Hank's band of LOST COWBOYS is packed with all-star hard-core country musicians:   Reg Meuross - vocals, banjo and guitar. Ex - Panic Brothers, "One of Britain's finest singer-songwriters" -- Time Out. Finest high tenor voice this side of the Atlantic. "SHORT STORIES" is his new critically acclaimed CD. Martin Belmont - Stratocaster and 6-String Bass, ex-Graham Parker & the Rumour, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash. Best hard core country guitarist around. Hear him ride the whammy bar on the 6-string bass and tremble. A giant on his CD "BIG GUITAR". Kevin Foster - bass guitar. Doll by Doll bassist goes hard country. A powerhouse of C&W and honky tonk rhythms. In demand on the London roots music scene. Roy Dodds - drums. Ex-Fairground Attraction, plays with Eddie Reader and has produced her new album in 2000. Attached at the rhythmic hip to Kevin Foster.     Hank's Uncle Ernest who taught Hank all he knows about simultaneous Gurning (the ancient art of face pulling) while playing the banjo with his arse TOP OF PAGE REG MEUROSS Reg has been a member of Hank’s band since the recording of the Stormy Horizons LP and has managed to maintain a parallel solo career. He first emerged onto the British acoustic music scene in 1986 when he formed the "Panic Brothers" with the comedian Richard Morton. Together they recorded one album called “In The Red” produced by Clive Gregson.  Five years of successful touring and TV work followed, with appearances at Edinburgh, Glastonbury, Sidmouth and Towersey festivals. After the demise of the Panics, Reg formed the “Quintessentialy English Roots Band” "The Flamingos" with Martin Belmont, Chris Thompson and Alison Jones of "The Barely Works" & Bob Loveday from “The Penguin Café Orchestra”, They recorded one album called “Arrested In 1996 he released the critically acclaimed CD “The Goodbye Hat” and was nominated for several music awards, including best song for ‘Ring around the Roses’, a song which remains a favourite in the Lost Cowboys’ set. Reg’s Writing, Performing and acting credits include work with people as diverse as the famous French Composer Vladimir Cosma – who wrote the cult movie “Diva”, Gerard Depardieu; Not The Nine O’Clock News; Robbie Coltrane; Chris Difford; Gary Clark; Antonia Bird; Lenny Henry; Jeremy Hardy; Paul Merton, etc… Reg's new album SHORT STORIES was released on OFFSPRING RECORDS in September 2004 for more details please go to www.regmeuross.com Reg is represented by The Different Strings Agency. For bookings etc please contact: Lorraine Carpenter at Different Strings 1 West Street, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 3NN Tel. 0117 9661968 or 07929 135744 lorraine@differentstrings.co.uk     “One of Britains finest Singer/Songwriters” - Time Out Magazine. "Reg tells it with soul" - Nick Lowe "The best high tenor voice this side of the Atlantic" - Hank Wangford "There's something special about the way he writes and delivers a song" - Townes Van Zandt Click here for Reg's BBC Falklands Diary TOP OF PAGE MARTIN BELMONT     Find out more at www.myspace.com/martinbelmont   ABOUT THE ARTIST Martin Belmont was born on December the 21st, 1948, in Bromley, Kent. After attending Art College for five years, Martin,s musical career began by roadieing for seminal pub rockers Brinsley Schwarz, before lining up as lead guitarist with Ducks Deluxe in 1972. Along with the Brinsleys, American band Eggs Over Easy, Dr Feelgood and many more, Ducks Deluxe were stalwarts of the London Pub Rock scene. Their eponymous first album was a fine collection of no frills Rock,n,Roll, a real antidote to the prevailing progrock orthodoxy of the time. Surprisingly varied " Ducks Deluxe balanced full-tilt raunch- outs like Coast to Coast, and Eddie Cochran,s Nervous Breakdown, with Beatlesque pop on Please Please Please,, and country pastiches such as The West Texas Trucking Board,. Moreover if you play their classic Fireball, next to the Sex Pistols Satellite, you get the feeling that Malcolm Maclaren,s malcontents spent as much time listening in pubs as they did drinking! RUMOUR HAS IT After the second Ducks album, "Taxi to the Terminal Zone failed to capitalize on the good vibes created by their debut, the band split. Martin Belmont was far from idle though, helping to start the group The Rumour. The band hooked up with Graham Parker for six albums, umpteen tours of Britain, Europe, America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan as well as recording three LP,s in their own right. Martin,s razor sharp guitar breaks and solid chunky rhythm playing were one the musical highlights of a band overflowing with musical riches. Playing on Nick Lowe,s Jesus of Cool, album further enhanced Belmont,s reputation, and he toured with Elvis Costello and the Attractions on more than one occasion. CARLENE AND NICK After the Rumour had run its course, Martin became one of Carlene Carters CC Riders, playing on her Blue Nun, album and tours of Europe and the USA.