The band


	the artists

fretted and fretless bass guitars double bass cello flute		tom buggie instruments I was born during the latter (just) half of the last century. The musical gene seemed to run in the family as my paternal grandad was a mean fiddle player and piano tickler. Having said that my dad was tone deaf - a fact that was all too obvious to us when he manfully whacked away clawhammer style on an old but very good quality 5 string banjo. He struggled with the theme from "The Beverley Hillbillies" for years and never quite got it! I remember picking the banjo up and playing the title tune from "The Dukes of Hazzard" (original TV series) in front of him. He got up and stomped off muttering that the young bugger had only been playing for 5 minutes; what he didn't know was I'd practised it for a couple of weeks beforehand, before pretending to just nonchalantly pull the tune out of thin air as if anyone could do it. My own musical journey began shortly after I started grammar school, taking lessons on the viola. I soon became more interested in another member of the 4 string family and applied my pitiful understanding of musical theory to the bass. All the gobbledegook our music teacher was spouting started to make some sense finally. At the time my career aspirations were to study medicine and become a doctor. I'd seen some TV where Owen MD spent his days driving around the countryside in a Range Rover making everyone happier and healthier. So, of course, I did my 'O' levels, started 6th form school, and 3 weeks into the new term decided to leave and make my own way in the world. Doctor Tom wasn't going to happen. In the time that followed I joined various bands and worked in the clubs, etc. The working men's clubs were a great place to play if your band was good, and were often a top class comedy show in their own right. Honestly you could not have made up some of the stuff I witnessed. I moved on to living for a time in Europe, doing session work and gigs. I returned to the UK in '81 and met my now wife. After getting married I decided I'd have to start working 9 to 5, which I did, playing semi-pro for a time. As the kids came along playing in a band had to take a back seat and I gradually started to sell my gear to pay for things the family wanted. I settled down to the rat race.
songwriter vocalist rhythm guitar bass guitar cor anglais double bass didgeridoo		jo giblin Jo Giblin has been involved in music for 25 years. She made her debut aged 9 at her primary school concert in Wrexham, and has been singing ever since. Jo made an appearance on ITV’s ‘Stars in Their Eyes’ aged 20, and recorded her debut album ‘Oceans of Love’ aged 22 which she co-wrote, and on which she worked with production duo K-Klass. She is also an accomplished musician, playing piano and clarinet, but concentrates on her first love, vocals. She has a 2½ octave range which, on a good day, she can stretch to 3. She continues to play the role of composer and says that she has written song lyrics ‘in ten minutes’. She lives in Lancashire with her husband David and son Ewen.”
songwriter vocalist guitar broadcaster actor		ray godwin Ray studied performing arts at Salford and has appeared in many productions and shows at theatres and venues in the UK and across Europe. During the mid eighties at the now defunct famous Cloud 9 club in the city, he led his Manchester underground indie band Inside Edge to victory over seventy two other regional original bands in the 1987 Greater Manchester Band of the Year competition. His first single was the AA side Elegy/Equinox, was released the same year. Since then he has fronted a number of bands including Kind of Blue, My Private Ocean, Rubicon, The Sounds Alliance and now The Dandelion Clocks. As well as writing songs and performing, Ray is a freelance broadcaster, writer and presenter. He lives in the Rossendale valley with his wife Kerry and two children Jennifer and Alexander.
guitars keyboards mandolin producer songwriter		andy hunt instruments Astrology: Sun – Pisces. Moon – Leo. Chinese Year – Dog. Bands/Projects: Armitage Shanks – Coup d’Etat – The Band With No Name – FoxHunt – Attitude Problem – The Electric Druids – The Green Inspiration Band – The Mushroom Jam – Garage – The New Band – Exit Head – Rockin’ Ben Flip-Flop - Synergy – Relativity Records – Sci-Tec – The Sound Alliance – The Dandelion Clocks – Solar Bud Instruments Played: Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, 12-String Electric, Mandolin, Bodhran, Vocals, Synths, Sequencing and Programming Favourite Dangerous Sport: Suicide Gardening Claims to Fame: Met Queen, descended from George IV, mum’s cleaner is Mike Myers’ cousin. Likes: Gaynor’s hot cross buns. Dislikes: Hippies who don’t look after the Earth. Influences: Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Pentangle, Joan Baez, Blue Oyster Cult, Jebo. Ambitions: To own my dream log in the country. Advice to the World: This sentence has thirty-one letters.
drums percussion		gidge "I like to play".
alto saxophone tenor saxophone soprano saxophone		alistair taylor Born in Bethnal Green East London in December 1960’ I Took up the clarinet at the age of 11 and moved onto tenor saxophone at 13years. At school I played in various bands and orchestras whilst at school and joined my first Funk band at age 15. After leaving school I worked as an assistant photographer before working as a freelance myself. I hope to be able to show some of my work on this site very shortly. Photography now is for my own pleasure . Throughout my musical career, I have probably been involved in a huge variety of projects, from developing film scores to writing and performing theme tunes and delivering commissions for a variety of media. At the moment I am really enjoying the working with the rest of the band which is The Dandelion Clocks. To me, the saxophone is one of the most expressive of instruments, and I never tire of playing it. I like to hear the reed working the breath of the player, sounds that convey feeling as well as harsh gritty tones and smooth intonation, these are all facets that make the saxophone such a versatile instrument. My influences are many, but to name a few John Coltrane Sonny Rollins Dexter Gordon Grover Washington. Two British players Tubby Hayes and the brilliant Courtney Pine are amongst the many players I have enjoyed listening to over the years.

