Contemporary Music

Ever since I was a young boy I played the silver strings. Well that's not exactly true, I didn't start playing until my middle teens and I barely picked up an instrument through my 30s but the spirit of rock / blues / making some strange racket keeps coming back to me.

I've never been the most adept of musicians but my approach has always been "We know three chords - let's form a band and do a gig!". Although this has led to some odd performances at times it has, in most cases, served me well and has resulted in lots of good times (often for the audience as well).

Here is a selection of some of the bands I've had the honour to play with.

Bergie's Band (aka Dinner at Bergie's) play soulful rock and roll with a constantly changing lineup, the one constant being Bergie himself on drums. I played a few gigs with them on bass.

Blood - Tanya Stone Blood - Dave Bessell Blood - Andy Bettis
Blood featured Tanya Stone (vocals), Dave Bessell (guitar) and myself (synthesizer, electronics and drum machine). We played minimalist techno avant-garde dance music (a bit like Suicide meets Siouxsie and the Banshees), dressed wonderfully, and did just one gig at Reading Town Hall.

St Vitus Dance St Vitus Dance
St. Vitus Dance played slightly techno dance music. Lineup was Tracy (vocals and synthesizer), Dave Bessell (guitar), Kevin Williams (vocals and percussion), Tony (bass) and myself (synthesizer). The only band I've been in who made it onto a record, we did the track I've Been Used on the Reading compilation album Beyond The River.

Rhythm System
Rhythm System were an electro dub reggae band, with Dave Bessell (guitar, drum machine and mixing) and myself (synthesizers, drum machine and mixing) with the help of Grizzly (I never learned his real name) on the sound desk. We did a few memorable gigs in the Reading area. (I suspect the picture is from a St. Vitus Dance gig, but that's what we looked like.)

DAN
DAN were an electro-pop trio, ahead of their time and sadly unrecognised by the music industry - we wallpapered our practice room with rejection letters from record companies. Nic Coombe (vocals), Dave Bessell (guitar and programming), and myself (synthesizer and programming).

Headroom - Dave Bessell Headroom Headroom - Andy Bettis
Headroom played psychedelia (I can't think of another way to describe it), my first collaboration with the wonderful Dave Bessell (guitar). I played synthesizer (once I could borrow one), Stylophone (before then) and drum machine. We did one gig as the Heavenly Music Subsidiary but quickly came to our senses. Pictures are from Reading Technical College, 15th April 1978.

Sex King Cole & The Defects were the nearest thing to a punk band that I played in. We did medleys of 60s pop songs (at 100 miles per hour) with the charismatic and uncontrollable Sex King Cole on vocals and vitriol. Awesome stuff. After one unannounced gig in Reading University we retired at the peak of our success. I played primitive electric guitar.

Ithica - Kevin Botting Ithica - Simon Hutton Ithica - Andy Bettis and Steve Day
Ithica (yes, that's how we spelled it) played twin guitar classic rock (think Wishbone Ash) back when I was at college. Lineup was Kevin Botting (guitar and vocals), Steve Day (guitar), Simon Hutton (drums) and myself (bass). We won the University of Reading 'Battle of the Bands' competition but only after the winners were disqualified for being 'too rowdy'. Pictures are from a gig at Reading University Student's Union, 30th June 1976.