>From 1982 to 1987, the Belmont Statocaster was heard with Nick Lowe as part of his Noise To Go, and Cowboy Outfit, backing bands. He played on all of Nick,s albums of that period as well as touring the U.S, Europe and Australia. HANK From 1987 to now Martin has recorded and gigged with Hank Wangford, the British Country stalwart, friend of Gram Parsons and TV personality with two country basedSeries on Channel 4. Martin provides many of the musical highpoints for the singing doctor,s live act and records, and in 1998 Martin and the rest of Hank,s Lost Cowboys toured the Falkland Islands. FINALLY, A BIG GUITAR OF HIS OWN Martin Belmont,s, first solo record "BIG GUITAR" was released by Demon records in 1995.The disc sees him at last stepping out behind his own name, showcasing not only his superior guitar stylings on Stratocaster and acoustic, but also his prowess on the rarely heard Fender Six String Bass. "BIG GUITAR has generous helpings of plangent six string bass magic on tracks such as "The West Texas Fender Bender, "The Man in Black, "Jurassic Jive and "The Rattler, as well as the hen,s-teeth rare Belmont vocals on the Howling Wolf classic "Howling for my Baby and Johnny Cash,s "Beans for Breakfast. Big John figures again with a cover of "Ring of Fire recorded with Zimbabwean Jit-jivers, The Bhundu Boys. The album was recorded for the most part at former Attractions drummer Pete Thomas, basement studio in west London and apart from Martin,s six string virtuosity, features such crack rockin' cohorts as Pete Thomas himself, Geraint Watkins, Reg Meuross and Bobby Irwin. It,s a knockabout fun collection of eminently whistleable tunes, its effortlessly goodtime ambience guaranteed to put a smile on the sternest poker face!Martin calls the instrumentals on the disc, themes for imaginary westerns,big twangs in wide open spaces and picked acoustics on lazy railroads.   "Big Guitar" Can be bought at www.thewholewideworld.co.uk     RECORDING BIOGRAPHY   MAIN BANDS DUCKS DELUXE RCA and Skydog records.1972 1975 1973 Album " Ducks Deluxe "1974 Album " Taxi to the Terminal Zone "1975 E.P - " Jumpin, " GRAHAM PARKER AND THE RUMOUR Phonogram, Mercury, Arista, Stiff and Hanibal records.1975 1981 1976 Album " Howling Wind "1976 Album " Heat Treatment "1977 Album " Max " (Rumour only)1977 Album " Stick to Me "1977 E. P. - " The Pink Parker "1978 Album " The Parkerilla "1978 Album - " Frogs, Sprouts, Clogs and Krauts " (Rumour only)1979 Album " Squeezing Out Sparks "1979 Album " Live Sparks "1980 Album " The Up Escalator "1980 Album " Purity of Essence " (Rumour only) NICK LOWE and THE COWBOY OUTFIT Stiff, F Beat, CBS and Warner Bros records.1981 1986 (See also under sessions) 1981 Album " Nick the Knife "1983 Album " The Abominable Showman "1984 Album " The Cowboy Outfit "1985 Album " The Rose of England " HANK WANGFORD Rough Trade and Sincere Sounds records.1987 Today 1990 Album " Stormy Horizons "1993 Album " Hard Shoulder to Cry On "1997 Album " Wake Up Dead "2000 E.P - " Wild Atlantic Sea "Sessions This list does not include demo,s ( many ) and unreleased masters ( a few ). 1976 Single " I love the Sound of Breaking Glass " Nick Lowe1976 Album "Jesus of Cool " Nick Lowe1978 Single " Always in the Kitchen at Parties " Jona Lewie1980 Album " Rockabilly Blues " Johnny Cash1980 Album " Trust " Elvis Costello1980 Album " Black and Decker " Desmond Decker1981 Album " Rock and Roll Adult " Garland Jeffries1981 Album " Blue Nun " Carlene Carter1982 E. P. " Oh How Happy " Carlene Carter and Paul Carrack1982 Album " Suburban Voodoo " Paul Carrack1983 Album " Riding With the King " John Hiatt1987 Album " Pinker and Prouder than Previous " Nick Lowe1988 Album " Workers Playtime " Billy Bragg1991 Album " Arrested " Reg Meuross and The Flamingos1993 Album " Friends on the Road " The Bhundu Boys1994 Album " Declaration of Independence " Various Artists1995 Album " The Goodbye Hat " Reg Meuross1995 Album - " The Patsy Cline Review " Amanda Norman Sell1996 Album " As Love is my Witness " Amanda Norman Sell1996 Album " The Best of Eddie Grundy " Trevor Harrison2000 Album " Trigger Happy " Los Pistoleros2001 TV theme - "Moving Story" - Los Pistoleros2002 Album " Cult 45 " Los Pistoleros (Live recording) Apart from the above list, many tours of Europe, America, Japan , Australia, New Zealand and almost the entire British Isles several times over, I recorded and released my own album " Big Guitar " in 1995. I was the Musical Director for Hank Wangfords T.V series " Big Big Country " and I produced, arranged and composed music for the " Comic Strip presents Jealousy " episode shown on B.B.C Two.

