Following on from his re-emergence onto the gypsy/jazz scene the previous year, with the debut CD from his new 'Gypsy/Project' line up; Bireli Lagrene stamped his authority over the contemporary scene with a storming live concert with the top players of the genre, which would be released on DVD.
This DVD would make a considerable impact in spurring on the guitar led Hot Club, which in turn would re-emerge with a new confidence and determination in 2002.
Rehearsing hard with some new material and revamped classics; at Paul's suggestion we officially dropped the 'Trio' part of the name, and went with the name that most people had come to know the band by; simply: the Hot Club.
Our reputation was strong, and gigs quickly began to come our way, including long standing residencies at the Vat and Fiddle, Cafe Rouge, Victoria Hotel, Hand and Heart, and many repeat gigs at the Lincolnshire Poacher, which would become the 'local' for the band.
In order to push for more gigs, and to secure more lucrative bookings for private functions; we recorded a new Demo CD in 2002, and although we did sometimes play 'informally' as a quartet with clarinettist Mike Turner, and later with the highly esteemed Ben Martin; we stuck to the core 'trio' line-up and built our reputation further on that; and would ultimately be an influence on a new generation of local musicians; in bands like 'Maniere des Bohemiens', 'Swing Gitan', and 'Cafe Manouche'.
Around this time, Paul and I had discussed the idea of getting a singer involved with the band, in order to broaden our appeal and versatility. Then by pure chance, we had a jam at Pete Warwick's annual field party with a violinist called Lizzy Ramsey, who as it turned out was also a singer; and we invited her to come to a band rehearsal with a view to getting some material together.
Things went well, and after a couple of sessions we asked Lizzy to join the band, and she accepted.
After several practise sessions we had worked out some great material, which diversified the sound of the band even further, and went down very well with audiences. We recorded a demo, and to reflect the new line-up, we changed the name of the band to the 'Swing Club'.
Lizzy and I also formed a duo for smaller gigs, calling ourselves 'Jazz Alchemy', and also recorded a demo of our own.
Jazz Alchemy live at The Maze
Meanwhile in 2001, After more than 15 years of making a variety of jazz albums from mainstream to fusion; Bireli Lagrene, smashed back on to the gypsy/jazz scene; with a new band called 'Gypsy Project'; which would inspire a new generation of fans, and for me would reignite the passion for guitar led music. The Hot Club would part company with Lizzy Ramsey; and after a brief hiatus; the original, 'classic' guitar led trio line-up would re-emerge.
In the totality of the Hot Club's existence, this is still the early period where the band performed as the 'Hot Club Trio', and with the addition of Matt Palmer on clarinet, we called ourselves the 'Hot Club of Nottingham', as we began to do more gigs outside of the Nottingham area, such as the Birmingham Jazz Festival, and regular gigs on the Leicester jazz scene. This period continued to be a mix of duo, trio, and quartet gigs, building a reputation around the Nottingham and East Midlands area.
It was ironic that the rather cumbersome name of the 'Hot Club of Nottingham' was often abbreviated by punters to simply 'Hot Club', regardless of whether it was a trio or quartet, and eventually, the band simply known as (the) Hot Club in the end.
We began build up a lot more private work as well as public performance gigs, and built up a wide ranging repertoire of traditional gypsy music, Bal-Musette style waltz's, as well as the core Gypsy/Jazz which alternated between more traditional sounding tunes, and those which slightly more to the Bop end of Swing which I would play on my Epiphone Emperor electric guitar.
Paul and I built up a strong friendship, and brought more or less equal creative input to the direction of the band. We played to each others strengths, and had some fantastic fun times, as well as making music that we were very serious about performing to as high a standard as we could.
In 1999, we recorded a demo with the quartet incarnation of the band, but the following year there would a change in the line-up as the band parted company with Matt Palmer.
In the first part of 1996, things continued much as before. Rhythm guitarist from Django's Tigers; Barry Taylor, had told me several times about the guitarist Paul Johnson who I had met in 1994 whilst playing at the Elm Tree with Swing 91. Paul had previously had his own Django inspired band called 'Fantasie', but had not played for some time due to family commitments. I had met Paul again more recently at a Fapy Lafertin gig in Nottingham, and we had talked about getting together for a jam sometime. Before this occurred, there was my annual trip to the Samois festival coming up. Once again there was lots of great jamming, and the highlight on the stage was a fantastic performance by Bireli Lagrene and Christian Escoude.
