Band History

Rich: I reckon I was about 17 when I first picked up a guitar – an old six string acoustic that my brother used to play. Evenings were spent listening to records and trying to copy guitar rifts by my favourite bands. However, having no concept of chords or notes I just copied the bass lines.

One day my brother, Phil, said to me “Rich, have you ever thought about playing the bass”?
“No” I said, feeling pretty miffed that he didn’t think much of my guitar playing skills!
“Well” he said, “all you’re playing is the bass notes, so why not play bass. You won’t even have to bother learning chords.” I smiled.

With my 18th birthday not that far away, I decided to take him up on the idea. Phil was at Coventry University and had access to an array of guitar shops and Mum and Dad had the cash! So, on my 18th Birthday I was presented with a Kay Fender Precision Bass copy and a baby 12 watt Marshal bass amp. My first bass guitar and amp, but not my last……....

For the next 12 years or so I honed my bass playing skills. Learning by ear all the rifts and bass lines by people such as Mark King of Level 42 and JJ Burnel of The Stranglers, all the way through to the likes of Phil Lynot of Thin Lizzy and that crazy man called Prince!

In 1999, I got a phone call from my brother in law, Keith. It was a Sunday afternoon and the phone call went something like “Hi Rich, do you still play bass? Would you like to join a band?”

With some trepidation and a certain amount of excitement, I drove round to his mate’s house, not knowing quite what to expect. After a few minutes of meeting and chatting with the guys – Ian, Keith, Simon and Steve – I found my self in my very first band - RISK.

Initially, rehearsals took place in an old school hall in West End but we soon upgraded to Ian’s front living room, which had free coffee (thanks, Penny) and comfy chairs and the occasional bottle of beer thrown in for good measure. We’ve now moved on again to proper rehearsal rooms.

Between those initial days of the band and now, we’ve been through quite a few line-up changes. Steve was the first to leave followed by Keith and then Simon. When Simon left, Ian and I had to act fast – we had a gig lined up but no lead guitarist. A few weeks later, after a bit of nifty advertising by Ian, we not only had our new lead guitarist, Iain, but we also had a much-needed drummer, Dave. Iain turned out to be much more than just a brilliant guitarist he was a catalyst providing new ideas and an injection of energy.

Over the next couple of years the four of us played several gigs but eventually Dave decided to give up drumming and left the band, which was now called RSi. Another advert later, and our new drummer, Charlie, joined us. Sadly, after only a few weeks, Charlie left us due to ill health. A few weeks later, in July 2005, Rob joined us. With the addition of Rob’s excellent drumming we were now back to full strength; our music taking on a more focused and dynamic approach.

We had always been meaning to rename the band and this seemed like the ideal time, so we became Shoestring Blues.

Iain: I started playing in about 1970 mainly self-taught by listening to records and buying sheet music. My main influences were progressive rock and blues from bands such as Jethro Tull, ELP, Deep Purple, Groundhogs and Rory Gallagher, although my tastes now are a lot more diverse.

I have played in a variety of bands through the years including Earthworks, Einstein’s Younger Bears, Human, Damaged Goods and now Shoestring Blues

My current set up, Marshall 50watt comb; My main guitars are a Fender Strat, Gibson Les Paul Standard and a Gibson 345 stereo.

I also have various other guitars such as a 1960 Gibson Melody Maker, Larivee and Yamaha
acoustics and a couple that I have made. I don’t generally use effects but have a Mesa Boogie pre-amp, Boss Chorus and Danelectro delay

Rob: Drums some backing Vocals. He started life playing in a Poole based pro band called “Peoples People” back in the mid sixties, the band soon found themselves on a slow boat to the island of Jersey. The band was about to start a summer season at the then famous Tropicana night Club, St Owens Bay, Jersey (members of the band - Bob Frampton, Colin Alner, Graham Lum - Lummy & Rob

On coming back to uk, Rob then found himself playing in a heavy rock band called “Mad Apple” spent a couple of years playing drums for them. The band had several offers to turn pro but for one reson or amother it never happened.

Shortly after Mad Apple split up, Rob was asked to join one of Bournemouth’s leading show bands “Sugar and Spice” playing premier night spots in Bournemouth such as the Mason Royal, Bmth Pavilion The Roof Top. From then Rob has worked his way through various bands including The Pine Mountain Five, The Bunch and other such bands.

Rob's background was a varied catalogue of support bands, supporting 60's bands, the likes of, The Tremolos , The Sweet, Jerry and the Pacemakers and most recently Darius.

Former founder member of a successful R&B band “Stone cold Sober” left them and after a short R&R he joined “Ocean Drive” a very successfull MOR band. After leaving Ocean Drive along with the lead vocalist H. Rob answering an ad on the Ad-Traders website, Rob is now in his latest venture with -
Shoestring Blues.

Influences: Joe Morello of Dave Brubeck, Nick Mason - Pink Floyd, John Bonham - Led Zeppelin, and Pick Withers - Dire Straits.

Ian (Bartz) Past member: I started singing aged 3, was given an acoustic guitar by my parents when I was 13. My elder brother started to try to teach me how to play the damn thing, but I was a lousy pupil, so he gave up trying!

In my teens and twenties I played 12-string and sang in folk clubs in the Hampshire area, both as part of a trio, called “The Mad Hatters”, and solo. Someone lent me an album called “Derek and the Dominoes: Layla and assorted love songs”, and from then on I was a blues addict.

In the early 90’s a colleague influenced me into buying my first Stratocaster, and I roadied for his band and actually played on a couple of his gigs. I started a blues duo with a guitarist in Winchester, and played one gig with him before he joined another band.

The mid 90’s saw me playing and singing acoustic blues in folk clubs with Keith, one of the former members of the Hatters. Later, he and I spent a couple of months in a country band, which we both absolutely hated, but the gigs were regular and the pay was not bad.

In 1998, a good friend of mine got married, and asked Keith and I to play at his wedding with Jim, his son’s heavy metal band, “Bulbous”. Between us we managed to do a reasonable job of playing a mixture of blues and metal, sometimes simultaneously.

When “Bulbous” broke up, late in 1999, I tried to get the wedding band back together, but Jim was already in another band so we had to find a bass player. Keith mentioned that his brother in law, Rich, played bass, but had never been in a band. So the five of us went for our first rehearsal in an old school in West End.

As soon as we started, we knew Rich was better than OK, but unfortunately we lost the drummer to apathy before our first gig, so we borrowed drummers from other bands, or used a drum machine.