THE BAND, ITS MUSIC & GIGS

Red Handed play what is best described as soft harmony rock classics. Although this is their staple, it isn’t an exclusive music genre. The varied demands of different venues – pub, social club, wedding etc sometimes call for other styles. The band currently play a couple of grungy numbers as well as the inevitable rock n roll section when requested, and in the past have even done half decent C&W tracks by Tim McGraw.

But soft rock classics are what we have always done. It’s what we are known for, and we will probably continue to develop this style as much as we can. When casting around for new material we obviously look at aspects which match our sound - vocal harmonies, guitar/sax/flute breaks and often a keyboard foundation where possible. There are bands which are difficult to do justice because of an exceptionally high ranged lead vocalist, for example Freddie Mercury, but there are still many well known classics in the rock world to emulate so we’re never scratching our heads for new material.

In terms of fees, we are neither the cheapest nor the most expensive local band but we do offer excellent value for money. We are realists who accept that small pubs often can’t economically match a big venue for booking power. A first visit to a pub or club is virtually expenses only if we believe that further visits are on the cards. Then when you’re hooked we send the boys in to bleed you white. Whoops sorry, didn’t mean that. What I meant was that subsequent fees are negotiable.

Most important of all, we are organic. There are no artificial additives, midi-disks, drum machines or anything else genetically modified in RH. Remember, if you’re putting on a party, wedding or other event you wouldn’t give your guests canned food – so why give them canned music?

HISTORY

The band was conceived in late ‘97. Chris & Paul had always intended to get such a venture off the ground, and quickly teamed up with Mike, an ex professional drummer living in Liskeard, but recruiting other local musicians of the right quality, experience and enthusiasm proved ‘interesting’ and there were several false starts. The drunken singer in the Bretonside bedsit was a particularly scary episode and made us all but despair. We’d always felt that a vocalist with secondary talents would be a real bonus, and we became four when Martin, also from Liskeard joined. As an accomplished saxophonist, flautist and percussionist he would provide more width to our sound. A short time later, we completed the line-up with the addition of Glenn, a most gifted guitarist from Looe and at 26 the baby of the band.

We practised weekly at Sevenstones until in April ’98 we prepared for our first gig at Cross House, Metherell. Our debut had to wait however due to illness, and it was not until July of that year that we played before an audience of family and friends. Shortly after, Chris broke his piggy bank and bought a keyboard which allowed us to take on a wider variety of music styles. Unlike the rest of us, Chris was taking on a new and unfamiliar instrument and It’s not known if the keyboard actually has a name but we’ve heard him call it many things.

In ’99 we recorded a demo cassette on a home mixer – probably at a time when everyone else was recording CDs in studios. Not surprisingly it didn’t cause a stampede to secure our services so in February ’01 we returned to the studio to record a five track CD demo, which we still use to sell ourselves to venue managers and agents. The intention now is to find some time to repeat this process, hopefully in the spring of ’04, to reflect the band’s more recent offerings.

In July ’03 we were obliged to break up the original ’97 line-up when Glenn announced with some reluctance that work & family pressures had bought about his decision to call it a day. The task of replacing him wasn’t straightforward. It’s not just a case of the band liking the candidate, he/she has to feel comfortable with the band and its music style as well. Consequently we had a couple of cases of ‘incompatability’ at a time when there were gigs waiting which we were eager not to cancel. Step forward Jonathan – all the way from Bideford – who filled the lead guitar slot with a smooth style perfectly suited to RH. Although we got our man, we didn’t expect to have to go quite as far as North Devon for him.

By December '04, the fifty odd gigs we'd done with Jonathan had taken their toll. He had embarked on a degree course as well as several other pursuits, and the phenomenal mileage he was doing from N. Devon for RH was stretching his time and resources. Step forward Glenn – whose shift patterns had changed – OK Glenn admits it, he was missing us. Thus by the end of the year we were back to our original line-up.

 

As an ‘obituary', Jonathan was undoubtedly the right man to fill that eighteen month Glenn-less gap. He was a stickler for detail and could reproduce the lead guitar line of a cover track extremely well, not only with the note sequence but also with the necessary tone. I will never forget his passion for valves (?). How many of us change amplifier valves at all, let alone mid gig!!

 

Personnel changes always cause disruption but obviously Glenn made that easier for us with his knowledge of the older numbers in the set. I seem to remember Martin welcoming him back to great ovation (his mother was there) at the Union Inn on 18 December '04 though my addled brain might have that date wrong.

 

Probably the two highlights of our time together so far were both in the summer of '00 when we played in Brittany (too much equipment in the van to bring much wine back), and the Millennium Festival at Weymouth beach where we had the good fortune to play on a monster stage which had just come from Glastonbury. The forty engineers and stage-hands, each chattering into a walkie-talkie took care of everything, and the sun beat down. The very next gig and we were packed like sardines in a Plymouth nightclub. It's rough with the smooth in this game!