Biog

ROCKology

Recreating Only The Best Of The Biggest Sixties & Seventies Hits – Ever!

The Story So Far…

COMBINED with the Nineties explosion of independent Supergold radio stations and the growing popularity of BBC Radio 2’s weekend programmes, Pick Of The Pops and Sound Of The Sixties, plus the advent of the nation-wide multi-act Flying Music concert tours; music from the Nineteen Sixties & Seventies has never been more popular!

Enter ROCKology.

Formed to fill a growing need by live music venues, the band played their first engagement together to great acclaim during the summer of 2006. The band is a Gloucestershire based five-man group who principally play Sixties & Seventies chart hits. ROCKology comprises of several musicians who were not only playing it for real first time around during those heady days of Merseybeat, flower power and glam rock but actually played alongside several of the top acts of those decades

ROCKology are

Trevor Base – Lead vocals

Tony Dunn – Lead guitar

Ronnie Scott – Rhythm guitar & vocals

Richard ‘Dick’ Smith – Bass guitar

Chris Stanbury – Drums

And deputising former full-time member

Chris Fawcett – Guitar & vocals

ALTHOUGH born and raised in the north-east of England, guitarist Chris Fawcett played with several bands in and around London before settling his roots in Gloucestershire to play with ROCKology.

As part of their various working bands, both Londoner Ronnie Scott and local boy Chris Stanbury have rubbed shoulders with many headline acts of the Sixties & Seventies. Like most musicians they are never shy with coming up with a few names from their lurid pasts!

On a good night they might include; Screaming Lord Sutch, Carl Wayne & The Vikings (later The Move), Brian Pool and The Tremeloes, The Love Affair, John Entwhistle of The Who. Also featured in there are Dave Berry & The Cruisers, The Applejacks, Foundations, The Mixtures, Elkie Brookes & Robert Palmer - in their 70’s super-group Vinegar Joe and many others.

Well, that was then and this is now and the late summer of 2005 saw Ronnie and the two Chris’ start to select and seriously rehearse material for what would be the fledgling ROCKology’s varied repertoire. By the spring of 2006 the three of them thought they were just about ready for the addition of a bass player and lead singer. One local evening paper advert later vocalist Trevor Base and Richard ‘Dick’ Smith on bass completed the line-up and the ROCKology story was ready to roll.

Any new band’s first batch of gigs is never an easy one to pull off but ROCKology felt all those winter nights rehearsing in sub zero rehearsal rooms had been well worth all the hassle once they were ‘on the road’. Since the summer of 2006, ROCKology have established themselves as a leading chart music act in God’s own county of Gloucestershire.

Let loose to strut their stuff and entertain students of a course being held in the small Cotswold village of Painswick as a debut gig, the boys had them up ‘n’ bopping from the word go. I think it’s true to say an audible sigh of relief could be heard as the band stretched a well rehearsed one hour set into almost 75 minutes!They were up and running at last and since then, ROCKology have never looked back

Numerous social, rugby, golf and private hire club gigs stretching from the mid-summer of 2006 on to the present day have been a great proving ground for the band.

When it comes to raising money for good causes ROCKology, to their credit, appear to have no shame! Collaborations with BBC Radio Gloucestershire have successfully staged two Children In Need Appeal events - raising around £800 for the charity.

On another fund-raising sortie the band joined forces with fellow retro-rockers The Ramrods and The Beathovens to raise shed loads of cash for the Renal Unit of Gloucester Royal Hospital. More recently the band has undertaken two fund-raising events for the locally based charity, The James Hopkins Trust

with both events reaching their objective for the charity with similar events planned for the future.

The early winter of 2011 saw the band undergo a line-up change; the first since the band’s conception. For reasons of family commitments, original guitarist Chris Fawcett was replaced by Londoner Tony Dunn on lead guitar. Originally from Sussex, Tony started playing guitar 23 years ago, originally inspired by Dire Straits and Guns n Roses, and has played in a variety of Rock and Blues bands over the years mainly doing original songs in the south east and in Plymouth. 9 years ago, he moved to Cheltenham and became a Guitar tutor, playing in a couple of cover bands and his own original Blues band, "The Tone".

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Some info on Chris Stanbury

Having been in or around drums and contemporary music for most of his life, the Seventies saw Chris involved with a couple of bands that were the ‘live act on several roadshows featuring top radio DJ’s from BBC Radio One and Radio Luxembourg. More by accident than design, during the Eighties Chris turned his hand to freelance

journalism. Graduating from local Town Hall concert reviews he was soon writing for several national music publications including Replay, Record Mirror, Gold, Record Collector, Rave, and Unique. From there he made firm contacts within the press offices of both EMI & Virgin Records and spent time working with Genesis, Culture Club, Meat Loaf, Kirsty McColl, Boy George, Bryan Ferry, Sandie Shaw and local chart heroes, EMF.

Following a longer than planned lay-off from the live scene, Chris decided to invest in a new drum kit and get out there and do it for himself once more.

“ROCKology is pretty much where I want to be right now.” Explained Chris, ”The varied mix of experience and musical tastes within the band give a positive result – as you will see when you come to see and hear ROCKology recreating those fab & groovy sounds of the Sixties and Seventies. Thankfully this band revels in playing the chart hits that everyone loves to hear - over and over again!”

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