ORIGINS & EVOLUTION
The Band History of ‘Friends of Merlin’
The first incarnation of ‘Friends of Merlin’ was the duo of ‘Mike and Maz’, with Mike on guitar and Maz singing lead vocals. They began working together by performing covers from the 1960’s for an evening of song and merriment in local village halls for Mike’s yoga students. From these initial musical evenings they then began doing pub gigs in the East Midlands. It wasn’t long before they teamed up with Chris and Roger, Chris playing bongos and Roger keyboard to Mike’s guitar and Maz’s vocals. They named this second incarnation cover band ‘Kinda Groovy’ and continued to do 1960’s covers, including a performance at the ‘Kiln’ in Swadlincote of a ‘Revolution’ themed evening singing the protest songs of the ‘60’s.
Chris and Roger then left the band and so Mike and Maz were back as a duo now looking for a drummer. They saw an advert in Pete Oakley’s guitar shop in Burton for a drummer looking for a band and contacted him. This was Mel, and so began the third incarnation of FoM, the trio of the 3 ‘M’s’. Mel first met Mike and Maz at the Ghurkha Restaurant in Burton-on-Trent when ‘M’&‘M’ were performing to raise money for the earthquake disaster in Nepal.
Mel was willing to join the band but he was not interested in doing cover songs, being a songwriter himself, and so it was agreed that the band would discontinue doing covers and Mike and Maz began writing their own songs. Thus the core of ‘Friends of Merlin’ emerged when Mel joined the team.
The actual name ‘Friends of Merlin’ came about because Mike’s yoga classes were taught in the ‘Grail Court Hotel’ in Burton-on-Trent in their conference room. The ‘Grail Court’ was an Arthurian-themed pub and hotel with a nightclub and so because Mike was working in the ‘Grail Court’ next to ‘Merlin’s’ nightclub, it was agreed that the new trio would be named ‘Friends of Merlin’.
It was also apparent that the songs being written were much influenced by mystical themes and so it made sense to be ‘Friends of Merlin’. Around the same time that the name was established the band began defining what kind of music they were making and initially, coming out of the British Psychedelic genre, were toying with the idea of British Mystical Rock, but because the themes in the songs were not just British they dropped the ‘Brit’ word and just called the music ‘Mystical Rock’.
For a number of years FoM was only a trio as they tried to find a bass player. Then the first bass player to come in was Richard from Manchester way. This was the first time the band had played with a bass and Richard really pushed the band towards a much richer sound enabling them to see where they needed to get to. Richard is a very experienced artist, he played on the original single ‘Telstar’ with the band ‘Sputnik’, the single being released just after Russia’s Sputnik went into orbit, ‘Telstar’ being one of the big celestial hits of the 1960’s. Richard only played one gig with FoM though, at ‘Jollies’ in Stoke, because it was too far for him to travel to rehearse and to perform with the band on a regular basis. But Richard did give FoM a real sense of what could be achieved with a top class bass player and set the band on a new trajectory. And Richard’s performance is for posterity because FoM made a live ‘show reel’ video of the ‘Jollies’ gig.
While trying to find a permanent bass player Maz’s brother Mark came up from London to do a few gigs alternating playing both bass and rhythm guitar for gigs in Stoke and Birmingham. We also had Jeff for a couple of gigs who performed in the Birmingham jewellery quarter with us and at the ‘Feathers’ in Lichfield but he had work commitments that meant he could not rehearse and work permanently with the band. Jeff was a real entertainer, he had a fabulous costume! And like Richard was very professional, he came straight into performances without any rehearsals and was chord perfect, as also I might add was my brother Mark, who also slotted in perfectly, simply by learning the songs from home down in Tooting Bec.
The next musician to join the band was Ronsbury. Ronsbury was a great help for the summer of 2019, he stayed with the band for a summer full of gigs, festivals and fun, the Matlock Music festival well-known for being a Biker meeting point being very memorable. And Ronsbury gifted FoM a poem that Maz put music to that has yet to be recorded, a song very much in the Celtic tradition of mysticism about a ‘Prophetess’, that Maz titled ‘She Knows, She Tells’.
Ronsbury left the band due to the hectic schedule we had and to ‘do his own thing’, so when FoM then began rehearsing again in 2020 after some of the Covid restrictions were lifted, they were still a trio looking for a bass player. While Covid was still making it impossible to do a lot of gigs though, FoM had decided to start recording again and to do a couple of videos to keep the band ‘out there’.
So they managed to get Wayne to come and play bass for them and to make the ‘Voodoo Woman’ and ‘Vampire’ videos, and Wayne played on the ‘Vampire recording’ as well as on a couple of the songs on the album [shortly to be released]. Wayne was a real sport in the videos and really got into the role, he wasn’t afraid to be a bit theatrical, dare one say even ‘camp’, and to dress up for the part. He did bring a genuine vibe to the ‘Vampire’ song but he had other band commitments and so after a brief dalliance with FoM Wayne left and again they were a band looking for a bass player.
