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.

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 1994 I played some electric guitar and bass guitar on the Hyper[Borea] album Serpentine. These were the early recording sessions from mid-September that took place in Newlyn, Cornwall where I was working alongside David Bickley, producing the grooves and samples that became the framework for many of the songs. The majority of the album tracks were recorded in Dublin, Eire, late 94 and into 1995. I went over to Dublin in January, contributing a couple more sessions on guitar.

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.