...
Posted by Gareth on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:15:00 PST

THANK YOU - FOR 2007!!

I wanted to do a blog to finish the year with a big thank you.2007 has been amazing - and there are a lot of people to thank.The first person to thank is of course Ali, my wife, who is much more than ...
Posted by Gareth on Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:04:00 PST

the book finally makes it to the screen!!! - I AM LEGEND

Ahhhhh......Richard Matheson. My first instrumental I wrote back in 1995 was called "Matheson" - my love for the Twilight Zone (of which he wrote MANY of the stories) has extended to me and Richie cal...
Posted by Gareth on Wed, 19 Dec 2007 03:10:00 PST

Its sometimes the nights you dont expect.....

We love gigging. We've said it before - it's been said that it's blatantly obvious when you watch us. - but it's true anyway, we love it. So when we get a gig that is 2 hours of covers we know we'll e...
Posted by Gareth on Sun, 16 Dec 2007 04:29:00 PST

MILESTONES (The Men They Couldnt Hang)

It's been a month since i've posted a blog on here.....and it would be silly not to say something about last night. As many of you will know, I have been a fan of The Men They Couldn't Hang from when ...
Posted by Gareth on Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:05:00 PST

TIME ENOUGH AT LAST

As some of you know already (and have bought the CD as a consequence!) Bemis now have a CD available. I wanted to answer something we keep gettting asked and remind people of its existence before we d...
Posted by Gareth on Sat, 27 Oct 2007 12:51:00 PST

Reel Sound Music night at the Wedgewood rooms

It's great to be writing another blog about a gig - we've had a few great ones recently that we've really enjoyed - Junkyard Show was a bit of a party, the Hampshire Rose was a night of revelry and so...
Posted by Gareth on Mon, 15 Oct 2007 04:20:00 PST

Naomi Bedford, Mick Glossop and Bemis

I am posting this as an advert for Naomi and to share an experience me and Ritchie had yesterday.   There's a producer that features in my CD collection that I was very aware of before Friday.......
Posted by Gareth on Sat, 15 Sep 2007 04:24:00 PST