Jamming at Samois with John Witty, Micky Dunne, and Colin Pye, in June 1996
Meanwhile, after I'd moved to Nottingham in 1994, my old friends Jim Ward and Ted Carr had relocated to France; and this year, along with Grass drummer Richard Prentice; they came up to the Samois festival as well. It was so great to see them again, and after the festival had finished, I went back down to the Cognac area of France where they were living, and spent a great week of jamming, busking and doing gigs with them. It was so much fun to play some rock stuff on live gigs again, with some gypsy/jazz thrown in; with myself and Jim swapping between guitar and bass, or two guitars, depending on what suited whatever we were playing at the time. It was a blast!
Jamming with Jim Ward in France, July 1996
Grass band in France
Back on the home front, Paul Johnson and I spent a lot of time getting together for jams, and working on material for playing together. We had gigs in mind both as a duo of two guitars, and as a trio, and possibly even a quartet.
Although we did an early quartet gig with Matt Palmer on clarinet; Matt's own career as a jazz musician was beginning to take off on the trad jazz scene, and although Matt would return on a more permanent footing in due course; we began to focus on gigs as a trio with John Coulson on bass where possible, and duo gigs for smaller venues. This led to a long residency as a duo in the Chez Pierre french restaurant at the Center Parcs holiday resort in Sherwood Forest, which would last for over 10 years.
Before the year was out, we recorded a demo tape, and secured a residency for the trio at the popular music venue; the Lion Inn, in Nottingham. As 1997 dawned, things were already looking good for this new project.
Pete Dalby jamming with the Hot Club Trio at the Lion Inn
During 1995 my presence on the Nottingham jazz expanded further, and I began to appear as a guest with various bands at The Bell Inn from time to time, and did quite a few gigs with various traditional jazz bands, largely for the experience of playing with different people. I was still playing craft fair gigs with Pete Tomlyn on bass, sometimes with Matt Palmer on clarinet and sax, but often with a variety of other reeds players, and I began to appear at gigs further afield in the East Midlands, from Leicester to Derby.
By now, my trips to Liverpool and Samois were par for the course, and I would travel down to Dorset to jam with Pete Dalby, or he would come to Nottingham.
Jamming with John Witty and Pete Dalby at Samois in June 1995
Playing with Gary Potter at the Atlantic Inn, Liverpool
My heart was still in gypsy/jazz guitar, and I had continued over the last few years to build up a big collection of music. My favourite contemporary player on the scene was Bireli Lagrene, and a personal highlight was going with my friends Terry Lynch and Nev Goddard, to see Bireli perform a stunning solo guitar set at Ronnie Scott's in Birmingham, where I got chance meet Bireli, who was very affable and friendly.
Django's Tigers and Knights of Jazz continued to do gigs, and as Matt Palmer's own musical career continued to expand independently, Zoot Simms from Leicester took over his role on clarinet and saxes at the Elm Tree's Sunday lunchtime jazz spot.
All in all, 1995 was a pretty smooth year, but around the corner the following year, I would form a musical partnership that would last for almost 15 years, resulting in the most important band of my days as a gypsy/jazz guitarist.
One of the highlights of the year was going to the Samois festival with the Swing 91 crew, and my new Nottingham friends and musicians; Matt Palmer and Barry Taylor. Samois was a great place for meeting new people to jam with like Nev Willis from 'Django's Mangos', and Pete Dalby, who lived in Dorset at the time. Pete was someone who I would meet up and jam with on a regular basis, much like my friends from Liverpool who I was still continuing to visit and play with.
Swing 91 continued to play at other music venues like the Portland Arms, where I would sometimes jam with Jim and Ted and Co in the Grass band.
Jamming with Nev Willis at Samois in June 1994.
Playing bass at a buskers jam at the Portland Arms, with Jim Ward and others.
Swing 91 was going good for the first half of the year; but after a time, Pete Warwick's love of Irish Folk started to come back to the fore. On the Swing stuff, his playing could sometimes be erratic, and whilst I was going through a relatively 'straight' phase, where I was focused solely on the music, the whole drinking culture of the Market Inn still seemed to be very much the thing for Pete, to the point where it effected his playing to some degree. Slowly but surely, I began to feel disenchanted with things, and felt it might be time for me to move on. This came to a head when Pete and the two John's formed a band to play more folk and Irish oriented music, so it seemed the right time to break up Swing 91 as there was a conflict of interests developing around the respective energies being put into the two bands; although I would continue to work with John Coulson in new jazz projects that were just around the corner.
Meanwhile, one of the people I met via our gigs at the Elm Tree, was someone who was trying to learn the gypsy/jazz guitar, called Paul Nice. He had even been to the Samois festival, and it was ironic that I met Paul in Nottingham and not at Samois itself, as we had made mutual friends from Samois, like Pete Dalby.