TOP OF PAGE KEVIN FOSTER   Kevin Foster - bass guitar. Doll by Doll bassist goes hard country. A powerhouse of C&W and honky tonk rhythms. In demand on the London roots music scene.   THE KEVIN FOSTER INTERVIEW With Martin Belmont. MB . Ok Kevin, tell us about your background-when were you born?KF. I’m sorry I can’t tell you that, its classified.MB. Well just the decade then.KF. No it’s all right – 1965MB. That was a good yearKF. A good year for musicians MB. ‘Ticket to Ride’ came out in 1965 KF. Well there you go. Actually I vaguely remember it, one of the first sounds I heard. MB. Do you have any brothers or sisters? KF. A brother called Gerard who is six years older and a sister called Anne-Marie who is a year younger than me. MB. Where did you go to school?KF. Cardinal Manning in Ladbroke Grove.MB. You’re a Londoner born and bred?KF. Yes. Of Irish descent. MB. What are your earliest musical memories? KF. Records at home were limited – an odd collection of Frank Sinatra, Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto in F# minor and a mixture of American country type stuff, Hank Williams, Jim Reeves and the like. MB. What was the first record you bought for yourself? KF. An album by Byron Lee and The Dragonaires called “Nuggets for the Needy” MB. So was that a Ska or Rocksteady type of sound?KF. It was orchestral reggae MB. So that would be later than The Skatalites for instance? KF. Yeah yeah absolutely. I had a very poor background. I had no money till I was about 27. MB. When did you start playing music yourself?KF. I played trumpet first. I was about 8 or 9 MB. Paul McCartney played trumpet first you know KF. Well it just goes to show…but then I changed to the drums. I had two different drum kits. One was bought in Portobello market for sixty pounds. We gave the man the money and he said he’d be round later, which was very trusting of us. MB. Did he turn up? KF. Yes about six o’clock and we couldn’t get rid of him for hours – he was an old hippie fella. MB. How long were you a drummer? KF. About two years I suppose but I was also messing around with guitars at the same time. MB. Did your brother play? KF. No but he sang and being 6 years older than me I started to get quite influenced by the stuff he was listening to at that time. The Rolling Stones, The Faces – those types of bands. So we had quite a mixture of styles going on in the house. MB. When did you switch to the bass? KF. Probably when I was about 15 or 16. I was in a band with my brother and no bass player. There were three guitarists and nobody wanted to play bass so to save any arguments I told them if they bought me a bass guitar I would play it. MB. Well there’s another parallel with Paul McCartney. He only played bass because George and John refused. KF. Well its just too spooky! Anyway I got a Fender Mustang short scale bass with go faster stripes on it. MB So did you think ‘this is it – this is me – the bassman”? KF. I did because at that time I was listening to a lot of reggae. I got very heavy into Bob Marley and the bass is great on all that stuff. MB. So your own influences were mainly reggae? KF. Yes. Marley’s bass player was Ashton Barrett and I listened to a lot of Sly and Robbie stuff too. Also around that time the Ska revival was happening with bands like The Specials. MB. So you’re the bass player in a band with your brother as singer. Did it have a name? KF. Under The InfluenceMB. What year are we talking about here?KF. A good question…err….erm… MB. Well I met you in about 1984/5 KF. Well we’d been going for about three years at that point doing pubs locally around MaidaVale and Kilburn. MB. But Under the Influence wasn’t a strictly reggae band was it? KF. No. It would change all the time with everybody’s contribution. A good blend. MB. Who are your favourite bass players? KF. Well I never really followed bass players as such. It was more the whole band. I never really listened to the bass player as a separate deal. I’ve always loved Paul McCartney’s playing. Even on a song that’s not so great like “Silly Love Songs’ the bass playing is fantastic and though I never liked the band ‘Level 42’ particularly, Mark King is a technically superb player. MB. What about singers?KF. What about them?MB. I mean which singers are your favourites?KF. Well of course there’s Hank Wangford…. MB. I thought we’d talk about the all time greats a bit later on. KF. Oh OK. I like all kinds of singers- Dean Martin, Sinatra, Elvis. I love the sixties soul singers like Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Otis Redding and the like. You name them! MB. OK Kevin tell us how you came to be involved with the great Hank Wangford