When I started this history page, I thought there would be a few references to the odd band here and there, but as I have contacted everybody, and said," have you got any pictures of me with a guitar in my hands?" They've said, " yes, and I've got This as well". It's not finished yet, as I've got to collect Some tapes and more photos.
The idea of this history page is that you should Drop in on it every week or two and see what the new additions are, and have a listen and a laugh. Enjoy!
Hopefully, most of the songs and the instruments are written / played by me. when I'm not involved, The people involved will be mentioned.
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They say that you always remember your first love, or something like that! Well, this was my-our first proper band. We learned all our playing and performance skills in this little set up! I think we were together for about 2 years. We used to rehearse about twice a week In the Braziers Garage (Big thanks to Celia & Alex Brazier for their kindness & encouragement) and I don't think we gigged for our first year together. We were musical snobs, and we refused to cover anyone else's songs. We wrote our own songs, a varied mix of styles which aped our musical heroes of the time, Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and a bit of (or so we thought!) Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Return to forever.
Of course, we hurriedly changed our policy for our first gig, which was a dinner and dance at the commodore club on Penarth Pier. I must admit that I hated that gig, and probably would have given any or both of my arms not to do it But, as they say, don't knock it 'till you've tried it! So try it I did.... and I still didn't like it!
Things improved a great deal for our second gig at Llanover hall arts center (see the poster drawn up by Rob, and hung up in Llanishen High School 6th form common room), and for the first time, I was Copying my heroes and playing "in concert". It was a fantastic experience as was our third gig at Llanishen High School when we topped the bill with the apocalyptic "Panty Hose and the Y Fronts" as support. We also Passed a video audition for a BBC Wales TV show called jam. Great things were promised for us, But we broke up before that happened (probably my fault), a sad ending to a very promising start.
The line up was:- 1, Rob Brazier- Guitar. 2, Rob (Wombo) Ford- Organ, Electric Piano, Five Quid Thing (don't ask!). 3, Chris Brazier- Drums.
Honorary Juicers
John Michael Jenkins- Drums. He took over the drumming duties just before and including the first gig, but was kicked out soon afterwards when we discovered he was a closet "Status Quo" fan, and Chris rejoined the band.
Kerry Jenkins- Backing vocals at the first gig, and then she retired while she was at the top.
John Michaels girlfriend at the time (I think her name was Vivian)- Backing vocals at the first gig. I can still remember John and Vivian zooming around the streets of Cardiff on his Honda nifty fifty!
Chris Loyn- Guitar. We desperately wanted Chris to join the band, but, he just couldn't handle the rhythms. I still think of the evenings we spent trying to teach him our riffs with no success.
These songs were recorded in early '77 in the Brazier's Garage.
Machine gun, first song in the set, just to get things going.
Reflections, a jazz rock instrumental
a) Gods
b) Epitaph, A prog rock spectacular! even by today's standards !
All this music was jointly composed by the band.
Lets look natural for the cameras now!
Live on stage at Monty's in Charles street
Double O
Vince Solo
After the juice split, I had no real idea about what to do next until a good friend and fellow bass player, Rob Anderton, asked me to take his place in a cabaret band he said he was playing in called "Broadway Surprise". Without asking him any more ,and without asking the leader of the band, Max Jones, any questions as to what was happening with the band, I agreed to join after a quick phone call. I quickly realized that I was not joining a well established band with a list of gigs as long as their collective arms, but an under rehearsed band with a deadline of two weeks till their first gig! The other band members were;- Mike Taki -Drums, and Pete Lewis -vocals.
I can remember lots of rehearsals leading up to the gig, which was in Swansea, and we wore our 3 piece suits as well! I thought we played below average for what we were, but the audience thought we were wonderful and kept on calling us up for encore after encore. At the end of the night someone came into our dressing room and said that we were the best band he had seen since the Beatles! I think a bit too much alcohol must have clouded his judgment!
And so my 20 year flirtation with the cabaret scene started.
I stayed with them for a few months, until things were going well, and then I left them and Rob Anderton rejoined. Oddly enough, Rob is still a very good friend of mine!