Paul became a regular visitor to the Elm Tree, and started coming over to Mansfield occasionally for a jam *stroke* lesson. It transpired that he was looking to rent out rooms in his house in Nottingham, and so it was mutually beneficial for us both, as this would be my way to move to Nottingham and establish myself on the much wider music scene in the city.
Moving to Nottingham opened up many more opportunities for music and gigging. I had already begun to do some trio gigs at craft fairs around the country with bass player Pete Tomlyn and Matt Palmer on clarinet and saxophones before leaving Mansfield; so it seemed that I almost had ready made quartet to expand the gypsy/jazz idiom to Django's post Grappelli era with a clarinet. The addition of Barry Taylor on rhythm guitar completed the line-up, and so 'Django's Tigers', was born; and replaced Swing 91's residencies at both the Elm Tree and Cafe Metz.
Matt Palmer had previously formed his own band called the 'Knights of Jazz', and when the opportunity to play at the Elm Tree in the Sunday lunch time jazz spot came along later that year; he resurrected the band with a new line-up comprising of myself on guitar, and John Coulson on bass, along with Keith Chaplin on drums. Whilst Django's Tigers focused on Gypsy/Jazz, 'Knights of Jazz' was more mainstream jazz, and was an opportunity for me to focus on my electric guitar playing.
As 1994 moved into 1995, I was living in Nottingham, and playing in two regular bands, and doing a variety of gigs in and around the city. Things were going well.
During 1993, there were further trips to both Liverpool and the Samois festival, where I continued to learn the gypsy/jazz craft, and was involved in many jams as per usual.
Back home, the music scene at the Market Inn expanded further and I would on to meet many people from which various jam sessions would result in unexpected directions besides my intended Django path. This would involve Jim Ward, who would head off in more folk/rock directions, evolving into a band called 'Grass' with another friend Ted Carr. On occasion I sometimes played bass for Grass, and the emphasis here was on fun, friendship and just good times.
Another notable band which would eventually spring out the Mansfield scene was the 'Flowering Heads', led by guitar/vocalist Sarah Shrugs, and violinist Helen Firth. Sarah was also initially part of the Grass Band, which had more of the feel of a collective, rather than a fixed line-up. I vaguely knew Helen through Pete and Jo's field parties, and I originally met Sarah through her friendship with Jim. At the Samois festival, I had seen the party trick of two people playing the same guitar, and just for the laughs I worked how to play 'The Flintstones' theme for two people on guitar. This was something that Sarah and I occasionally performed at the Market Inn, to great effect and lots of smiles and laughter.
I was also involved in a little bit of recording with Sarah and Jim, where I put some lead guitar down a few of Sarah's songs. This stemmed from big jam party where ironically, many of my newer friends from the Market scene had never heard me play any rock guitar; and so when I played my Les Paul complete with hard rock distortion, it came as a bit of a surprise to some!
Jamming with a young Micky Dunne in the Dupont tent at Samois in June 1993.
Performing The Flintstones theme on one guitar, with Sarah Shrugs at the Market Inn.
That year, the landlord of the Market Inn moved to a pub in Nottingham called the Elm Tree, and he invited Swing 91 to play a residency there on Thursday nights. Whilst it started out fairly quiet for the first few weeks, it didn't take long before word got around, and it soon developed into a jam-packed night. Over the year or so that it lasted between '93 and '94 at the Elm Tree, I met even more musicians that I would play and jam with in the future; including Pete Tomlyn, Richard and John Smith, and a certain Paul Johnson with whom I develop a very long lasting musical relationship and a deep personal friendship in the years to come. Swing 91 also gained a residency at another popular jazz venue called Cafe Metz.
Busking in Mansfield with John Buzza
During the course of my explorations into Django's music, I felt a particular affinity for his later recordings on electric guitar. Although comparatively rarely heard compared to the Hot Club material, it demonstrated Django's musical development very well, and had a particular sound and style of its own which I felt that I would like to experiment with. To that effect, I bought myself an Epiphone Emperor archtop electric guitar, and Swing 91 would play a brief trio set comprising of slightly more 'modern' (in jazz terms) sounding numbers, like 'How High the Moon' and Django's own haunting minor key ballad, entitled 'Anouman'.
As 1994 dawned, Swing 91 was getting more gigs as a result of the residency at the Elm Tree, and things seemed to be going from strength to strength; but in 1994, things would pan out in other ways.
Although 1991 was a landmark year in terms of discovering Django Reinhardt, and moving away from playing rock guitar; it was really 1992 in which my life began broaden out in a big way; as it absorbed the impact of that discovery. I carried on buying as my Django records as I could find, and also the first records of Bireli Lagrene.
This would be the year in which I met new people on a 'new' music scene, both locally, nationally, and internationally. My travels would take me from Mansfield, to Nottingham, to Liverpool, London, France and Holland.
