HOLY GRAIL RECORDS

The Strats

www.thestrats.com

The Strats are a Blues Rock Band, featuring Will Ludford on guitar. He is based in Monaghan, Ireland.

Will Ludford

Will has been playing guitar for some time, starting in his first band in Leighton Buzzard with school friends. They played at local school functions and friends parties. They played music by The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix etc. When Will left school he worked at a garage, serving petrol and saved enough to buy his first Fender Strat. For a while Will worked at the music shop which was in Bridge street in Leighton Buzzard, this was owned by Richard Watts , of Sims Watts amplification fame! here he often jammed with friends Art Noveau … who became Kajagoogoo, He then joined other local bands and became the guitarist in the Rock Band “Diamond Lil”, who did very well on the college circuit in the UK. Will also performed some session work at the now legendary Chalk Farm Studios in London. here he met and worked with the truly talented Alton Ellis and Sly and Robbie , very professional people and musicians… Will says that one of the highlights of his life was being at the Beatles Apple Headquarters in Saville Row, where he met George Harrison, who encouraged him to go on and further explore his music; he describes George as the nicest man he ever met in music.

In his career Will has worked with numerous well known bands and musicians such as Tiny Tim, Alton Ellis, George Harrison, The Barron Knights and was privilaged to have jammed with Jimi Hendrix. While on tour in Germany Will had a break down and was taken back to the UK where he spent five years in a London drug clinic, when he left the clinic he entered a monastery for three years and joined a cult who follow the path of the Holy Grail.

RBF inc

PETER RAMAGE

The original vocalist with Mantra, formed in Elstree, Herts, in 1969. By 1971, they were gigging, doing festivals, such as, Windsor and Bath, venues like the Marquee in London and the Stoneground in Manchester, supporting top acts, Man, Head Hands and Feet, Supertramp, Soft Machine, and The Alex Harvey Band.

JAY BERKS

Drummer with The Ponders End Delta Blues Band, later Foetal Dwarf formed in Enfield/Barnet in 1968 playing colleges supporting Blodwyn Pig, Family and The Third Ear Band. In 1971 after the bands' demise, he was introduced to Mantra by mutual friends. In 1972 he joined Smiler and on several occasions supported Mantra at North London gigs. Leaving Smiler in 1975, he became involved with several Jazz/Rock experimental groups returning to Country/Rock in 1986 with The Soul Agents.

GARY FITZSIMMONS

Guitarist on the London pub circuit (Nashville Rooms, the Red Cow etc) in the 70's with Glyder and Buster. Moving onto the 80's he was an international touring musician, playing with The Man Ezeke(ex Radio 1), nuff respec, in Germany (The Hamburg Plaza and The Berlin Hilton), Sweden (Grona Lund, Stockholm),Oman (Muscat) and The Rose of Tralee Festival in Eire. In the 90's he became sound engineer for The Jazz Devils (Virgin Records) and Australian band Ute (Phonogram Records) as well as jamming with Special Brew.

DEBBIE BONOMINI

Started singing professionally in the 80's on the Mecca Ballroom circuit with MD Mike Stevens, later to be MD for "Take That", and Paul Taylor, later with The Verve. From there, she was backing vocalist with " The Sixties Reunion Tour", featuring, Mike Berry, Heinz, Jess Conrad and Tommy Bruce. In the 90's she worked with various bands, Matrix, The Nervous Wrecks, and her tribute band "Blondee" 2000's can be found most years at Cropredy with Fairport Convention, Deborah Bonham and her roots, still jammin' with RBF inc and Special Brew .

Special Brew

" Special Brew" ?? Well..the music is indeed special ...and the "Brew"? ... This is a mixture of genres and styles that has brought singer/songwriter Gary Fitzsimmons to where he is today..and is only a small part of the jigsaw that Gary has been.. or is working on with different projects . Being a fan of Reggae music..Gary has wanted to make this album for a long time..but other work or commitments have not made it possible until now. In the making of this album..Gary has stayed true to the religion of Reggae..and to his credit..has managed to get across the feel and rhythmic discipline that is required of all good Reggae music, and having worked in the studio myself with the legendery Anton Ellis..I know.

In his effort to be correct with the music..Gary went to Jamaica and worked with his friend "Ezeke Gray" in Ezekes own studio...here Gary listened ..watched..and learned as some of the top session musicians laid down his songs..and Ezeke was the best man to work with as he is one of Jamaicas top Reggae artists. When the tracks were down..Gary took the tapes back to the UK..and in his own studio..he arranged some phrases here and there to make the songs and the album his own. To finish the musical arrangements Gary drafted in some of his friends with whom he had collaborated with on earlier projects.

Such as much respected singer/songwriter Debbie Bonomini on vocals...... Graham Dee on vocals and backing vocals....Mikey "Dredd" Moller on congas and percussion and vocals....Kwezi Genisis on bongos.....Martin Callum on bass guitar and vocals.....Clive Dupratt on guitar and vocals...Barry Parsons on guitar and vocals...Ezeke Gray on vocals......Ian Dixon on Trumpet and horns....Arden Hart on Trumpet...John "Boyse" Battrum on saxes...Jenny Carr on Keyboards.....and Mark Burr on drums. Together as a band they toured Europe and the UK to promote the album.. there are a few videos on utube to support this.....and the interest from the public for the music was more than the band had hoped for. Gary signed to Holy Grail records in October 2010....as an independent label they understood the difficulties and frustration for Gary in getting his music out to a bigger and wider music buying market.

To sum up the album..one can only say..if you like Reggae.it doesnt get any better than this! if you would like more information on Gary Fitzsimmons and his music..please email us at holygrailrecords@gmail.com enjoy the music....... Will Ludford. MD, Holy Grail Records.