I left because I was confident about playing lead guitar and no longer wanted to be known as a Bass player. All I had to do was put a band together. My first attempt was with Chris Brazier and Dave Heaven (guitar player extraordinaire. More info on Dave on the contact page) The rehearsals for a few songs went ok, but, there was no way I could play at Dave's standard and sing lead vocals.
My next attempt at a band was a band called The Sundowners (not my idea!). Once again Chris was on drums With Paul Craven on bass and Dave Rees on Guitar.
We did two gigs, one that I remember was an end of year dance at Llandaff rowing club. Then came the call to join Double O. After the Juice split, the two Robs (brazier and Ford), wasted no time in forming double O, With Rob Brazier playing bass. They made a name for themselves playing all the current rock and pop song covers and had lots of bookings. They asked me to play bass, as Rob had left, I said yes. So here I was playing bass again! Other than Myself and Rob Ford the other members were: Howard Jones - vocals, Paul Holdey - drums, and Mark on guitar. We carried on for a few more months and then we split.
I can remember not doing anything Musically for a while, and then I auditioned for a heavy metal band called Raw Prawn. I was just on the verge of joining them when I got a call from Eager Beaver (whew! that was close!).
Unfortunately, I have no Recordings of Double O. The piece of music I have for this period is a song I wrote and played in Juice called "that'll Be nice". But this was recorded by me with my 12 string acoustic guitar a year after the split on a strange kind of reel to reel tape that allowed me to double track myself. As this was my first attempt at double tracking, my vocals were a bit out of sync with themselves. Well, that's my excuse anyway!
Eager Beaver
The band members were:- Andy Beaver- Guitar, Dave Dearnaley- Guitar, John (Webby) Webster- Drums, Allan Alexander- Vox.
The track is called Mack The Knife, and was written by the various band members before I joined. Although Mack The Knife is on the compilation album, I thought it would be nice to play it off a live tape of us that we did at the Moon club. So here it is, Mack The Knife played at a sweaty Moon club at about 1.30 am on a Friday morning in early September '79.
Me coming second in a Spidge look-alike contest!
Grand Slam:-
I want your love
I think I was with Dave (spidge) Spiller for about 3 years on and off. We had too many different band members, but I'll give it a go at naming the guilty parties.
Grand slam consisted of Spidge- Vocals and Guitar, Wombo- Fender Rhodes, Moog synth. Viv Lock- Guitar, and Giorgio Athisonadiss- Drums (ex Demis Russos & Nanna Moskuri). I've recently discovered a live tape of Grand Slam. All I can remember of it was that we were up the Rhondda valley. there was no original songs on it, only covers, so I thought I would do a medley of a few of these songs just to give you an idea of what we were about.
Total Gold included Max Jones- Guitar, Ian Moffat (Moff) drums, as well as Dave Hutton on drums either before or after Moff. There were other people ,but I can't remember their names. Around this period I seemed to have lots of "rights of passage experiences". One gig in particular at a certain Bulmer's Cider club in Hereford ranks as one of the most incredible nights of my life!
Anyway, back to the music. Spidge is The best soul singer in South Wales by miles, so I was well chuffed when he accepted my offer to sing on Jane, but I'm sure he wouldn't like the world to know he once sang a gooey love song! At the time he recorded it, I hadn't finished the middle 8, so I sang that myself a few days later. The guitar solo was by Viv Lock.
Whilst researching for this history page, I discovered a cassette recording of Grand Slam That I had totally forgotten about. A really nice surprise! So here, for the first time in ages, is the band doing a cover of Chic's "I want your love". I know it was recorded in a social club in the Rhondda valley, but I can't remember the name of it!
Both songs were recorded at Bob Rusbridge's home studio in Cathays, (unique for the time) and Bob played rhythm Guitars on this song.
The 2 songs here were recorded in the philharmonic, opposite Sam's bar in Saint Mary's Street. "TV man" was mine and "Had a Letter" was Tony's. When I've finished this website, and if there is enough room, I'll put another Low Profile song on this bit.