KF. Well it was a complete stroke of luck because God knows where I would have been today… probably be doing really well for myself. I met this chap in a pub who knew this other chap called Martin Belmont who got me into a band called Los Pistoleros. This lead to me depping for bass players in Hanks band at that time The first one I depped for was Claire Kenny. I did this depping thing for quite a while and Los Pistoleros was going at the same time. Eventually I joined Hank full time and have been doing it for many long years now – coming up to gold watch time. MB. Since joining Hank what are the really great gigs you remember? KF. I try to block most of it from my mind. A pinnacle was this place in Ireland called The Lavy Inn, which is in Cavan. I don’t think they get much better than that. We had to be there about six and went onstage at midnight. There was nowhere to go and nothing to do between arriving and playing. We played till early in the morning and nobody liked us at all. What a cracker! I’ve enjoyed most of them to be honest with you. The Falklands of course was … MB. I was going to ask about interesting or unusual places you’ve visited with Hank.KF. The Falklands was a great place to go. MB. Not the kind of place you get to go to every day? KF. When I was sober it was a real eye opener. Of course I also did Switzerland. MB. What was that for?KF. It was a private function in …… basically it was in the middle of a mountain somewhere – fantastic! Pretty mad. I think that’s the one where Hank made a point of telling us not to forget our passports and turned up at the airport without his, a couple of hours before the flight and then managed to get himself a passport at the airport! MB. Now that is serious blagging KF. Yeah and in such a rush that he got Hank Wangford on the passport instead of his real name and made to Switzerland. MB. Ok Kev lets talk about recording. Which records of Hanks have you been on? KF. I did ‘Wake up Dead’ and what was the one before that? MB. The live album was the one before that. I think Richard Allen played on that one. There is always a long gap between Hanks records. KF. Ah well that’s why I can’t remember. So yes “Wake up Dead’ and of course the new one. MB. Ah yes the new one. We’ll talk about that in a bit. What other records have you played on? KF. I’ve played with Doll by Doll and Jackie Leven . An album he made which had some Doll by Doll stuff on it, and I’ve recently done his latest solo album, which I played on all the tracks. MB. Has that been released? What is it called?KF. Yes it is released and it is called ‘Shining Sister Shining Brother’. I’ve also done a Michael Weston King album, which is out and is called ‘A Decent Man’. Los Pistoleros have two albums out, one of which is live and I’m on those of course. I played on an album by Eddie Grundy of ‘The Archers” which was released by Demon records. I also played in an episode of The Archers on Radio 4. I’ve done some TV recordings with Los Pistoleros. We did the music to a series called “Moving Story”.MB. Did’nt you play on the great Martin Belmont album ‘Big Guitar”?KF. There’s another one – I didn’t play on all of it – just the good tracks. Also Reg Meuross’s “Goodbye Hat” album. It’s hard to remember them all when I’ve done so many in my career. MB. How about song writing? You’ve written a few I believe KF. I have and I’ve got quite a few in my back catalogue. One song I co-wrote and recorded with Los Pistoleros was used in a movie called ‘Beautiful Joe’ starring Sharon Stone and Billy Connolly. It went straight to video release and hardly anyone saw it. Still…. MB. Are you a collaborator or a solo writer? KF. Collaborator. I would be analysing myself too much to ever finish writing lyrics. I wrote a lot of stuff with my brother and we are thinking of getting some of it recorded with the old ‘Under the Influence’ band. We have a lot of songs that were never recorded. MB. There is a track on the new Hank album that you co wrote when you were in Under the Influence called ‘Diamond Heart’ KF. Yeah I wrote it with my brother Gerard and Paul O’Brien and Kevin Byrne who were the guitarists in that band. Like I said we had all sorts of influences including country as well as Rock and Reggae and that kind of stuff. MB. Well there’s not really a big gap between Country and Rock’n’Roll anyway is there? KF. Absolutely. Just a case of playing it a bit louder or a bit faster. A good song can often lend itself to different styles. MB. Lets talk equipment. What do you use when you’re playing? What’s your guitar of choice? KF. The one I had stolen - a Fender Precision. As a spare I’m using a Fender Jazz Precision. I also have a 1962 Precision that needs restoring. I’ve got a Tokai fretless bass- actually I