A Lifetime in Music
A personal retrospective ...
last updated October 2023

There have been quite a few bands down the years!  [Scratches head]: the first band when I was 17 was The Next of Kin, with Janet (Nut), my recently deceased Mum, Pete, Frank (also recently deceased) and Paul.  I have also been in contact recently with many of the musicians I played with around the time of the Next of Kin.  Go to Listen/Blast from the Past for original recordings and more details.

Then during our 60's college daze there was TLR (Tipper Loppo and Rudi) with Debbie, David and, later, John, who eventually disappeared to somewhere in Wales.   Unhappily, David died in 2021, and is much missed.

Later on, while living in London, Moonmat with another David, and Ruth (recently deceased);  then in Bristol Portheras with Helen, Alex, Mike, and Tony and Common Ground with Hao, John, Jean and Marek. 

A few years later After the Poets with Ce and Tony, then with Mel (who also played years later in the Fridges), Mike and Alex, performing occasionally with the poet troupe The Awfully Nice Poets.

Anyone who has studied the band-member history of folk-rock bands like Fairport Convention or Steely Span will understand that nothing is ever ‘fixed’ when it comes to band members!  That seems to be just how it is in the music business, and particularly folk-rock bands it seems.  We have certainly seen a few musicians come and go the past few years. 

The Band has been through a few more major changes recently, as bands do with people moving on and progressing their careers.  We currently comprise Barry on vocals/guitars and Ian on percussion.  We are exploring possibilities with potential lead female singers for the band, and looking for a guitar and bass player. We also have an interested sax player, Henry,  trying a few songs out.   All is change, so watch this space. 

We all  moved through 2022 and then well out of Covid restrictions, and into 2023, which promises to be quite a year for musicians and audiences alike.  We will update the web diary as gigs get confirmed. 

We published our CD Resilience in May 2020, just before lockdown, not brilliant timing, but it's now on all music social networks.  Then, In Autumn 2022, we went back into J&J Studios with studio owner Jim Barr from the band Portishead as our engineer for 3 weekends of recording and mixing.  The CD is called Legacy and has been mastered by our long-term mastering engineer Pete Maher.  The CD was launched in the Spring of 2023!

Watch this space! 

Click HERE for more information about the musicians I play with.

Barry
October  2023