Steve Foxon - Guitar / Vocals
"It was about 1988,
when I got myself a really cheap 'Satellite' guitar and small 'Badger'
amp to go with it and started to teach myself how to play the guitar.
Playing along with the likes of the Shadows (hey, Apache was a great track
to learn!), Dire Straits, Bon Jovi and Led Zeppelin. I think I played
for about 2 hours a night none stop for over 6 months, before I decided
to take the plunge and join a band. I spotted an advert in the paper of
a Drummer looking to join a band so gave him a call. This was Lewis. We
decided to wait until we got a Bass player, and then Andy was in touch
next week, so we met up for our first Jam and never looked back since.
It was a funny night; I was asked to play 12 bar blues and I hadn't got
a clue how to do it! Along for the ride also was Steff who I worked with
at the time and he also played the Guitar. For the next year or so, members
came and went, band names came and went and eventually there were just
the three of us left. The Space Rats were born.
After the Rats parted company sometime in 1992 it was a while before I
went on to join another band. In fact it wasn't until 1997 then I once
again teamed up with Andy on Bass in what was to become 'Gentlemen's Quarterly',
a funky 5 piece outfit. In the in-between years, I carried on writing
songs on my Acoustic guitar, and eventually got hold of a 'Tascam' 4-Track
recorder and a keyboard. It was with these that I started off in a different
direction with my music and the guitar gathered dust in the corner for
a while. In this period that I really honed my production skills working
with the limitations of a 4-track machine, trying to get the best sound
I could and eventually finishing about 10 tracks which I put together
and called "4-Track Mind", some of which will shortly be available
for download at Orak's
Music Emporium. What I did in that period with regard to live
stuff is a bit of a blur to be honest. I don't think I did much other
than jamming here and there.
'Gentlemen's Quarterly' I think lasted until early 1999, but that's a
story for another web site! After that Andy and I stayed together and
spent a short time playing with "Funky Transport" which was
something completely different than we had ever done. It was basically
'house music' with us adding guitar and bass to it. It was with them that
I played my final real gig at 'Abbey Park Festival' in Leicester and what
a gig it was too, probably the best I've ever done.
Since then, I've done the odd jam with Lewis and Andy at one of Lewis's
famous orchard get togethers, but that's about it on the live front for
me. One of the members of Funky transport helped me get into making music
on a computer via MIDI etc, and that's what I've been doing since. Moving
my production skills to the PC once again writing my own music for myself,
which you can download at Orak's
Music Emporium. Just over a year ago, I got involved via the
Internet with a fan modification for the PC game Dues Ex, called Zodiac. Basically
it's free missions available for download, and I have written all the
music for Parts 1 & 2 and am currently working on the final part.
This involved a lot of incidental / ambient music which was great fun
to write and has helped my song writing skills immensely, and as
you've probably guessed you can download the music from my site. From
that, I got involved in a second MOD for the same game called Redsun 2020
which is yet to be released.
Finally this year I decided to send off some of the music I had done for
Zodiac to a company called Big
Finish. They specialise in Audio Plays featuring Doctor Who
(with the original Actors), Judge Dredd and the Tomorrow People. Well,
they liked what they heard, but they were looking for people to Post Produce
the plays, adding sound effects etc, as well as the music, so they sent
me an audition consisting of about 5 minutes from a previous play. They
liked it and so I am now actually making some money at last out of the
thing I love doing the most!
I'm still continuing writing my own songs when I get a chance as well"
Andy Shirley - Bass / Vocals
Finding my Space Rats demos after them hibernating away for a few years, prompted me to dedicate this website solely to preserve & share what the Space Rats experience was all about. I was pleasantly suprised how the songs still 'stand-up' 10 years on, especially, my favourite 'Paranoia'. I think at this point ('92) we were at our peak. 2nd favourite track the giant instrumental 'Wilja Desiree' as you may tell we were heavily influenced by the 'Pixies' at the time of writing. Best gig - somewhere in Lichfield ('92) Steve & me got carried away, improvising & basically making it up as we went, sorry Lewis! After Space Rats I went on to join several projects in Cornwall, including: 'Gil Gallad', 'Mandelbrot Orchestra' & help form funk/reggae band 'Hummuna Hummuna'. After moving back to the midlands, Steve & me joined forces again this time performing with funk band 'Gentleman's Quarterly' ('97-'00)
Lewis Vaughan - Drums / Percussion
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Calvin Hewitt - Manager / Photographer
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Nij - Beer Minder!
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