As the year began, most of my time was spent learning and practising this 'new' gypsy/jazz music. John Buzza and I had got a small set of tunes together, and began to think about where we could perform this music in public; and indeed whether there would be any interest in a town like Mansfield. I also began to think about expanding to a full band, and the obvious thing to do was to try to find a violin player who might be interested in taking the role of Stephane Grappelli, so to speak.
I spoke to another busker who I knew, and he told me that he knew of a violinist who lived in his local village of Blidworth, who played Irish Folk music on a regular buskers 'jam' night which took place on Tuesday nights at the Market Inn, in Mansfield. John Buzza and I decided we would go down and see if we could play a few tunes.
The Market Inn was not really a pub that I knew well, as it was not part the local rock scene; so I wasn't sure what to expect. Upon entry we were met with a very full and loud room. There was a band called 'Landlord's Shout' playing an energetic, full-on brand of Irish Folk music, not dissimilar to The Pogues in its raucous, drunken vibe.
I had no idea how our music would be received in this atmosphere of drinking music, but the response was tremendously accepting and appreciative. After a few drinks, I positioned myself to speak to the violin player in the band, whose name was Pete Warwick, and mentioned that I was looking for a violinist to form a Hot Club style band. He was already aware of Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt. It turns out that his partner's father was a big fan, and he had even been to see Grappelli play live in concert.
Pete and Jo, and indeed all the people we met that night, were very friendly to us, and we became regulars on Tuesday nights at the Market. I gave some tapes of Django and Stephane to Pete, and a meet up was arranged for us to have a jam at their house in Blidworth. The jam went very well, and it turned out that although Pete's primary love was folk music; he was quite an experienced musician in other styles too, and had even played guitar in an experimental modern jazz group for a short while; along with someone who went on to be the bass player in Swing '91.
In the meantime to all this, I found out at that the Django guitarist from Liverpool; Gary Potter; who'd featured in the previously mentioned 'Django Legacy' documentary; was playing a gig in Nottingham. John and I went to the gig, which proved to a night of amazing music on the level of a virtuoso from Gary Potter. Gary was a very friendly character, and it also turned out the rhythm guitarist was Ian Cruickshank, who was one of people involved in making the 'Django Legacy' documentary. Ian was very appreciative of our enthusiasm for the gig, and for the music of Gypsy/Jazz in general; and we ventured to other Gary Potter gigs, as well as to see Ian's own band. Not only did he send me some tapes of some of lesser known Django Reinhardt music, but he was very supportive of the efforts I was making to play Gypsy/Jazz, and I went to one of his guitar workshops.
When we were chatting over a pint after the gig, I expressed an interest in going to the annual Django Reinhardt Jazz Festival at Samois-sur-Seine in France. Gary and Ian told me that they were playing on the bill that year, and there was a coach trip being organised which was leaving from the Atlantic Inn at Liverpool. This was the pub which Gary was featured playing at in the 'Django Legacy; documentary; and Ian gave me the phone number of the guy who was organising the trip.
To cut a long story slightly shorter; at the end of June that year, John and I, along with my friend Martin Brown, went to the Atlantic Inn at Liverpool, and after the pub closed, we boarded to coach to go to the Samois festival, for what would be the first of several times over the next few years. During the course of all this, I made some good friends from Liverpool, and it would be the first of many visits over the next 10 years; the first of which would be new years eve of this year, playing on stage at the Atlantic Inn, and staying over for a few days with Steve and Joan Cronin for the first on many times to come.
Playing at the Atlantic Inn, Liverpool, New Year's Eve 1992.
My first Samois festival was an incredible experience. We arrived at our hotel in Fontainebleau exhausted from the overnight coach trip and tumbled into bed for a few hours before walking along the Seine into the picturesque village. As we entered the village, we could hear the strains of music and in the lamplit dusk we could see in the distance, a band playing on a bandstand opposite a cafe on the banks of the Seine. This turned out to be Babik Reinhardt playing outside his father's old haunt, which was a bar called Chez Fernand, where Django would hang out and compose ideas for some of his latter music on the piano in the bar. It was the first of many listening pleasures over our long weekend in Samois, which would usually start with a morning jam on the lawn of the hotel. This was where my first jam with Gary Potter took place, and many other aspiring jazz guitarists from Liverpool and other places.
Jamming with Gary Potter and various friends at the Fimotel, Fontainebleu in June 1992.
