In the summer of 1999 the band the Defendants were created in a gym above a Cobblers Shop in Darlington. One member owned the gym and therefore it was a cheap place for a new band to practice. It would be great to say the band went on to stardom but the fact is it went on to .......nothing of any consequence!!!! However a thin guitarist named Zammo and a lead singer named Stu (who never claimed to be a musician), got together to write some songs. Despite the setbacks and negativity surrounding the Defendants experience, Zammo and Stu continued to provide a united front. It was necessary to reinvent the band and therefore Guvnor was spawned in 2001. The band survived all the typical set backs that the local music scene could throw at them, sometimes by sheer bloody mindedness, very often by hard work. They gigged extensively all over the North East of England and elsewhere for the next seven years. Personnel remained fairly constant with Porky Stephenson on the skins and Big Al Watts as Axeman, supplemented for spells by Colin ‘Horden Pitt’ Jones, Kev ‘Baldy Spice’ Fitzpatrick, and Steve Meredith.
In 2008 the lads released the ‘Judas’ album. Twelve songs were chosen from a possible thirty to make up the playlist. Details of these can be found elsewhere on this site so it is not my intention to duplicate that here, suffice to say that the twelve chosen tracks made the final cut because Zammo and Stu felt they blended well together into an album. However this approach meant that some of GuvNors ‘set tried’ numbers, such as Reflections and Heartbreak Memories, failed to make it.
Problems resulted when Judas was released in the UK. There are dents in the walls at the Weedspell office where negotiations with Amazon and HMV have lead to us banging our heads!! Apparently someone selling a little yellow remote control helicopter has the same barcode as the Judas album and that prevented any mainstream UK sales – Ain’t technology wonderful!!!! No such troubles over the other side of the pond though. US sales are very encouraging, in particular from CD Baby; and also inevitably in this day and age, from downloads via itunes. Of course Judas is now available from Weedspell at the online shop.
Following the release of Judas two members of the band departed. Paul ‘Porky’ Stephenson left by mutual consent, he was closely followed by Big Al Watts. Neither of these lads had been entirely comfortable with the direction a much fatter Zammo, and a greying Stu (who still claims not to be a musician) were attempting to steer GuvNor. However new blood was soon found as Zammo recruited musicians who thrived on original music. In came Gary ‘Sog’ Graham, a drummer of some experience who had played the Tyneside music scene with The Dark Room and The Droop Groop. Gary offers a plethora of drumming technique and styles for the lads to conjure with, in addition to his own particular song writing skills – if you don’t believe me check out ‘Indians’ – Garys first offering to GuvNors Set List
Two members of the Teesside Indie band The Maddison Fallout then joined the fold. Dean Heslop came in on lead guitar and Simon Dawes took over bass. Both are young, good looking and outstanding musicians. Dean was soon to take up a scholarship at the Royal College of Music; which limits his availability for gigs, the band are currently auditioning for a long term replacement. In the mean time, Dean is travelling back for gigs.
So what does the future hold. Well hopefully a settled line up will be found and lots of gigs will be forthcoming. Already the lads are casting their eager eyes towards the summer festivals in their native North East. As far as recordings go new songs are still being written and old favourites such as Reflections, Right Direction and Obsessed deserve to be made available. Here at Weedspell we are very keen for the more commercial tracks such as Vanilla Essence, Bogeyman and Remembrance Day to be released.
GuvNor remain true to their musical principles set out over many gigs around the North east. Don’t expect to hear too many ‘covers’ at a GuvNor gig, but also don’t expect to be able to stop your foot tapping to the original sound of a real rock band. |
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