FoM have been recording for some years now with Shaun at ‘Prism’, the award-winning recording studio. Shaun first contacted FoM just after Mel joined the band and said he was interested in recording them, but he only uses vintage analogue equipment for recordings. This was ideal for FoM, being a bit retro they wanted to record on analogue and to avoid using a digital system and auto-tune, [which can be a nightmare for some singers if they want to use certain kinds of techniques]. In fact FoM’s own PA system is a Yamaha analogue deck and they don’t use digital Pa’s if they can avoid them, they really are ‘old school’, or as Mel likes to say somewhat contrarily, MoF – ‘Merlin’s Old Farts’. FoM also rehearse with an analogue system at Pete’s ‘Bandstand’ studios in Stoke. Pete has been particularly generous with his help and love and FoM owe him a big thank you for all his support...THANKS PETE! PEACE & LOVE!
After recording ‘Vampire’ and a couple of the initial songs for the album, because FoM were looking for a bass player again, they then teamed up with Trevor. Trevor gave much more of an edge to the music and brought a darkness to the band that was really punkish in places, adding another dimension to performances. Then Trevor’s friend John came in and played lead guitar. With a full band Mike no longer had to do lead, rhythm and bass all together on his one guitar and John performed some really lovely moments with his ‘lead’, particularly on some of the songs on the album.
Recordings have also been much enhanced by the addition of both of Maz’s brothers, Mark on rhythm on some of the songs and Paul, from the Punk band ‘Penetration’ adding a Rickenbacker twelve string. Mark also plays a mean base in his own band based in London – the ‘Baddest’ – who also play original songs.
Paul is a very skilled guitarist in all genres, not just Punk and has really brought some magic to the recordings. He also performed with FoM alongside Mark in the last gig they did in Matlock for a Mind, Body and Spirit festival the day before Covid lockdowns started. Paul still tours regularly with the punk band ‘Penetration’ that has supported the ‘Buzz Cocks’ at the Royal Albert Hall and more recently they have been on tour supporting the ‘Damned’. Paul is also a professional artist of the ‘Stukkist’ art movement and has designed FoM’s logo and helped with the design and drafting of the album cover along with Maz and Karl. Karl is Maz’s voice coach and musical director of the Gresley Male Voice Choir based in Newhall in S. Derbyshire. And a big ‘THANK YOU’ to Karl from Maz for passing on the ‘tricks of the trade’ when it comes to solving vocal issues...
Maz’s brothers can’t be full time with the band however so the fourth incarnation of FoM involved working with John and Trev. Having John and Trev in the band really expanded the potential of FoM, taking the songs to a different level and enabling the band to envision its potential. In particular John’s playing on three of the songs on the album is sublime, especially alongside Trev’s dark, punky bass lines. Maz loved the romantic extremes of the music with the two of them in the band but after doing the recordings both John and Trevor decided to leave FoM because of the pressure to perform regularly and the push to learn the full catalogue of songs that FoM has.
So that brings everything up to the present, to our fifth incarnation where recently FoM have been very fortunate to find Keith who is now playing bass with the band and has started recording the last of the songs for the album with FoM. Keith is very committed and really gets the mystical vibe, he is also a songwriter, so there could be a lot more to come from Keith in coming months in terms of how he contributes to the band.
It seems that FoM has a problem keeping musicians but really it’s the pressure of having to learn so many original songs that is so daunting to someone coming into a band that has so much original material to work with. What is so important to stress though is that often it is to the advantage of a band to be open to being an ‘open house’, to be flexible and creative and to have a body of musicians who can weave in and out of the band. If for example FoM were able to do bigger festivals there are a number of musicians who could come in quite quickly now and increase the strength of the band just for the occasional performance, rather like session musicians operate.
FoM is not a traditional kind of band, they don’t need the rigidity and the kinds of security that the old style rock bands thrived on, FoM is much more ‘of the moment’; they love the creativity and edginess of having new musicians being involved. And once you open the doors of perception to recognize the wealth of talent that is out there you really can evolve what you do because of being willing to expand horizons.
When she worked in the Dance Avant-Garde Maz formed a company with a friend that was a ‘Dance House’. The concept was post-modern, the idea that different choreographers and composers could move in and out of the ‘Dance House’ like gypsies, work in the company for a project, go off and do something else and maybe return at a later date, there wasn’t a fixed company as such. There were about five core members but in the main DH was constantly changing the artists who worked in it. FoM has become a kind of ‘Music House’ in the sense that a number of musicians pass through the band and could return to do the occasional gig or recordings with FoM if needed. While FoM would like to have at least two more permanent members, a permanent lead guitarist and keyboard player for example, they are not too worried if musicians just pass through.
And every musician who has worked with FoM has been an important part of how the band has evolved and keeps evolving. Each person has brought something very special to the mix that is the musical world of FoM and this does not leave when the musician leaves, all that the previous artists have brought to the band creatively make it what it is today and so have contributed to the success of FoM and to what the band does in the future. It prevents the band from ‘going stale’ the fact that there has been a number of musicians working with FoM over time. FoM really appreciate all that has been done by these ‘gypsy musicians’ to help them get to this point in the band’s evolution and this is why the band want to make known the contributions that others have put into the alchemy of what is now FoM. In particular the recordings and videos will be there for posterity and are a declaration of who has so far been a crucial part of FoM’s history and so its only right that the band do give here a full account of the real history of who have been, and still are...the ‘Friends of Merlin’...
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK AND SUPPORT...! KEEP PLAYING THE LOVE...!
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