Aside from the action on the main stage, there was lots of jam sessions happening all over the village in the various bars, camp sites, and the festival site itself, where one of the prominent French luthiers had a tent set up to display and sell his guitars. I still had my Yamaha APX guitar at this stage, but this was where I first encountered the legendary 'Maccaferri' style guitars as played by Django himself, which almost everyone seemed to be using. These loud, and piercing acoustic guitars of a particular design was integral to the Django Reinhardt sound, and I knew that at some point soon I would have to get one these specialist type of guitars.
But for now I was making the most of what I'd got, jamming with as many people as I could, and learning and picking up what I could from watching others play. The Dupont guitar tent was the place where many fantastic jams took place between visiting musicians in the higher echelons of the gypsy/jazz scene. I was particularly blown away by the young Jimmy Rosenberg who featured in the 'Django Legacy' documentary at just 10 years of age. Jimmy had now just turned 12, and was already forging a reputation as one of the dominant players of the genre. I was fortunate to witness several of his jams with the likes of Gary Potter and Romane. Jimmy himself seemed particularly in awe of Gary Potter's playing; which incorporated many of influences outside of the gypsy/jazz genre; most notably; country guitar.
I met another young guitarist called Mike Jones, who was another player who'd been influenced by the 'Django Legacy' documentary. I went to stay with him on the outskirts of London later that year, and I found myself back at the 100 Club, where 4 years earlier I gone to see Huw Lloyd-Langton play, along with my friend Jim Ward. This time I was watching Gary Potter, and Ian Cruickshank, with a guest appearance from the notable British guitarist Jeff Green, who at one time had toured with Stephane Grappelli.
The trip to Samois led to another foray into the wider world of gypsy/jazz later that summer. Once again, John Buzza and myself, along with the Liverpool lads, including Gary Potter; along with Mike Jones and my friend Martin Brown; went to another annual Django festival; this time in Rijswiik, in Holland. By now, Jimmy Rosenberg was playing on the main stage with his own band the Gypsy Kids, and I saw the now 26 year old Bireli Lagrene perform live for the first time, with an astounding solo jazz guitar set. Once again there was plenty of jamming involved, almost from the moment that we set foot on the ferry, in what became an all night long jam session with various people dropping in and out, including Gary Potter who was once again on the bill at the festival.
Jamming on the ferry to Holland with Mike Jones and other friends, in September 1992.
Meeting Jimmy Rosenberg at Rijswiik, Holland, in September 1992.
Meanwhile back in the UK, 'Swing 91' was still in the process of augmenting to a full quartet. Things had been going well with Pete Warwick on violin, and that summer, Jon Buzza and I, along with my old friend and bass player Jim Ward; went to Pete and Jo's annual field party in Blidworth. I had ideas of bringing Jim along with us into the position of bass player for Swing 91, but it didn't really gel. However, we had a jam with the previously mentioned bass player friend of Pete's, and immediately there was a chemistry. Jim Ward knew that I would've liked to have had him in the band, as we had always had strong musical bond since the days of 'Stoney Road' 7 years earlier. But on witnessing this jam; Jim piped up and said; 'That's your bass player right there!' He was of course talking about John Coulson; and this jam would lead to a musical partnership and friendship that would last for over 26 years. Swing 91 had indeed found its bass player, and quickly developed into a fully-fledged quartet.
The jam at Pete and Jo's party led to practice sessions, which in turn led to live performances as the Market Inn. The next obvious step was to record a demo tape; which we did once again at the Bandwagon studios.
We soon bagged our first residency at a new pub in Mansfield called the 'Early Doors', and we did our first gig in Nottingham at the 'Britannia', which attracted attention from Django fans and musicians on the Nottingham jazz scene. Word began to spread, and before long people from Nottingham were coming to Mansfield to see us at the Market Inn. These included musicians I would regularly work with in the future, such as Barry Taylor and Matt Palmer.
Barry Taylor was immensely helpful to me in obtaining my first Maccaferri style guitar. He brought one of his guitars to the Market for me to try out.
He eventually sold this guitar to John Buzza, and also he brought another Maccaferri type guitar from Foulds music shop in Derby, and simply presented it to me, saying that I could pay him back for it as and when I pleased, in as small or large amounts as suited me. Thanks to his immense generosity, by the end of 1992 I had my first Maccaferri guitar; and Swing '91 was now a quartet. I could not have been more pleased with how things were going, and in the following year we would make much bigger inroads into the Nottingham jazz scene.
Up until the spring of 1991, things were going on as per the previous year. I was enjoying myself with blues/rock, and 'Dark Horse' was still the gigging vehicle for the expression of that. My playing might have become tad more jazzy flavoured in parts, but it was really from listening to people who had been influenced by jazz to a degree, rather than actual jazz players, as such. People like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Alvin Lee, and Brian Setzer, were amongst those influences at that stage. As was Johnny Winter who released 'Let Me In' that year; which turned out to be the last blues/rock album that I bought, as I was just as on the cusp of being swept away by something completely unexpected.