Tony Barrett - Guitar, lead Vox: Carl Sentance - Guitar, Vox: Rob Ford - Keyboards, Vox: Ricky Barnes - Drums:
Rob onstage with Bluenote-
L to R (Facing Forward): - Jeff Coleman, Rob Farmer, Chris Rees, Neil Jones, Rob Ford.
Publicity shot of Grand Slam 1-
L to R-Paul Higgins, Tony Barrett, Spidge, Rob Farmer, Rob Ford.
Every now and then, Cardiff throws up a musician who makes it big, and is known and respected nationally / internationally for their talent. I honestly believed Rob would become one of these people, and it was no more than he deserved. He always added a touch of class to any band he played in.
On a personal note, I would like to say I am honoured to have been a friend of his, we shared some great times together and we also had some falling outs, but that's what it's like with friends, and you get on with it. We drifted apart, and when I heard of his illness I called on him one night. He was the same old Wombo I ever new and I said I'd see him either in hospital or when he got better.
People still talk about him nowadays, and all the things he's done get a bit more exaggerated and saintly as we all get older, and that's cool! I think being remembered means you must have done well, so carry on being remembered Rob!
After I left low profile (Ricky drove me mad!), I went and joined a band that Spidge had formed (it was probably another version of "Grand slam"). We played the social clubs for a while, and at some point, My creative juices got the better of me, and I left to form All 'n All With Mike Taki on drums and vocals and Simon (Slim) Davies on guitar. At this point, I became Mr music, I could not stop writing, arranging, or rehearsing music almost every night. I was totally immersed in it. Looking back, I sometimes wonder how Mike and Slim kept up with me, but, I think they got the bug as well!
The band was put together by Simon Payne, a rather large man who has since appeared on TV programs such as "Fat club" and seems to nowadays be the media spokesman for all overweight people in Wales. Simon had been reacquainted with Mike when he was stuck in a rut. He decided that the only way to get Mike out of it was to get him to start a band. So he got Slim, Mikes best friend, and ace guitarist, who specialized in sumptuous open chords, to join. All that was needed was a bass player, so Simon approached me and I was only too happy to join, and Simon appointed himself as our manager!
Once again I left Spidge.
We spent about six months rehearsing, and during that time, I had serious doubts about Mike's drumming capabilities. He was technically amazing, but he was no metronome and his drumming was all over the place when he sang lead. I was also very critical of my abilities as a lead vocalist, but at no point did I ever loose faith in the quality of songs we were coming up with. I thought that if we brought another vocalist - guitarist into the band, it would take a load off me and Mike. We placed an ad in the wanted section in the South Wales Echo, and only one person replied, Paul Weston.
I can still remember the audition now. We met him at Mikes house, and he told us how he had only played in folk clubs and had ,up to this point, only written acoustic guitar based songs. Well, we were not bothered about what he'd written, we had plenty of songs, we just wanted someone who could sing and play a bit of guitar. So we asked him to sing one of his songs just to see how good at singing he was, and WOW! we were blown away at how great the song was. We then played him a tape of our songs and it was his turn to be blown away. So that was it, he was in! Mike took his phone number and wrote it down in his diary which he promptly lost a few days later! That, coupled with a poor performance at our first gig, prompted me to leave them. I was gutted, all that effort and time, wasted.
Its a funny old World sometimes.....
I stepped back into a band with Spidge, "Total Gold", and a few weeks after that, Slim bumped into Paul Weston and "Milan" was formed. Both our bands usually played in the bay at the Dowlais pub, or the Casablanca club, and they would come in to see us before they started their set and we would go see them as well. Great nights.
Ulterior Motive
Tony Barrett had got together with another guitarist called Barrett Homeward. They were looking to put a band together and Tony asked me to join. I said I knew of a drummer, Dennis (I can't remember his second name). It was a tight little band, with me and Tony revisiting some low profile numbers and adding some new stuff as well as some covers. I do remember that we did quite a few gigs at the "Lion's Den" and at the downstairs bar in Chapter Arts Center. We did a storming rendition of," I Can't Hide", a song I had written in All 'n All, used with this band, and carried it over to Quaking House. I have no recordings of this band, only this strange picture of us playing in the downstairs bar, me and Barrett center stage, left of me is Dennis on his drums with Tony to the left of Dennis. This picture was an accidental double exposure (thank you Mr Chadwick!), the other band you can see was a roots reggae band called "Beatroots" and this photo was taken of them at the Lion's Den. I'm sure we were only together for a few months, but we packed one hell of a lot of gigs in!
