Towards the end of 1979 I met with Paul Hyland and Murray Cheesman.
Murray played drums with John Lathey and Nigel Rolfe in the Jaffi
band, back in the late sixties.
Paul and Murray were both playing in the Gobi's (full name Gobi
Desert Yachting Club, a local jazz-rock band) and were keen to form
an experimental writing / jamming collective.
We had regular sessions from November 79 to January 80 under the
loose title of Unusual Tree Arrangement. It also involved Alan
Shipgood on bass, a guy called Mike from Selborne on electric piano,
Steve Edwards and Erik Moore on guitars and Derek Cottrell playing
bass and penny whistle. |
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It never became a fully fledged band but laid down a useful
foundation.
When The Sun Shines Again
In November 1981 I again jammed with Paul Hyland (violin, guitar)
and Oliver Cheesman, brother of Murray. It was at this time that I
started using the Roland GR300 guitar synthesizer, a cumbersome
analogue device, difficult to tune in cold weather, but capable of
some pretty impressive (for that time) brass and orchestral string
sounds, particularly when connected to the RE201 Space Echo. It was
quickly superseded by the programmable digital models, which proved
more stable, but it did open the door
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