In the meantime, my old friend Martin Brown had acquired a video copy of a famous concert called 'Meeting of the Spirits', featuring three guitar greats in the form of John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia, and Larry Coryell performing superb jazz/flamenco fusion on acoustic guitars. This was impressive enough to behold in itself, but sandwiched on the end of the tape, almost as an aside; was a performance from a 1982 jazz festival of someone who would become a supremely important figure in my musical affections and influences in the years to come.
This unexpected bonus was literally startling. Here was (as it turned out) this 15 year old kid in shorts playing this incredible music; the like of which I'd never seen or heard before. This young lad turned out to be Bireli Lagrene, and he was playing the music of Django Reinhardt.
By pure coincidence, Channel 4 had begun a series of music related documentaries called 'Sound Stuff'. When I picked up the latest Radio Times, it turned out that the documentary to be featured the following week, was called 'Django Legacy', and it was all about the music of Django Reinhardt and the top contemporary guitarists who played the music that I soon found out was a sub-genre of its own, called 'Gypsy/Jazz'.
The documentary featured players such as Stochelo Rosenberg, Gary Potter, Django's own son Babik Reinhardt, and Bireli Lagrene; (now 23 years old) amongst others. And of course, it was a window into the world and music of Django Reinhardt himself.
This music had a profound and monumental effect on me. I began immediately to seek out music by Django Reinhardt and Bireli Lagrene, and any other music that could be defined as 'Gypsy/Jazz'. Whilst it's fair to say that my interest in all the other music that I liked wasn't immediately extinguished; I began to explore learning and playing this music; and whilst playing the music that I was already playing was still enjoyable; I knew that I had a new calling, and I very soon quit 'Dark Horse' in order to pursue it.
In another coincidence, I was to meet my next future band mate at a party, purely by chance, soon afterwards. This was a young guitarist called John Buzza, who was a fan of many styles of music from rock guitar to classical. I explained that I had just discovered the music of Django Reinhardt, and was looking for another guitarist with which to play that style of music. John was already aware of Django Reinhardt, and had a couple of Django LPs in his collection. We had a long conversation and John was intrigued with the idea of playing this music. I had already been doing some work on it, and had bought myself a Yamaha APX electric/acoustic guitar with a cutaway, in order to get closer to the sound of this largely acoustic music; and John Buzza and I got together to form a Django styled guitar duo; which I christened with the name 'Swing '91....
This was the year that my passion for Hawkwind pretty much fizzled out altogether. Their 'Space Bandits' album release had 2 or 3 good tracks on it, but it was all starting to sound a bit samey, and with Huw Lloyd-Langton having departed the band, my interest completely fell away to the point where I didn't go to see them on their tour that year.
My interest in blues/rock was given a major boost with the release of a fantastic album by Gary Moore, called 'Still Got the Blues'. His fiery and ultra-passionate, hard-rocking approach influenced my guitar playing somewhat, in the new blues/rock band that I formed in the latter part of the previous year; called 'Dark Horse'. A name thought up by bass player and good friend, Jim Ward.
In the meantime, I did a training course in studio engineering in 1990, where each participant of the course got record a track of their own, and a certain amount of collaboration was required. As a result of this, I was asked to play lead guitar on tracks by some of the other participants, from which I received very good feedback. Meanwhile, one of the other chaps on the course; called Rob Young; played bass on my recording, which was my own take on the Jimi Hendrix blues classic; 'Red House'.
By this stage, my new band 'Dark Horse' was up and running. We had rehearsed a good repertoire of material and started doing some gigs at the Masons Arms, and another new music venue, the Portland Arms.
We had few cover versions in our set, including the aforementioned 'Red House', and a version of Freddy King's guitar instrumental called 'The Stumble', which was directly inspired by Gary Moore's new rendition of it, on the 'Still Got the Blues' album.
But most of our set was original material, including some songs I'd previously written for my home recordings a couple of years earlier; like 'Psychedelic Buskers' and 'Pretty Little Schoolgirl'. Whilst there was some completely new songs by both myself and Jim, including 'Boozer's Blooze' and 'Down the Line'.
Late that summer we went into the Bandwagon studios to record a live demo tape, which was engineered by former 'Savage' drummer; Mark Brown. In 'Dark Horse', Jim and I shared the vocal duties, some of which were overdubbed afterwards. Here are four of the six tracks from that demo:
1989 was a year of two halves. Dewi and I were still firm friends, and still going to Hawkwind and Huw Lloyd-Langton gigs, and still jamming from time to time. I was still doing some home recording, and jamming with Jim Ward quite a bit. And both had made 'guest appearances' on a couple of my home recordings.