had it made fretless by having the frets removed but that’s also in need of a bit of repair, and I’ve got an acoustic Tanglewood bass, which is a great recording guitar. It almost sounds like an upright bass – it has the same kind of resonance. The problem is trying to play it live – it’s hard to get a good sound with it on stage. MB. What about amplifiers? KF. Trace Elliott- a 250 watt head with an old Traynor cabinet which was made in the sixties in Canada which I’ve had customised by cutting it in half. It’s easier to carry. I’ve also got a Trace Elliot combo and a Peavey cabinet which I use for smaller gigs. MB. Well we are almost done you’ll be pleased to hearKF. FantasticMB. Tell us your thoughts on Hanks new album “Best Foot Forward” KF. It’s probably the best thing I’ve ever done and I’m glad everyone could get together to help me with it. But seriously it’s very relaxed – the way we recorded it MB. How was it recorded?KF. It was recorded at the drummer’s house – Roy Dodds – over a period of time, so rather than rushing into a studio for two or three weeks we did a day here and a day there when people were available. It took longer like that but it seems to have paid off in the overall feel and it sounds absolutely fantastic. MB. Do you have any personal favourites among the 13 new songs? KF. Well apart from the obvious world wide hit single that is ‘Diamond Heart’, I really like the last song on the album. Its called ….err… MB. “Shadows”?KF. Yes that’s the one. I like the way the drums and bass come together on that one. I also love the song “Falling Angels”. MB. Your sound on that track is almost like a double bass. KF. That’s my Tanglewood acoustic. Apart from direct injection into the mixing desk, Roy put a microphone over the sound hole and blended the two sounds. MB. Is the secret to good rhythm in a band the connection between the bass player and the drummer?KF. Yes definitelyMB. You’ve worked with quite a few drummers I‘d imagineKF. Yes indeedyMB. You’ve mentioned Roy Dodds- any others you care to name?KF. Bobby IrwinMB. The Lord Irwin of Twickenham?KF. The same. He’s fantastic. Pete Thomas- brilliant drummer. I played with Graeme Edge from the Moody Blues MB. Really. What was that a gig or record or what? KF. I went to his house or mansion actually to rehearse for a one off charity gig. Err who else… oh Dave Macintosh who’s great and a Scottish chap called Johnny Clark who’s another excellent drummer MB. Well that’s great Kevin. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us KF. You’re more than welcome but you do realise I’m very busy and in great demand MB. What can I say but it’s been an honour and a privilege to spend time with one of the all time great bassists and humanitarians. (Howls of laughter – fade out ) .

TOP OF PAGE ROY DODDS     Roy Dodds - drums. Ex-Fairground Attraction, plays with Eddie Reader and has produced her new album in 2000. Attached at the rhythmic hip to Kevin Foster. He also plays with jazz-style chanteuse jacqui dankworth and produced her last album in 2003 and is working on a new album for 2004.   THE ROY DODDS INTERVIEW WITH MARTIN BELMONT MB Well Roy when and where were you born?RD 1951 in BuckinghamshireMB Do you have any brothers or sisters?RD Yes. I have a younger brother and an elder sisterMB Where did you go to school?RD In Berkhamstead in Berkshire where I lived MB What are your earliest musical memories? RD My dad used to listen to Chris Barber and we had ‘My Fair Lady’ with Rex Harrison. The first music I remember that made an impression was at my mate’s house and he had a radiogram and you could actually hear the bass. I remember ‘Last Train to San Fernando’ by… maybe Tommy Steele. MB That was a skiffle record if memory servesRD I’m not sure who it was singing but you could hear the slappy bass MB Yeah – skiffle RD OK – skiffle, but it was being able to hear the bass that impressed me. MB How old were you at that time?RD About ten I guessMB Do you remember the first record you bought yourself?RD I bought ‘Shazam’ MB Oh by Duane Eddy RD Yes. I heard it on the radio and thought I must buy that record My sister and her friends listened to a lot of pop music of the time. I don’t remember a lot of the names but The Beatles were on the radio. They had their own show on the home service or the light programme. MB How old were you then? RD I guess about twelve. It was their own show – ‘Meet The Beatles’ or something like that. So The Beatles were the first really big thing. They changed everything. Elvis was before that and then came The Beatles. MB When did you start playing music yourself? RD I bought a guitar when I was about twelve. I learnt four chords and never really got anywhere with it. There was a band at school and they needed a