Southlake studio

The Lakes Blues band played gigs throughout the 90s, we were special, it was one of those bands where everything just clicked. It all started I suppose at the Sticklebarn in the Landales. We had this residency that we played each summer in 91 and 92 every Thursday and Saturday. Each gig was a party and the enjoyment of the band would rub off onto the audience. We played for the cragrats that would come to the lakes to climb and to party, and to the bikers that would head for the Sticklebarn every weekend just cause the Lakes Blues Band were playing.

Then we pulled a residency at the Queens inRawlinson street in Barrow. That Sunday night gig would last for 4 years and was full every week. We did Blues, rock n roll reggae, and lots of original material. and made a couple of pretty good albums, recorded in my studio in Ulverston.

Southlake studio, was opened in 1990 in an old bomb shelter in Ulverston. It was a sixteen track studio, and the only pro studio in Furness at the time. I hadn't run a studio before but it seemed like a good idea as I had all this gear that I'ld brought up fromLondon.

Most of the local bands recorded there and it became a sort of focus for the Furness music scene. In 1995 I formed the Ulverston contemporary music association and got some funding from the newly formed Lottery. That was when we started to put on an annual awards night at the Coro to celebrate the original bands in the area. They were highly successful events that ran until 2000.

In about 1998 the internet started up and the studio got plugged into that revolution. You can relive the results of our efforts atwww.lakesounds.co.uk. We had about 50 bands on our site and even did web cams from sessions at the studio. It was an exciting time to be running a studio in the nineties with so many great local bands.

 In 2002 I closed the studio in the bombshelter and moved to Ford Park, and the Coach house where we are to this day.

The Lakes Blues band sort of dissolved in about 2003 as members went their own ways, I ran a songwriters open mike night at the Hope and anchor for a couple of years, but that finished in 2004 when the pub changed Landlords.

Nowadays I mostly just record stuff, still writeing songs and playing with me old mates from the Lakes blues band. Me Ewan and Juje made an album in 2009 called the beat combo, great little album, and so it goes on. 

Putting on Gig in the garden twice a year and doing the odd gig.

So thats a History of me and music, It began all that time ago in Barrow in Furness and ended up back in Furness. It's been a brilliant adventure, and although I never made the big time I have had the most wonderful of times,met some amazing people, and I'm still in love with live music.

Boogie on brothers and sisters

Boogie on brothers and sisters