| Folkasaurus - a nostalgic look at Folk Music |
| Back to Artist index PETE SKINNER Thought I might as well start with meself! as I know more about me than almost anyone else! I was born in 1951 and during my early days I was surrounded with music, Dad played Piano accordian, Banjo and squeaked a bit on the fiddle we also had a piano and keyboards about. it would have been about 1959 when I first started to learn the guitar.In '61 I started playing "gigs", and whilst at senior school '63-'67 I was part of a group with PETE CHITTOCK - and SUE NICHOLSON (now Sue Moulton), we performed both for the school and at other gigs, uring this time two of the teachers (Arnold Smith and Dave Knight) greatly encouraged us even to the extent of getting us bookings, and in the last year at school IAN GARTSIDE became a teacher there adding further to my knowledge of the entertainment business. Having left school and working in a shop my partnership with Pete Chittock continued and then Mike Woolhouse (another mate from School days) and Bernie Brewin joined us and we became THE BREWERS, the first of many! We ran a little folk club at The Raikes pub and had invited a local group THE SHOAL along as guest artists, their guitarist JOHN HOLLAND had been in a skiing accident and was unable to play so I stood in and played with them (at the same time as The Brewers) until they disbanded in 1969 when Derek and Angela Laski moved to Cananda. Then things become confused! during the next few years I played along with several groups and Artists - a chance meeting at the Cartford lead to a new line-up for the Brewers (later The Two Brewers) when Pete O'Callaghan joined - this being the most successful line-up with The two Pete's harmonies and repartee, not only was it a good group but a great friendship as well. Sadly The Brewers came to and end in the 70's and I joined Dave Cooper, John Holland, Ian Holland and Bernie Brewin in a new group they had set up "Local Gentry" and we played at a regular folk night run by The Euston Hotel, after a time some of the members of the band drifted off and new members joined - eventually Dave left so we re-named the band Grog - Grog survived for many years after but at times appeared under different names to match venue requests! eg One Venue required a C&W Bluegrass band - and Grog were there but as "The Bluegrass Boys"! much to Eileen's amusement... Folk Clubs left behind for most of the time and Working men's clubs Theatres etc. became the object of the day - good money but "hard work" and lots of BINGO arrrrrrrggggggggggg. Grog+1 recorded a Compact Cassette in the late 70's - the line-up was Eileen Skinner, Colin Brooks (Eileen's brother) and myself - unfortunately Colin died in a motorcycle accident on his way home from a gig on October 28th 1981 and Grog was no more - Eileen and I continued playing but not as much as before and the next member of the band Simon Skinner was born on April 28th 1982 - Clansfolk was in the making ........... A leap forward brings us to the early 90's a chance meeting with John Bond and teacher/musical partner Ian Gartside at The Falcon - a sing-around session held in Poulton where we had Taken Simon for a bit of fun (we've kept going ever since!) Soon I was "back on the road" with Ian as a member of The Ian Gartside Band, The Elderly Brothers, Willy and The Poorboys and for a couple of years with Sundance - Ian and I set up PI Recording Studios and still have good fun playing with the bands and in the Studio. The Line-up for the bands have changed a few times over the years but Ian and I have stayed front line. John Bond also became a great mate and we spend a lot of time as "Penny Black" raising money for ARC writing Jingles for The BBC Blue Bus, and dropping in on local sessions and staying sober :-) Eileen Dances with Singleton Cloggers and I also play for the "band" and at one time was a member of "The Wyre Pier Band " - ceilidh band that was fun but lacked direction and floundered a few years ago (although the "Band leader" still tries to keep it alive) |