Open Mic Night 2021



Open Mic Night, Star Inn, St Just
Thurs 25 November 2021

Back in the saddle.... Alan Shipgood on bass guitar, and myself on guitar and vocals, playing a 3 song slot with the Yamaha QY 100 sequencer providing drums and keyboard backing.
Photo - Lesley Shipgood

Music Videos



March 2019. Now that I spend much of my time travelling in the UK, I can no longer make a commitment to playing live music with any band or group. So my current passion is to compose and record the music to accompany videos that I make. Here is the latest - there are currently more awaiting completion. I will continue to do studio work with other musicians, and some Open Mic gigs at the Star Inn, St Just....

Open Mic Night



Open Mic Night, Star Inn, St Just
Thurs 10 March 2016

A rare gig for me, playing electric guitar - the first since 2001. With Alan Shipgood on the bass guitar (and Roger Lewis on cajon).

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

From August 2009 until July 2011 I was gigging in a duo with the jazz and blues guitarist Dave Jenkin, which rekindled my passion for performing live music in small venues, playing fretless bass guitar and bass drum together. With the addition of bluesy slide guitar, harmonica and vocals, we covered a variety of tunes, from pop and blues standards to jazz and rock classics. We continued playing the Open Mic Nights at The Star Inn, St Just on Thursdays, until October 2013.

Dave and I also played occasional dates with St Just legend John Turner – on main vocals and electronic drums. We performed a variety of '60s music by The Stones, Spencer Davis, The Kinks, and some classic rock n' roll tunes. This line up was 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.

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.