Towards the end of the previous year, I'd made a new friend called Dave Drury, who was a great guitarist that I started having regular jams with, and he introduced me to quite a bit of new music. Dave was a big fan of Black Sabbath and Jimi Hendrix, amongst others; and was also into jazz/rock fusion, and guitarists like John McLaughlin.
He introduced me to such guitarists as Alvin Lee, and other jazz/rock stuff like Colosseum II; featuring ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore. Dave was a big fan of intense blues/rock players in the vein of Hendrix, such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Winter, and Canadian guitarist Jeff Healey, who had burst on to the scene the previous year with his debut album; 'See the Light'.
All this new blues oriented music, most notably the discovery of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and just jamming with Dave, definitely influenced the direction of my playing around this time; as I began to get more interested in blues based rock; prompting a returning interest in Led Zeppelin again, but this time as a guitarist rather than a bass player.
My curiosity was piqued by jazz guitar to some extent. In my conversations with Huw Lloyd-Langton, he had mentioned the influence of jazz guitarists such as Wes Montgomery and Django Reinhardt. My attention had recently been turned in this direction slightly, after seeing a documentary about one of the creators of the electric guitar; Les Paul; which included concert footage of him play jazz standards like 'Lover', 'Dark Eyes', and 'How High the Moon'.
I'd also been reintroduced to rock 'n' roll through a belated interest in the Stray Cats, via an album lent to me by Jim Ward, and I began to recognise the jazz flavoured influence in the playing of Brian Setzer and Alvin Lee.
After 10 years in the band; Huw Lloyd-Langton left Hawkwind that year, and as a consequence, I began to lose interest in them as my passion turned towards playing blues/rock; and I formed a new band as a vehicle for this change in direction; with my friend and previous band mate Jim Ward on bass guitar, with Jim's older brother Dave on drums. This would be a blues/rock band with myself and Jim sharing vocal duties, and we would play mostly original material of our own with a few covers thrown in.
As 1989 turned into a new decade; the Hawkwind years for me, were all but over.
In 1988 there was still trips to Hawkwind and Lloyd Langton Group gigs, including a trip down to the famous 100 Club in London, where Jim Ward and myself met up with Huw Lloyd-Langton and his wife Marion.
Towards the end of the year Hawkwind released their final album of the decade, which to me was their best album since 'The Chronicle of the Black Sword' three years earlier, and featured some tremendous guitar work from Huw Lloyd-Langton.
Meanwhile, in the latter part of '87 I'd begun a series of home recordings which continued right through into 1989; but about 3/4's of the output was done in 1988. The Tascam Porta-studio was designed to record onto cassette, and during this period I recorded more than half a dozen C90minute cassettes worth of material.
I have to admit of course that although I'm very proud of some this music, there is quite a lot of long, self-indulgent stuff in there which only the most ardent Hawkwind fan and/or acid-head would appreciate. But although a lot of it was modelled on Hawkwind, including many of my own versions of their songs; it also became a vehicle for me to experiment with some of my earliest influences, going right back to my childhood fondness for 1950's rock and roll.
Initially I just recorded a few songs using the guitar, but it soon became apparent that in order to help create the various ambiances that I wanted for this music, I needed some sort of keyboard. So I bought myself a small, half-size Yamaha Portasound keyboard, which had a very basic drum machine built-in , and 100 different voices; which I modulated with digital delay, and chorus effects pedals.
I was no keyboard player, but I could grasp some simple chords; enough to create the kind of sound backdrops that I wanted.
As well as the new material and songs which I composed in this period; As part of the ongoing project, I recorded versions of all the songs that I had written myself up to that point; going back to the first songs that I wrote for Dancing Shiva in 1982 and '83.
Here is a small selection of some the music I recorded at this time:
Hawkwind and Huw Lloyd-Langton continued to be the main driving force behind my guitar playing in 1987, both releasing albums that were important additions to my collection, in 'Out and Intake', and 'Like an Arrow, respectively.
Dewi and I continued our mutual passion for both, and still went to their respective gigs, and we still sometimes jammed together too. My jams with Jim Ward also continued more regularly in between Stoney Road gigs and busking, and continued to be an important part of developing my skills and musical ideas.
As a band though, Stoney Road slowly began to fizzle out, as myself, Dave, and Jim began to enjoy busking together more frequently. We began to venture further afield from Mansfield, including weekends in Lincoln and other places, kipping in the back of Jim's van.
That summer we went down to Maidstone in Kent, and then on to Canterbury where we stayed for some considerable time, as we were very well received and the busking was very fruitful. Whilst there, we were offered gigs in pubs in the evenings, and usually finished off an evening's beer drinking with a kebab.
