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 |
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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 |
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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. |
