Bands

The Bands Page features all of the bands who appear on Golden Pathway releases and other related bands. This page will continue to grow as more details come to light. Where possible downloadable mp3 track of each band featured is included Please note copyright is retained by the band. If anyone knows of a band I've missed or additional details please contact me.

The band was created in early 1997 by Micheala Norton, Duncan Birch and included Bridgit and Andy (No 4 Joystreet). A demo of two songs Julie and It's Mine was recorded at the Rock Factory, (engineered by Trevor Short). The band were joined by drummer Charlie and numerous gigs followed. A planned single - Fiction was recorded at the Rock Factory but the departure of Duncan meant it was never released.

A new line up was created when Micheala, Bridgit and Andy were joined by Sean Nolan (drums) and Anne Norton (percussion and guitar) and Phil Hardwick (ex Nightmare & Just a Shadow on Bass). More gigs followed and the tracks Tresure and Stephanie were recorded at the FFG studios to be released as a single. Although draft artwork was prepared. Michaela departed for Germany in July 1999 and once again the single was not released. Alternative Girlfriend carried on for another year with Andy Hughes taking up drums, with two singers Jodie (departed for college) and finally Louise.

We hope to put together an extended EP of all of the unreleased material including some demo tracks in the very near future. The featured track is a demo of Into The Dark (words: M. Norton/ Music: Alt. Girlfriend) which features Louise on vocals, Bridgit - Violin/keyboards and backing vocals, Andy-Guitars, Phil - Bass.

Chapter 29 never released anything on the Golden Pathway, but they were hugely influential. I'll never forget meeting them for the first time and having one of those we are not worthy feeling - as by the time I'd met them they had appearred in most of the good fanzines around at the time. After the first meeting Ian continued to send me every recording they ever made - how he afforded all the cassettes is beyond me. Any way Ian takes up the story........

Chapter 29 started sometime at the end of 1981. The idea for the name was suggested by Phil Andrews after listening to Piper At The Gates Of Dawn by Pink Floyd. So the band should have been called Chapter 24. The band was formed by Ian Churchward and Jerry Brimicombe and Jerry wanted to call the band Palm Trees 99 and Ian wanted to use the name Chapter 24 so they had a serious discussion down the pub and came up with a compromise, Chapter 29.

The band played their first gig as a duo in January 1982 which must surely be one of their worst performances ever since both could barely play their instruments and were also suffering from severe stage fright. Steve Honeywill joined the band for their second gig and a few months later the line up also included Bev Haynes and Steve Wright. In May 1982 both Steve's and Bev left to form the Walking Wounded with Steve Rawson.

Ian and Jerry were soon joined by Phil Andrews, David Clifford, Liz Honeywill and Shelley James. They recorded several very wonderful cassette albums and had lots of great fun. Sadly this classic line up gradually fell apart when Phil Andrews left the band in the summer of 1983 and started a new band called Haiti Chill. Ian and Jerry staggered on with the band in various different line ups until 1986 when they got back together with Phil and Dave to form The Morrisons.

The band came together in 2006 with a view to filling a support spot to both the Dave Kusworth Group and The Morrisons. The band currently consists of Andy Golay (Guitar) and former Joystreet's Bridgit (Vocals/violin) & Andy (Guitar). It's early days but the gig went well and a couple of new songs have been put together with a view to recording and playing a few more gigs. Watch this space for further developments.

Sorry this is a bit sketchy - whilst we around in the early years and enjoyed the early gigs we somewhat lost track of the band at some stage, and only caught up with Dave and Simon during there subsequent projects. If anyone wants to add more please let us know.

The Chesterfields originated from Yeovil / Sherborne scene, with the original line up being Brendan, Dom, Davey and Simon, the latter two in particular featuring in a few local bands.

Their first release for the Golden Pathway was a joint flexi with the Subway label which also featured The Shop Assistants. The Chesterfields track being Nose Out of Joint. This flexi is known as The Legendary Golden Subway Flexi and was released in 1985.

Following this a stack of releases appeared on the Subway Label (the first proper single being A Guitar in Your Bath EP Subway 03), Household and Vinyl Japan Labels. The Chesterfields highlights for me was What's Your Perversion and Pop Anarchy. At some stage in the proceedings Mark Barber (aka Pop Parker) took over on Guitar from Brendan, and although there were some other changes in line up Simon and Davey remained throughout.

Later on it the band split up and some of the band members showed up in various outfits recording on the Hair! record label (again out of Yeovil). Simon fronted a band called Gear while David formed the amazing Furnt. Sadly Dave died a few years latter and the music scene lost one of its best.

