Guano are a new band whose main focus is on good song-writing within the blues idiom. They promise you are not going to hear endless forays round the traditional 12 bar format with tedious and pointless soloing; but you are going hear an intriguing array of influences being mixed in with the blues. You will not be reminded of how they woke up this morning, or what they had for breakfast, or how their woman done left them, but they might just catch you off guard with their odd choices of subject matter; all fair game where Guano are concerned. Who do they sound like? Well; you might hear echoes of Captain Beefheart, Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ry Cooder, JJ Cale, or even Squeeze, but someone who can really put it out there! Their debut offering is entitled bat out of smell; and contains 12 songs that will grab you by the scruff of the neck, slap you round the face until your cheeks are glowing rosy red, and then give you a hug and a kiss; an experience never to forget! Do not get too close; they make a bad smell, but a great noise; please check them out, you will not regret it! A multi-instrumentalist, Simon’s “been” in many bands; he continues to be in bands, and to play solo, and can sometimes be found without a guitar in his hands…sometimes it’s a mandolin, or other times it’s a 5-string bluegrass banjo a la Earl Scruggs. For the past five years, Simon has been a part of the Leicester based band “The Dissenters”, who had a measure of success on the local gigging circuit, and clocked up around 250 gigs between 2005 and 2010. The band were what we call “weekend warriors”, and were often seen in venues across the East Midlands. The band played for two consecutive years at Leicester’s “Summer Sundae” weekender, and successfully backed up Nashville songwriter Tommy Womack on mini tours in 2008 and 2009. Simon is the principal songwriter in Guano, and comes up with the core ideas that are then “fleshed out” by the remaining band members. Here’s a cross section of bands he’s been in: Built For Comfort (1987 – 88): Rhythm & Blues The Dansettes (1989): Originals / Covers Night Moves: (1990): Pop Covers Til U Drop: (1995 – 2002): 60’s Soul Covers The Cool Grey 5ives: (1992-93): Western Coast Swing / Chicago blues P.J. Baker’s Blues Brand: (1993-94): Blues The FaFa Beans: (2004-2005): Pop / Rock Covers Dawson Smith & The Dissenters: (2005-2010): Bar Room Rock ‘n’ Roll Guano: (2009-present): Original material. “Music is a passion of mine, and I enjoy sharing it with people. As a day job, I have the pleasure of sharing my love of music, and more specifically, the guitar with secondary school children across Leicester, as I am a guitar tutor”. I also teach privately at my home in Leicester.” Being in cover bands has been a great training ground for me, and a great way of honing my skills, and experiencing the discipline that goes with learning and performing other people’s songs. The benefits of this are not to be underestimated, however, I do prefer the buzz of writing, recording, and performing my own songs, and putting some of that knowledge to work. It’s very gratifying when people are enjoying themselves to music you’ve done yourself. Very nice when people don’t throw stuff at you during the performances. Even nicer when you get paid for doing it. What’s in a name? Why Guano? Well….ahem…here goes!! Guano, as you may be well aware, is in fact, excrement, more specifically, the excrement of bats, seagulls, and seals. It’s a weird thing to call a band. So is Beatles!! So is The Who, so is The Kinks etc.. Musicians down the years have referred to the compositions they play as the sh*t. Typical conversation between musicians who haven’t met before: Question: “hey man, what kind of sh*t do you do?” Answer… “Well, you know, we do jazz ‘n’ sh*t”. The short answer to the above question for us is: “Guano”. Another reason is, it looks really big on the posters, it’s a word of only five letters, so it’s really easy to read! Another reason, the last band I was in was called Dawson Smith and The Dissenters, which when printed width ways on a poster, looks really small. Rule no.1 of publicity is: MAKE IT EASILY LEGIBLE. Another reason is, when someone goes a bit mad, it’s a common colloquialism to refer to this phenomenon as “going apesh*t”. Well, I have heard batsh*t used in the same context. Some (but not all) of our songs go a bit Guano. Guano is like going for a really big musical dump….ahhhh…don’t that feel better!! I hope that goes at least some way towards explaining myself as to the name choice. We have been told on numerous occasions that it’s a sh*t name, and I couldn’t agree more!! Musical Influenza: Guano is the culmination of a lifetime’s worth of influences. I grew up listening to the Beatles, the Stones, T.Rex, Abba. The first record I ever owned was a 7” single by a band called “Juicy Lucy”, and it was a cover version of Bo Diddley’s song “Who Do You Love?”. The next record was “Street Life” by Roxy Music. The next was “Radar Love” by Golden Earring. It was the early 1970’s, I was about 10 or 11 years old when I started getting turned on to music. The first album I got was “Piledriver” by Status Quo, that came out in 1972, when I was 10!! I grew up in a musically fertile household. My Dad was a musical enthusiast, and was always listening to classical music on his Bush mono record player. It was always a bit of a job persuading him to let me borrow it so I could listen to my records….(scratchy 7” singles). I have three older brothers, all of whom play the guitar, so it was only natural that I should do likewise. I began my long musical journey at the age of 14 when I bought a nylon strung classical guitar for £3.00 from a friend of a friend, with money I had earned from doing a paper round. It was unsurprisingly not a very good guitar, but with some help from my older brother, (I got him to restring it for me to accommodate my left handedness). For me, learning was a largely solitary process, I learnt by my inept attempts at playing along to songs I had on record, or by jamming along to the radio. This was happening right in the middle of the punk / new wave era, which was great for me because a lot of the songs were very simply structured, and fairly easy to get a handle on. I remember having a “eureka moment” when I figured out the main hook of “Mary of the 4th Form” by the Boomtown Rats…little did I know that Bob Geldof would go on to philanthropic heights and knighthood. In the mid 1980’s I rediscovered the blues, when someone lent me a tape of Robert Cray’s albums: “Bad Influence” and “False Accusations”. This was a turning point for me, from which I’ve never really looked back. Blues, I have discovered, is a veritable treasure trove to be discovered time and time again. The further back you go, the more interesting it gets, and the more connections you begin to make. Blues, mixed in with pretty much any genre, will yield very satisfying results. Here we are in 2010, and the beginning of another musical odyssey, henceforth known as Guano.