This site is a history of, and tribute to, the many musicians and bands I have worked with over a period of more than 40 years. It includes information on each band with photos and a complete list of every gig I have played, including locations, band members and full instrumentation.
Dust My Broom
Hardtime Millionaires | Myspace Music Videos
Open Mic Nights
Steve Bayfield, Mark Hankins
The Star Inn, St Just, near Penzance, Cornwall .....from 9pm every Thursday since 2006 !
Steve Bayfield, Dave Jenkin, Bob Henley
photo - Mariella Capasso
Rebecca Hutson, Steve Bayfield, Dave Jenkin
Hardtime Millionaires
Dave Jenkin, Steve Bayfield
I am now working with the amazing blues guitarist Dave Jenkin, who has rekindled my passion for playing live music in small and intimate venues. I'm developing the technique of playing fretless bass guitar and bass drum together. Bluesy slide guitar, harmonica, bass, drum and vocals on a variety of tunes from pop and blues standards to jazz and rock classics.
Dave and I also play occasional dates with St Just legend John Turner – on main vocals and electronic drums. We play a variety of '60s music by The Stones, Spencer Davis, The Kinks, and some classic rock n' roll tunes. This line up is called Long In The Tooth.
Hardtime Millionaires on Myspace.
Ian & Steve
Steve Bayfield, Ian Payne
I started playing fretless bass guitar again in June 2006, and this led to jam sessions with Ian Payne once more. We played some occasional 15 minute slots on the open mic nights at our local pub, the Star Inn. These continued until the end of 2006. I then returned to playing acoustic guitar and singing some of the old Earthforce songs from the 1970s, along with a few well-known covers.
Gobfest 2006
Gobfest 2006
A reunion and jam session for the bands Gobi Desert Yachting Club, Vanishing Point (aka Living Space), Sheep In Fog, The Wire Band.
On Saturday 22 April 2006, Murray and Oliver Cheesman organised a group reunion for the bands they have played in over many years, at The Maltings arts centre, Farnham, Surrey. In total, thirteen musicians were able to attend and participate in an improvisation session that ran from 1pm to 7pm. There was also a small invited audience, consisting of friends and family of the various groups. There were some who were unable to attend, and others who were not contactable, as it had been over 20 years since most were involved playing music together. The people who did make it came from locations as far afield as Vancouver, Western Ireland, Glasgow, Cornwall, Dorset, Brighton and London. An epic number of miles had been travelled in the days leading up to this event and many had little idea of what to expect.
After the initial introductions and slight problems of recognition, it became apparent that the jam session itself worked best when all intended connections and references to original compositions were abandoned, in what became at times, a high-energy exploration of totally improvised passages. I am hoping that some of the 'good bits' have made it onto the limited recording systems available. There was no engineer available to do a proper job, as is so often the case in such situations. Many photographs were taken at this event, and a selection which best represents what happened appears on these pages. It was light-heartedly agreed by everyone in attendance that we shouldn't leave it another 20 years before we do it all again!
The musicians attending the event were:
Murray Cheesman : electric guitar, vocals, drums and organisation
Oliver Cheesman : ex-drummer, organisation and 'Director of Photography' (video)
Alex Forsythe : saxophones
Noel Taylor : clarinets
Gus Garside : double bass
Simon Gardner : drums
Steve Bayfield : electric guitar
Derek Cottrell : djembe drum
Paul Hyland : acoustic guitar, electric violin
Steve Walsh (Muffin) : acoustic guitar, dulcimer, vocals
Erik Moore : electric guitar
Steven Edwards : electric guitar
Nick Parratt : bass guitar, drums
Session
Session
There was also an outdoor acoustic event, running parallel to the main jam session, taking advantage of the glorious spring weather. This featured Paul and Muffin.
Our thanks go to the people at the Farnham Maltings who provided the facilities and made us all so welcome. To Murray and Oliver Cheesman for the inspired concept of a reunion, and the sending out of countless e-mails to provoke such a wonderful response to their invitation! My personal thanks go to each and every person who attended the session, and those who made it to the excellent meal and wind-down/chill-out provided by the Thai Lord restaurant in East Street. We must do it again. And sooner . . !
Always Points North
Don Miucci, Steve Bayfield
I began working with Don Miucci (bass guitar) in 1998 in the three-piece Vibe Warriors. We decided to continue as a duo after the departure of our drummer. In 1999 we were using an Alesis SR16 drum machine but then decided to go for a bigger, more arranged format using a Yamaha QY22 sequencer. This provided a great supplement of sounds - piano, organ, strings and even a brass section on some songs!
Although we were playing mainly cover versions of fairly well known material, Bowie, Sting, Dire Straits etc, many of these were all-new arrangements, just loosely based on the originals. This was a great opportunity to develop new skills in producing a different sound to what we had in mind at the beginning - and it took two years before we had enough material to take it on the road. This is why the mission statement 'Covers Jim, but not as we know them' became our slogan.
The sound was built around the Zomax 15-inch bass bin with its distinctive woody sound. The highlight of the four gigs we played in St Just was definitely Lafrowda Day on 21 July 2001 - some party!