We decided to busk our way along the coast into Cornwall, where we stayed with a friend of Jim's; and along the way we stopped off at Southampton to see Hawkwind who playing were playing there that night; paying for our tickets with the coins of our proceeds from busking.
All in all, I had some seriously great fun in '87, but before the year was out; with no specific band to serve as an outlet for music; I decided to buy a Tascam Porta-studio 4-track, in order to experiment, develop and record my own musical ideas at home.
This would be something that I would be mostly focusing on for the next year or so.
1986 was a year in which I crammed in more gigs than any other year, and they were all centered around Hawkwind and Huw Lloyd-Langton, who dominated my musical affections on a level even higher than before.
Hawkwind released the double live album 'Live Chronicles', and embarked on their 'Chaos' tour of 1986. With my brother in arms Dewi Taylor, we went to five Hawkwind gigs, including the tour finale at London's Hammersmith Odeon, where we stayed over with Kenny Wilson and John Clark from the Lloyd-Langton Group.
Once again, we met all the guys from Hawkwind, and also that year we followed Huw Lloyd-Langton on tour with his trio, where I got to have a jam with the band. Finally, towards the end of the year, I went to see the legendary Hawkwind front man; Robert Calvert, who was on tour with his own band, and also got to meet him backstage.
On the band front, I made good progress as lead guitarist with Stoney Road playing a mix of classic rock covers, which included some Hawkwind songs and Huw Lloyd-Langton's 'Got Your Number'. I also continued my with my own songwriting, which I contributed to the band. We played several gigs at the aforementioned 'Malthouse' pub in Mansfield, as well as other gigs around the local area.
There was so much going on that we never found time to record anything with Stoney Road. We were concentrating on gigging and simply having good times. I'd also developed a good rapport with Jim and Dave, and had started to go busking with them with my Les Paul guitar; complete with rock guitar solos through a battery powered amp; all of which contributed to my continued learning and experience as a guitarist.
A great friendship with bass player Jim Ward developed through all this, and we often get together and jam around various ideas. All of this was great for learning to be a listening and intuitive musician, and for learning the skills of improvisation.
By 1985 Dancing Shiva had finished as a band, but Dewi and I continued a close friendship and a love of Hawkwind, which included going see them live a couple of times, as well as the Lloyd-Langton group several times as well.
LLG released their first studio album that year; and it had a big impact on my budding aspirations as a lead guitarist that year.
Meanwhile, Hawkwind were going through a creative peak, with Alan Davey on bass, leaving Harvey Bainbridge to pursue the keyboard role full time. They released a landmark album that year, the critically acclaimed 'The Chronicle of the Black Sword', which they toured extensively and filmed for a video release shortly after. The legendary science fantasy writer Michael Moorcock, who was involved with Hawkwind a decade earlier made special appearances at some of the gigs providing narration, as the project was based on his successful range of 'Elric' books, around which band wrote all the songs for the album.
The album included some inspired guitar playing from Huw-Lloyd Langton, which had just as big an impact on me as his solo album that year.
On the band front, new directions would take place this year. I had spent much of the early part of the year practising and learning the six string guitar, but had grown very weary of the cheap Les Paul copy which made the guitar more difficult to learn. It was thanks to drummer Tony Ruston that I was finally able own a decent quality guitar, when he signed the HP forms for me; and I walked out of Carlsboro Sound Centre with an original Gibson Les Paul standard, tobacco sunburst, 1981. This made such a huge difference to my efforts to learn guitar, and I felt that I made much faster progress for having it.
In the meantime, a new pub called 'The Malthouse' had opened up, with live bands on Sunday nights. Local guitarist, Ty Garner, (who had originally introduced me to Dewi) had secured a regular gig there, and was looking for a bass player for a new blues band he'd put together, and asked me if I fancied the job. I told him that my heart was now in playing the guitar, but I agreed to join if he would allow me to do a couple of numbers on the guitar. He agreed, and so my first performances as a guitarist took place with his 'Red House Blues Band' at the Malthouse in 1985.
Later that year, the opportunity to play guitar full time in a band came along. Ex-Dancing Shiva drummer Glen Annable played with Ty in a rock covers band called 'Stoney Road'. When Ty left to focus on playing the Blues, Glen also parted company; leaving their guitar and vocalist Dave Manley, and bass player Jim Ward, needing a drummer and lead guitarist. Dave and Jim were local buskers who I vaguely knew, and I called up drummer Tony Ruston, and arranged a get together and rehearsal for Stoney Road. Things seemed to gell, and soon we were ready to roll.
