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Band Biographies

Alan Roberts

Alan RobertsAlan was born into a musical family. His father was a crooner and his mum sang backing vocals for various groups. Alan Carlos, as his father was stage-named, did have his moment of TV fame on the popular show ‘Opportunity Knocks’, only to have himself ridiculed in front of millions of viewers as he was beaten to first place by a singing dog! ( It’s Alans father you hear on the intro to “The Shot’o’Clock Blues” on the album, taken from an interview just before his death.)

Alan’s first musical memory is of dancing in the front room with his mum to Eleanor Rigby at the age of 2, and he was soon obsessed with the ‘Stereogram’. However, he didn’t learn to play any instrument until the age of fifteen, when he picked up the drumsticks on a break with the band he was singing with, and found that he was a natural.

His first band was No Drive, a very metal group which precursorred both Spinal Tap and Bad News, but were funnier than both! He stayed with them for ten years both drumming and singing as well as writing all the songs, but in that time did only two gigs, both in the first six months!!! Frustrated at that fact he formed a covers band JAB, which also ran for ten years, and he began to build into the consummate front-man he is today.

He then locked himself away for a year with a portastudio, and emerged with over 30 songs (two of which feature on Tellitlikeitis) and formed The Word to play them. Gigs followed and the band were almost signed by legendary Leicester producer Joe King, twenty years before they were to work together on Tellitlikeitis!!

Parallel to this Alan was gaining more experience for the future as a roadie. He had fallen in love with the music of Diamond Head, a successful band from Stourbridge, whom he followed around the UK, turning up in the furthest reaches of the kingdom to hear and see his heroes. Friendship soon followed between Alan and the singer Sean Harris, and, after an explosion on-stage at a gig left Alan with a flaming hand and two months off work, Sean invited him onto their UK tour. Two days into the tour the drum roadie was struck ill and, being a drummer, Alan walked into his first job with a band. His love and knowledge of the bands music, married with his natural rhythm, led Sean to think that he would be ideal to operate the lights, and so he became the new lighting designer.

It was at this time that the now head of TKO records Glenn Williams, a childhood friend, hired him to work for an up-coming band of girls called Rock Goddess. With them the two friends went on tours with Iron Maiden and Def Leppard and generally had a great time!!

Back with Diamond Head, Alan worked for the band both on the road (Playing second on the bill at Reading Festival, opening the Monsters of Rock, and touring with Black Sabbath throughout Europe) and in the studio (working with Mike Hedges and Mike Shipley) until their acrimonious split in 85. The last tour Alan did was as Drum and Keyboard roadie for the legendary rockers UFO. His best moment was filling in for the tardy drummer Robbie France at a sound-check, and calling up “Love to Love” (A true goose-pimply moment!!!). But the tour was a nightmare and ended with the entire crew being sacked and unpaid and Alan vowing never to go on the road again unless he was in the band.

When Alan met his old mate Alan Hardman at a gig in Leicester in ’98 (Alan was singing for JAB at their tenth anniversary concert) he jumped at the chance of the new horizon of the Cote d’Azur when Alan H. proposed he join him for a summer season in France. He has been there ever since.

Alan is still an avid and passionate fan of all kinds of music, his preferred choice being the late string quartets of Beethoven, and is a fan of Norwich City football club (his Grandad played for the reserves in the late ‘40’s)where he was born.

Alan Hardman

Alan HardmanAlan was born and raised alongside his seven elder brothers, and being the youngest always had to work extra hard to prove himself. But prove himself he did. At a tender age he was the choice drummer of his home city of Leicester, and his cheeky manner won him nothing but friends. By the time he was in his twenties he had played over a thousand gigs, and bands were queuing up for his services for both session and live work.

He had played with the Godfather of Ska himself, Mr. Laurel Aitken, ( Alan Roberts remembers shopping in Monaco for the first time and finding an Aitken album with Al on drums!!!) as well as the awesome Saqui, and blues legend Mick Pini. However , he got restless and decided to buy a van and go looking for work, with a full band, in the resorts of Europe. Portugal was first followed by France the next summer and Portugal again the next. Anyone from Leicester , or a similar city will appreciate exactly how much bottle it takes to take such a step, but to Alan it was easy… he was just searching for the next thrill.

That’s when he met Alan Roberts, a fellow drummer and school-friend who lived a stone’s throw from him, at a gig and was shocked to see him up-front with a mike, and singing like a bastard! An invitation to join him on his next foray to France soon followed and a partnership was formed.

Al is a drummer's drummer, a man's man and the life and soul of every party… the perfect embodiment of Rock’n’Roll.

Lionel Baldasarre

Yo Yo BaldasarreLionel was born into a musical atmosphere in Roanne in France. His father , Barthelo is still to this day working as a bass player, and his love of his instrument was passed down to his son. Classically trained as a boy, his first success was as a jazz musician.

His career really took off when he moved south to start a solo project that saw him get major exposure on radio and in the press. However, as so often, nothing came of it and ‘Yo-Yo’ took to playing covers up and down the Riviera, as well as appearing, as ‘Charlie Fame’ in a series of films where the plots weren’t as important as the starlets!!!

When the band asked him to join, he already knew of their reputation, and his dad made the journey down to witness the first gig. Both father and son were in agreement that this was something special, and Yo gave his heart and soul to the band. During the making of the album, Lionel came to the fore and used that classical training to help interpret and arrange the songs and to keep them in tune!

He is tireless in his passion for music and, as we speak, is trying to set up a school in his local area to teach Rock’n’Roll! The French Jack Black? He is the true musician of the band as well as being a genuine French rocker!!

Stephane Benguigui

Stephane BenguiguiStephane was born in Corsica, but little is known of him until he arrived with his guitar on the streets of Nice. His life was that of a troubadour , playing and singing anywhere and everywhere to quench his thirst for music until settling with Anthony Caligagan and his band, who were established on the same circuit as Blah Blah.

Stephanes first gig with the band was on bass, as a replacement for one night in La Gaffe. He showed his spirit when the sound system collapsed and fell on his head only for him to continue without dropping a note. He was soon after asked to join as guitarist, and changed forever the sound and shape of the band. It was just what they had all been searching for, for all these years!

Stephane is his own man, (he still fronts his own band Bang) and is not alive until he steps onto the stage, and it’s there that he lets out all his emotions, good and bad, and literally gets lost in the music… truly wonderful to watch!!

Friday, 04 July 2008

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Leicester's second favourite son