Vibe Warriors
In 1998 I began writing and arranging some songs on guitar. One of these was a bluesy lament entitled Absent Friends, dedicated to the late friends and musicians I have known. After sax player Ian Caple died in May 1998, I did a performance of this song at his wake, featuring David Bickley on keyboards. This song formed part of the set for a new three-piece band I began working with - Don Miucci on bass and Pete Mathias on drums, using the name Vibe Warriors.
We played one gig at the end of June 98 and were billed to play the St Just music festival Lafrowda Day in July but had to cancel when Pete urgently had to move back to Wales. We did play one other booking for this year, at an outdoor event in Peterchurch, Herefordshire in August, with Steve Dyer on guitar and John Bland on keyboards and sampler. We used a Drumatix to provide rhythms.
Don and I continued to seek another drummer for some time, then considered working as a duo. Many local pubs were by now promoting live music and two musicians was the maximum number permitted at these small venues.
Don Miucci, Steve Bayfield, Steve Dyer, John Bland
We played one gig at the end of June 98 and were billed to play the St Just music festival Lafrowda Day in July but had to cancel when Pete urgently had to move back to Wales. We did play one other booking for this year, at an outdoor event in Peterchurch, Herefordshire in August, with Steve Dyer on guitar and John Bland on keyboards and sampler. We used a Drumatix to provide rhythms.
Don and I continued to seek another drummer for some time, then considered working as a duo. Many local pubs were by now promoting live music and two musicians was the maximum number permitted at these small venues.
Rude Dog
Paul Hutson & Steve Bayfield, Helen Hutson, Tony Bonner, set-up
In late 1996, Paul Hutson asked me to play bass in a new band he was working with. I was more into guitar at this time but by the end of the year decided to give it a go. With his wife Helen, Pete Mathias on drums and Tony Bonner on lead guitar, we became known as Rude Dog, playing many gigs around West Penwith in 1997, including two on the Isles of Scilly.
Hyper[Borea]
In September 1995 I worked with David on a jungle track groove that became Dans Maen on the Magnetic Jungle EP-length CD. The album Serpentine was launched in early April 1996. Sales did well in Eire but it was never released in the UK. As a result of co-writing two tracks with David, and one with vocalist Úna O Boyle, I became a member of IMRO (Irish Music Rights Organisation).
The most recent album from the band was Gaelactica. I recorded my guitar parts on to CD, alongside the relevant backing tracks, in my studio in West Cornwall between 5 and 12 August 2001. The CD was released in February 2003.
Raindance
In October 1991, Ian Payne asked me if I was into playing a one-off gig. He had been invited to play some live music at the wedding reception of Sandra and Colin McClary (who became a councillor and was later Mayor of St Just) to be held at the Star Inn. We quickly got together some of the old Tom's Island songs, with a few from the Storm Dogs repertoire and arranged them for just a duo with a Drumatix rhythm box. We played in the afternoon and were then invited by landlady Rosie to play again in the evening. This was the beginning of amplified bands playing at this venue, a tradition that has continued to run in parallel with the Monday evening Celtic folk music.
We continued to play Saturday nights once a month well into 1992. The duo had now grown with the addition of Seth Marshall on drums, followed by Pippa Lewin on vocals, Graham Walden on harmonica and occasionally Alan Burton on fiddle. The band never really had a proper name - known sometimes as Skin Flint or Raindance.
There were many occasions when we featured guest vocalists such as Helen Hutson, joining us for a Fleetwood Mac or Eurythmics song. Pauline Cowham also appeared doing backing vocals. At one gig, at the Commercial Hotel in St Just, Graham also sang and played guitar, and as a bonus, Hami Hocking did a short set in the interval on the didgeridoo. In 1992 this was quite a rare instrument to be seen played close up and during the performance, you could quite literally have heard a cigarette butt drop on the floorboards! Hami got an amazing and very positive reaction. As a local musician, he is greatly missed by us all.
On the last gig in July 1992, we played at another wedding reception at Dowran near St Just. Pete Marshall joined us on semi-acoustic guitar and sang a couple of songs, and Charlotte Gunn provided backing vocals. Pippa Lewin (sister of local artist Paul Lewin) went on to study at Falmouth College of Arts. Colin and Sandra went on to run the Star Inn at St Just from 2004 to 2006.
We continued to play Saturday nights once a month well into 1992. The duo had now grown with the addition of Seth Marshall on drums, followed by Pippa Lewin on vocals, Graham Walden on harmonica and occasionally Alan Burton on fiddle. The band never really had a proper name - known sometimes as Skin Flint or Raindance.
There were many occasions when we featured guest vocalists such as Helen Hutson, joining us for a Fleetwood Mac or Eurythmics song. Pauline Cowham also appeared doing backing vocals. At one gig, at the Commercial Hotel in St Just, Graham also sang and played guitar, and as a bonus, Hami Hocking did a short set in the interval on the didgeridoo. In 1992 this was quite a rare instrument to be seen played close up and during the performance, you could quite literally have heard a cigarette butt drop on the floorboards! Hami got an amazing and very positive reaction. As a local musician, he is greatly missed by us all.
On the last gig in July 1992, we played at another wedding reception at Dowran near St Just. Pete Marshall joined us on semi-acoustic guitar and sang a couple of songs, and Charlotte Gunn provided backing vocals. Pippa Lewin (sister of local artist Paul Lewin) went on to study at Falmouth College of Arts. Colin and Sandra went on to run the Star Inn at St Just from 2004 to 2006.
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