The band (or bands) I am in (or have been in) are… (or solo)?
(previously) Pulkas, Murder One (currently) Rustorm plus collaborating with Evi Vine and anybody who’s interested in making music that defies convention…
Weapon(s) of choice?
Bass guitar
Random superpower?
Snatching victory from the claws of defeat… using gaffer tape!
On one occasion whilst on tour with my old band “Pulkas” I managed to repair a burst and leaking radiator hose in the middle of the Spanish wilderness by gouging hot tarmac out of the road, bandaging it to the pipe with gaffer tape and refilling the engine with water from a nearby stream. We managed make our ferry home to the UK with about 15mins to spare.
On another occasion I was doing a festival out in Turkey working as a Tour Manager. We had a about five minutes before the show was supposed to go up but the stage manager was wanting us to start the show early. Whilst he was arguing with me about this, he was walking backwards across the stage and managed to kick over the Cello which had been placed there by the band’s Cellist ready for the performance. As the instrument clattered to the ground the fingerboard fell off making the Cello now completely useless. We had to start the set at the allotted time without the Cellist (a very integral part of the band’s sound), whilst I took the instrument backstage for inspection. On realising that nothing else seemed to be broken I managed to gaffer tape the fingerboard back on to the neck, and had the musician back on stage by the second number of the set.
Lesson… you can fix pretty much anything with gaffer tape!
Biggest influences?
Growing up as a kid my Dad was always listening to, and playing music as well as building his own instruments. My folks had lots of musician friends who were always coming by the house and jamming so music was all around me. When I started at Secondary School all pupils were given a hearing test during music lessons to establish whether or not they had a “musical ear”. Kids that passed this test (irrespective of whether they had any interest in the subject) were almost bullied into taking up an instrument by the music teacher. I on the other hand, hadn’t developed a “musical ear” at that age and failed the test. Despite my pleading with the teacher to let me learn an instrument the answer was a flat NO! My answer to that was Fuck You! If they weren’t going to teach me, I would teach myseIf. So I learnt by spending all my free time listening to old Motörhead, Judas Priest, and Led Zeppelin records, and playing along on some fucked old bass that a friend of my Dad’s had been kind enough to give me.
Watch or listen to me perform on this link…
The song I always want played as I walk on stage…
If you want to buy me a drink I’ll have…
A hand pulled pint of English Pale Ale
A music video that you really need to watch is this one…
Soapbox – speaker’s corner
I’m an atheist but like this one anyway… seems kind of relevant in the crazy times we’re all going through.
“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Plus my heart goes out to all my fellow Musican Sisters and Brothers, and all the myriad professionals that support us in our endeavours to entertain and perform who are currently without employment. Hang in there…