drummer. The school had this really big old marching bass drum and a snare drum and I said ‘Ill play that” and I did. I don’t know why but I could play them. We played ‘Wipeout’ and I did the fast drumming parts on that and we did ‘Walking the Dog’ and Rolling Stones songs. MB Without any sort of lesson or teach yourself books? RD Well I watched drummers. Ready Steady Go. I don’t remember when I first watched that but it was always the drummers I was watching. I used to practise sitting in an armchair. The side arm was the hi-hat and your knee was the snare. MB So this school band…RD ‘The One and Only’. We did two gigs and that was that. MB So after that did you get a proper drum kit? RD Yes a white Olympic kit that cost twenty pounds. I went to Vic O’Brien’s in Oxford Street and bought a snare drum for ten pounds. I used to go round to a mates place and he played guitar. We’d set up and listen to Dave Brubeck doing ‘Take Five’ and try to copy it. This was my same friend who had the radiogram. MB So you used to listen to Dave Brubeck playing in 5/4 time and play along or what? RD Well sort of. I don’t remember exactly what we played but I think it was pretty weird. MB Well if your influences were Elvis, The Beatles and Dave Brubeck then the result might sound a little strange. RD Anyway after that I dropped out of school. The only thing I had any time for was Art and I wasn’t particularly good at that. But I ended up going to Art School. I sold my drums, gave up playing but still loved listening to music. MB Which Art School? RD Watford. There was a lot of music happening there, a lot of it very strange and arty. That was what seemed to be happening. Art and music – multi media. MB When was this? RD 68 or 69. There was a guy called David Toop there at that time. He’s now a famous musicologist who writes books I cant understand. I used to borrow a drum kit from somewhere and play at these events. I’d play what I thought were Pink Floyd type of things and there would be light shows and people playing strange synthesiser type of things – tone generators. People couldn’t actually play. It wasn’t about that. It was playing the guitar with a violin bow or a screwdriver – just make it all as strange as possible. Then I went to Art school in Bradford and joined a street theatre outfit. I played drums in the street! They had a band that did gigs as well and I joined that. MB What type of music were you playing with them? RD Cabaret- but weird Rock and Roll cabaret. Very Velvet Underground influenced. I really wanted to be a drummer but I wasn’t very good at it so for a while I gave up and did some roadying for Mike Westbrook’s band. When I was 21 I moved to Bristol after my daughter Saffy was born and then I started playing again in bands and started to really get my drumming together. There were loads of bands in Bristol at that time. This was 1972 and I lived there till 1978 and that was my real drumming apprenticeship. There were loads of gigs. On Sundays I played in a Trad jazz band. I also played in a traditional rock and roll band and also a few experimental acid jazz type of things. A bit of everything. I got better as a drummer through all the playing I did and eventually ended up in this band called ‘Steps’. They were an acid\ jazz type of deal and they got signed to a record contract. This gave me a lot more confidence and I used to come up to London a bit and would meet people. I got a gig in the Obelix restaurant in Westbourne Grove. There were a lot of gigs in restaurants at that time. Then I got a gig at The Cricketers in Kennington. Punk was happening but I didn’t play in punk bands. There was a group called The Corgis who I joined just in time to mime to their hit record. I started to get work with all sorts of people – Steve Tilson, the folk singer and then there was this band called the Slow Twitch Fibres MB The Slow Twitch Fibres? RD Yes. It was Andy Davies from The Corgis, Pete Brant from Bristol and loads of other people. The music was a weird disco hybrid. It was 1980 and we were heavily into Talking Heads. Suddenly it seemed I’d be meeting loads of people and playing with different bands. Dave Bitteli the sax player got me into his band and we worked all the time doing loads of different stuff. Sambas, New Orleans, African, Rock and roll. It didn’t matter to him he just loved all that stuff – what is now called world music and I learnt how to play properly at that time. So through him I discovered that it was roots music that I really liked-that’s what I was into. So I did that for a bit and then played with a band called Working Week. But I started to feel fed up with the way I was playing so I applied to the Guildhall School of Music and was accepted. MB What! – I didn’t know that. RD Yup. It was in the days when ILEA still existed and I got a grant to study music. I took an audition with a guitarist friend, Billy Jenkins, and got in to do a years Jazz and Rock course. 