choose your weapon

some of the band talk about the gear they use and why

andy hunt

I plays a range of instruments, mainly guitars - a couple of Tanglewoods, an Epiphone and an RMS.

Two of my guitars are straight Gibson Les Paul copies - a sunburst Tanglewood and a gorgeous green Epiphone. The RMS guitar is another Les Paul copy, but a 12-string version, which sounds incredibly rich and colourful.

On stage, my electric guitars go through my pride and joy, an original 1977 Orange Overdrive 120 watt lead amp. "Eats Marshall" is one description that has been said of it. With this equipment, I get the kind of rich, psychedelic 1970's-style guitar sounds I love and grew up with.

I also have a Tanglewood electro-acoustic, a very nice guitar which sounds crisp and clean through a PA, and has been known to give a huge Wembley Stadium-style sound in small Welsh fields!

I am an all-round musician, with a mandolin, bodhrans and other percussion instruments to my name (even a set of mini bagpipes!). I use Cubase SX for recording, and a number of software synths, along with a £10 MIDI keyboard from a car boot sale!

tom buggie

My first decent bass guitar was a 1978 Fender Precision, coloured solid black on the body and scratchplate, with a maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. Before that I'd been using a double bass. I'd always been a bit rapid playing the string bass and cello, when I picked up the BG (bass guitar) it was tiny in comparison, and I was off like the proverbial blue arsed one. I loved that bass. I used to just stand there looking at it. It cost me £303.00 which was a lot of dosh at that time, but it made me a lot of money back so it was worth it. I enjoyed playing this bugger even more when well known luthier Brian Eastwood converted it to a fretless for me.

My next step up was to a Music Man Stingray. Another monster bass, I had it given to me by the owner of a music store in Osnabruck, Germany, on condition that I endorsed his shop by way of a sticker on the scratchplate! I accepted the arrangement with some glee, and added a condition of my own.

I wanted permanent loan of an Ampeg SVT stack. I got it too. And an Orange stack as back up! Thousands of quids worth of gear and it didn't cost me a penny. Happy days... One day I was in what was probably the largest music store in Europe in those days, a huge place in Ibbenburen, W.Germany, just mooching around and having a play on different makes and models. I noticed a couple of staff members stood watching me while I played. One of them went off after a couple of minutes. When he returned he was carrying a Fender bass that had some modifications done instore to the electronics. He approached and asked me if I'd try the bass and give him my opinion on the sounds it produced. I had a play and made some positive noises (I'd never been a fan of gilding the lily). They then asked me if I'd come in every couple of weeks or so and play the stuff they were modifying and they'd pay me well for my time.

I tried the same deal of free gear for endorsements but they'd heard about the previous one and told me laughingly I'd got enough! I spent a few pleasant afternoons in that place playing away and then going home with all my beer money for the fortnight. I thought I was the only winner in this deal until one evening backstage at a gig we'd played, a young guy came up to me and said that he owned a bass these boys had worked on. They were telling customers that the bass player of Transsylvania Phoenix (me at the time) used to test the work they were doing, and the customer then got charged more than they were paying me!

I then augmented the growing collection with a 1976 Fender Jazz bass, another stonkingly good instrument. The down side was that I had to pay for it. I then got a 1972 Precision. I had to pay for that, too. Bugger.

Nowadays I have what I think is the perfect starting point for the dream collection - a Rickenbacker 4003 Fireglow fretted (wonderful, wonderful bass) and a very early Tokai Fender 62 Jazz fretless replica. I've played a lot of vintage Fenders and IMHO these are as good if not better than the Fenders. I also own a Tanglewood electro/acoustic bass guitar, which is superb.

I intend to look out for another vintage Fender Jazz bass, so if you've got one and would like me to endorse something, I'm sure we can work something out. This also applies to a double bass. You will find I am very reasonable, especially if thers's a cello involved in the deal. And possibly a Sankyo or Powell flute?