My Ideal Band

I dragged my wife along to the social last week and met some of the people who make this site work so well. It's no secret that I'm frustrated by my current situation musically, being in three bands that between them meet some of my needs but none of which is really "the one". Toby asked me what would be my ideal band and I kind of sidestepped the question by suggesting that what I wanted was not a particular style but that I had some records I wanted to cover ranging from Robert Johnson's "Me and the Devil Blues" to Britney Spears' "Circus". Truth is, I'd twist Britney's because I consider myself one of the kind who observe but that's not relevant here.

So, my ideal band...

On vocals, of course, this is my role in an ideal band but I sing drone rock, country and blues styles. In my ideal band, I see myself as an amalgam of Nick Cave, Patti Smith and Luke Kelly. I see myself as a rock singer, but I'm interested both in writing lyrics in the style of both Patti Smith and Nick Cave and in plundering tradition to put a new slant on old folksongs. I'm more with Nick Cave in stealing from American traditions but Luke Kelly, who was a brilliant performer of Irish music is much better at making it all relevant.

I'd quite like unusual instruments. At the last Vaccination gig at the Cross Kings, the headline band advertised itself as playing Erhu, Balalaika, Gamelan and Djembe. To me this would be an awesome combination and one that's possible only in London or New York City something unique to this time and place.

So... the other band members.

On keyboards (or better yet Marimba for example) I'd like someone able to combine the styles of Ray Manzarek and Dave Greenfield.

On Bass (guitar or stand up or perhaps tuba) a combination of Lemmy and Tina Weymouth.

On guitar or fiddle (or erhu, mbira, bagpipes or whatever) someone with the virtuosity of Nigel Kennedy and the imagination of John Cale.

On percussion (whatever that turns out to mean) the precision of Maureen Tucker, the style of Charlie Watts and the aggression of Keith Moon.

Shame it's all fantasy but there we go. That's my ideal band.