1986-1987. MB So what did you learn? Did they teach you to read? RD Well they taught a lot of stuff, most of which went over my head. I went to the first class and was immediately falling behind everyone else. I dropped out of a lot of classes but basically I practised everyday. I got to play everyday. MB That must have been great - to be able to play that intensively? RD Yes. In the summer of 87 I was supposed to write these big band arrangements to graduate and wasn’t getting on very well with them, I got a call from Simon Edwards, who was a bass player I had known in Bristol, saying he was in this band and they needed a drummer and did I want the gig. He sent me a cassette of these beautiful songs sung by this girl called Eddi Reader accompanied by Simon, and Mark Nevin and I listened and told him that I thought they sounded great and didn’t need a drummer. MB Way to talk yourself out of a gig Roy. RD They said no come along so I went to a rehearsal and met them all. I think they’d just decided to call themselves Fairground Attraction. There was a sort of cabaret pub circuit around London at that time. MB Yeah I remember that. It was a sort of slightly left wing run type of thing. The upstairs or back rooms of pubs and social clubs. RD Yes that was it. That was the circuit we played. Eddi thought of herself as a kind of Edith Piaf - torch singer. So the whole thing was basically acoustic. I just used a snare and bass drum and brushes. I played really quietly. Anyhow we made this demo tape and suddenly all these A and R people would be turning up at these little gigs we were playing. Major label types. MB So why do you think that was? RD They liked the demos a lot. They didn’t sound like anything else around that time. They were kind of like… err what was that music we mentioned earlier? MB Skiffle? RD Yeah. That’s it. Eddi was a lovely singer and it sounded just different. They saw a market for what we did I suppose. BMG signed us. There was even a bit of a bidding war for us. So they put us in a studio in Chipping Norton with an engineer named Kevin Maloney. We recorded all the songs in 10 days and thought –these are quite nice and then it all went zoom. They decided to put ‘Perfect’ out and we said don’t do that because it was not typical of the rest of the stuff we had recorded. We were touring around in a little van making about a hundred and fifty quid each and the single raced up the charts and got to No1 for a week. We were up in Scotland when it hit No 1. MB Well Roy you are the only member of the Lost Cowboys that’s played on a No 1 single, that’s for sure. RD Well it was amazing because we weren’t trying for a hit or expecting one so there was no tension. We were very relaxed about the whole thing MB What year was it a hit RD 1988. MB Were you doing a lot of gigs? RD We were supporting Deacon Blue and then when it took off we started headlining our own gigs. We got two more musicians into the band as well. The group lasted for two years. MB So when they split what did you do then?RD Well after meeting Eddi and her love of folk and country and how it all crossed over it lead me in a whole new direction. I’d kept other things going even while I was in Fairground. I was obsessed with playing the drums you see. I did jazz gigs – all sorts. I played with Dudu Pukwana, which was great, and I went to Ireland and worked with Donal Lunny and Sharon Shannon. I also carried on working with Eddi on her solo stuff. So I was making a living out of drumming. I toured with Eddi to support her first solo album which I co-produced as well. We had this band called Eddi Reader and The Patron Saints of Imperfection with Niel and Callum Maccoll. A very loose rock/folk 70’s style outfit. Then she got signed to Warner brothers and did a much more straight ahead commercial record. Then she changed again…basically I did an album with her every couple of years. We did 5 records in the nineties MB How did you come to work with Hank? RD I knew a drummer called Simon who had played with Hank in the seventies. I had sort of known Hank on and off for quite a while. I bumped into him again when I was working in Ireland. Then I met Kevin Foster through another friend and we’d talk about playing together. He got me a dep gig with Hank. I did alright at the gig then I saw you all on TV in The Falklands playing without drums. MB Well we did about two years without a drummer- mainly for economic reasons- there’s more money when there are only 4 of you. Also it was based on acoustic guitars so in that traditional country/rockabilly