the band
Music is as much about the people you do it with as anything, in my opinion. It’s about what like-minded people do with their lives, and the experiences they have together doing it – good, bad, indifferent or amazing, comic, annoying.
I’m fortunate enough to play with the best musicians you could find anywhere. And although the lead instrument is often a National or a 12-string guitar, as a band we have every bit as much punch, power and volume, as any electric band.
How it works is, I write songs and eventually record demos of them which I send to Charles and Ben. They work out arrangements for the songs – their own parts and how the song will sound as a whole. They bring unique creativity to this, which is one reason why we didn’t sound like anybody else.
You won’t come across better musicianship than what these two do. Audience members are always coming up to tell me how amazed they are by them.
CHARLES BENFIELD: double bass / vocals
Charles is a brilliant and much-admired double bass and electric bass player and the lynchpin of the whole thing. He produced, mixed and mastered three of the albums and has played electric guitar, keyboards and mandolin on them too. He's a terrific musician with his own totally individual style. He does fine harmony vocals too. I do a lot of duo gigs with Charles, it works incredibly well. Charles has been with me from the very start, a hell of a lot we’ve done together.
BEN WELBURN: drums/percussion
Ben’s drumming style perfectly matches the material and adds hugely to what I’m doing. He’s a natural for this kind of music and always comes up with something that’s both interesting and right. He also plays an array of percussion, including washboard. As a team, Ben and Charles work perfectly together making the whole thing a seamless unit that flies. Ben’s a dab hand at film-making too, not to mention his recently developed habit of taking a picture of the toilets at every venue he plays.
and also:
GUY BENNETT
Probably the first musician I came across when I started out in London, and I doubt I’ve come across a better one since. Great singer, guitarist and songwriter, he played electric guitar and keyboards on Fools & Clowns and keyboards on The World Outside.