We first met Tim when he played guitar for the Dave Kusworth Group at a gig in Cornwall with the Morrisons and Chelsea Embankment. The label listened to some of his material and commented as follows:-

After working with local bands and musicians, Tim decided to go it alone in the late nineties. Working on solo singer/songwriter music under his own name and adopting the Luminous moniker for his electronic/experimental output soon afterwards. 1998 saw the release of the self-financed 'CD EP'. The debut Luminous release in 1999, was the inclusion of 'It's Bass, Jim, But Not As We Know It', on the highly acclaimed '...Eclipse Of The Moon And Falling Star' compilation album on Fi-Sci Records. The official debut solo release was the 7" single 'Here Comes Down'. Until 2003, Tim released music on various cassette and CD-R labels including Bliss and Best Kept Secret. 2004 saw the release of the double A side download Luminous single 'Pull A Chain In Tune/Deevy', on the well known Oxford label Shifty Disco. The debut solo album 'Chrome Plated On Nickel Silver', was released on CD in Autumn 2005 on Tim's own label Tara Records. Earlier this year, a new Luminous track 'Rub', was released as part of Paranoise One - Songs For A Paranoid Society on the German label Paranoise.

Tim continues to work with other musicians on and off and also does the odd remix here and there. Upcoming releases include the Shifty Disco singles club compilation CD, a Plastic Pancake MP3/CD-R compilation and a Luminous remix on the American label Audio Savant. Tim's new CD album - Slo-Mo Baby Doll is out now on the Golden Pathway Label.

Started some time in '98. By Leo and founder member Kendall as an idealistic 6-ish piece. Original line up soon drifted part due to commitment, talent and location differences. Fellow founders Hemmo and Leo have kept a band called Console going through thick and mostly thin since then. Steve joined at a particularly strange time a couple of years ago and started pulling the sound together. Finally got our act together in November '04 when final-piece-of-the-jigsaw Dan joined. Over the years all we've done is a couple of E.P.s and a few support slots with relatively well-known bands (The Libertines probably the most famous but certain naughty boys in another local band will tell you it was them), and more recently a complete genius by the name of Luke Haines. Finally in the position we should have been in back in '98. Their first and long awaited debut album - Little City was recently put out on the Golden Pathway Label.

Formed in 1985 from the remanants of ACT IV - Andy Dawson (Keyboards) and Mike Topp (Vocals/Guitar) the Hiding Place recorded with a number of local musicians including Paul Stickland (Bass) and Tim Portsmouth (Saxophone). The picture below depicts the final Hiding Place line up with Chris Wood on drums and Ian Olliver on bass. The Hiding Place disbanded in 1987. Ian joined Automatic Dlamini with John Parish and Rob Ellis and Mike went on to form the Big World Service.

India were formed in the early 1980's by Bridgit (Vocals), Andy (Guitar) and Steve Belben (Bass). Before they played a gig a demo was recorded in the south Wales Loco Studios, with stand in drummer Paul and lead guitar provided by Gary Miller. The first gig was in Taunton when drummer Kevin played the set without ever hearing a song by the band. More gigs followed and the band picked up a lot of local fanzine interest. With Kevin firmly part of the group another studio visit secured the band demo of the month in the International Musician magazine - the bands sound being likened to Pauline Murray's band Penetration. A track from the demo - Almost Midnight - was released on a local fanzine Sheep Worrying compilation cassette. This was followed by a vinyl release when the track Now Susan's Dead appeared on the compilation LP Forgotten Futures.

More gigs and yet another demo was recorded which also received a rave reveiw in International Musician. Some promising responses were also being received from record labels. However, the travelling to cold rehearsal venues near Bridgewater took there toll and new songs failed to appear, and Andy and Bridgit teamed up with Simon Barber to form India Falls - (see below). Steve went on to play bass for the Hiding Place for a while, whilst Kevin still appears in local Bridgewater bands.

Bridgit, Andy, Steve & Kevin, & Andy - after a gig at the Bridgewater Arts Centre

The Legendary Ten Seconds are a highly successful `spare time'! podcasting project of Ian Churchward with recording starting in 2003. With the brilliant Guy Bolt doing all the drumming. Guy has also played some bass guitar, keyboards and harmonica on some of the recordings. He did everything on the comedy rap "Fagends Toothpaste" apart from writing the words. Apart from that Ian's only contribution was brushing my teeth to this one. Tom Churchward also brushes his teeth on this comedy rap. Guy plays the very excellent guitar solo at the end of the Tudor style instrumental "Fanfare For The King".

Preacher Harry Powell was the stagename of Ian Smith, another product of the fruitful music scene happening in Torquay in the late 70's and early 80's, which also spawned the Morrisons. Although Preacher Harry performed most commonly as a solo artist, he put this band together to record this single for Golden Pathway in 1986. With Mark Fitzpatrick on bass, Steve Milton on drums (now with Console), and an unknown violinist, "Beauty Grows" provided an ideal vehicle for Ian's rich and unusual voice. After this single was released, Preacher Harry Powell was a regular on the London acoustic scene for much of the late 80's and 90's at clubs like the Troubador and God's Little Joke. His performances and songs took on an even richer hue after the release of this single, with a dark humour and passion which attracted fans including Momus, The Tigerlillies, and Natalie Merchant. (sample line - "We were rampant - I would ram, and you would pant") Momus contributed keyboards to some of Ian's later material, and Ian reciprocated by providing backing vocals on a couple of tracks on the Momus album Hippopotamus.