style we could work without a drummer. But we really missed having drums after two years. RD Well Kevin told me you were looking for a drummer and he got me the job. I don’t remember where the first gig was but I do remember that I overdid all the endings. I couldn’t believe how low key a lot of the endings were. It was my first time playing that really straight ahead country/rockabilly style although it was similar to a lot of grooves I knew but without any improvisation within the grooves. I’d also travel to gigs with Hank and he would play me George Jones and those guys that I had never heard before and I’d go – oh that’s what you do – I get it. I still have a strange rather quirky approach to drumming that seems to fit anyway. MB It may be quirky but it certainly worked out very well on the new album ‘Best Foot Forward’ which was recorded right here in your living room. How long have you had a studio in your house? RD Since I was at Art School I’ve been interested in tape recorders. Making tapes, recording the bands I was in, tape effects, all that. I had this 2 track Vortexian tape recorder and the stuff I recorded with it sounded fantastic. When I moved into this house I wanted a room where my plan was to have musical get togethers - a place where people would come and make music together. I soon realised that was totally impractical because of the neighbours. So instead I started recording stuff very quietly onto DAT tape. People would come round and we’d get stoned and play and I’d record it. Then I got a Tascam 8 track digital recorder and the very day I got it Eddi came over – she used to come here to write songs- and we started recording stuff straight away. I did 2 albums with her here. One of them was called ‘Driftwood’ and I called this place ‘Driftwood Studios”. I really enjoy recording music especially acoustic stuff. The idea with Hank was that we would give it a try just to see how it would go. The first day we did ‘Falling Angels’ with just you, Hank and me. Then we did a day with Kevin as well and did the basic tracks for “Forgetful Man’ and “Wild is the Wind” which were songs we’d been playing live. I’d already done some stuff with you here before we started Hank’s stuff. MB Yes we did a couple of instrumentals I’d written and also did a session with Kevin when we recorded two songs we’d composed. RD Yes I don’t know why we did those things… MB Well you said to me once “if you and Kev have got anything you want to record we can do it here”. Well…yes please! RD So the seed for doing the Hank stuff was here? MB Well I just thought that all the stuff we’d done here sounded great. It is a good sound. There is warmth to it even using digital recorders. RD Well yes it was your enthusiasm and Hank wanting to record some stuff. We went from a couple of tryout sessions to finishing 13 songs here. The hardest part was getting people together at the same time. MB OK Roy, for those who are interested in the technical side of things… RD Yes we recorded onto 16 tracks of Tascam digital tape. The thing that makes it sound good in my opinion is the Drawmer 1960. It’s a valve stereo compressor. Eddi used it first here. Everything seemed to sound good with it so now everything goes through it in recording and mixing. We found some good reverb using cheap effects units, including some of the pedals you use on stage. MB I think one of the outstanding features on the album is the percussion playing and using the percussion as part of the basic rhythm rather than an after effect. RD Well all the music I like from Motown to Rock and Roll to Little Feet all has lots of percussion. It’s that mix of bass, drums, percussion and guitars that make layers of rhythm and layers of sound textures. You always seem to home in on the percussion- it was always “turn that up”, “make that tambourine louder”. MB Do you have any personal favourites on the album? RD Yes I think ‘Falling Angels’. I just love the feel and the sound we got on that one. I also like the last song ‘Shadows’ because of the rhythm – the bass, drums and guitars. Its that kind of music that crosses borders – is it calypso? – Is it reggae? – Is it country? – Is it folk? MB Well I think we’ve pretty much covered everything Roy. Ah except who are your favourite bands? Or favourite drummers? RD The Band. Levon Helm on drums. He’s the man. I grew up with Ringo and Charlie Watts but for me Levon’s it. MB I always thought it very unfair that not only is he one of the great drummers but… RD One of the best singers too…I know. And where that music comes from. That has no borders to it – New Orleans – Country – R’n’B. MB Well thank you very much Roy for taking the time to talk to us today.   For more info on Eddi and Roy visit www.eddireader.com TOP OF PAGE