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Please click
Quaking Gallery
Quaking House
New something
1981 - 83 Quaking House were a band that I thought would definitely "go places". As it was, the furthest we went was Newport! Actually, we played there quite a lot at a club that was eventually called TJ's. We played 95% original material, and were well received wherever we played, which was just about everywhere. We even played at a kids party once!. It only lasted 15 minutes! The Photo is of me and Brenda fronting the band at one of the bars at the students union in Cathays. The other photos were taken at the downstairs bar and at studio 2. Just click on Gallery and they'll all come up. New something and Chipping away were recorded at studio2, I Can't Hide was recorded live at PC's in City Road. Chipping away was written by Rob.
I must admit that this band fitted me like a glove, if that makes any sense. Writing songs was easy, most of the time me and Rob would put bits of songs together and then just leave them to Brenda to tidy them up, put lyrics, bridges or choruses on them and hey presto, a new song was born. Gigs were no problem, they all went smoothly, especially considering we only did about 3 covers.
So why aren't we still together now, I hear you ask! Simple enough, Brenda got pregnant. Now its all very well all these pop stars of today getting pregnant, they don't have to carry their gear up flights of stairs after traveling to and from gigs at all hours of the night as Brenda ( and me as well, during the last few months) did. Rob thought the band had come to the end of it's natural life, and I had been asked to play bass for Paul Weston's new band. I do have regrets over this band. That I let it slip away so easily without pushing for more because I honestly thought we could get some kind of a deal. That, I suppose is rock 'n roll..... And anyway, a new and different musical challenge was just about to happen for me.
The band comprised of : Brenda Davies - Vox, keys & Sax: Mike Southern - Drums: Rob Brazier - Guitar.
Paul Weston Band
Electric Rain
Intro
Touch
Intro
Formed out of the ashes of 'Milan' the PWB Did some local radio and television gigs as well as some record company showcases. One of the pictures shows us playing on BBC Wales' show 'Juice'. Please enter the PWB Gallery for more pics of the band and duo The songs were written by Paul Weston and arranged by Danny Chang, who also gave a new meaning to the football title of player-manager, as he managed the band as well as playing in it!
As well as the band, Paul and I did most of the band's songs & some covers as a duo. I've included a proof sheet of photos taken by Rob Brazier of a duo gig at PC's on City Road. The PWB members were:- Paul Weston-Vox, Acoustic Guitar: Danny Chang-Electric Guitar, Keyboards: Danielle Nichols-Backing Vox: Nick Mercott -Drums (but not on these live BBC Radio Wales recordings. That honour went to local producer and ace drummer Greg Havers).
The Paul Weston Band had run it's course and I had just come back from a month in Australia With Mandi. Nothing was happening musically for me, So I went out and bought a South Wales Echo, and lo and behold, there was an advert for a band wanting a bass player. I phoned them up, went for the audition, and was in! The whole process was a lot simpler than I thought it would be.
The music was covers of hits from the '60s '70s and '80s, and we played mainly social clubs. I really enjoyed taking a back seat in this band. They had their own ideas and I didn't challenge them. Being in their company was a real hoot! It was great starting at the bottom of the pile with them, and within a few years we were close to the top, for what we did.
One night, after a gig, I took the poster advertising the show off the club noticeboard and asked them to sign it. That's the one you see on the left. The boys, clockwise from me are
Dave (guitar) Williams - Guitar, keyboards and harmony vox: Bryn Rutter - Drums: Alan Annis - Lead vox.
Our cover of 'let's dance' was recorded in studio 2 specifically at the request of a local radio dj who thought it funny that a club band could pull off a reasonable version of this song. Fair enough, he played the song and he interviewed us on his show as well.
Firestation
Joke Box
Comedy Capers
Automatix
Blues Blasters
Gaia Sound Project