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Ned Knowles
Despite rumours that I have always existed, I was born as recently as 1948. I was led down the evil path of rock 'n' roll in the late fifties when my brother took me to see"Don't Knock The Rock" and "The Girl can't Help It" and I was impressed with these musician people were doing.
In the early sixties it was listening to The Shads and saint Cliff who got me actually playing guitar, and a few of us from Hutt Valley High formed a band which was best known as the Soul Sect. We were actually called "Them" at one stage but some Irish joker had already used that!
We played covers of all the great British (and some American) bands of that decade.
In '69 I teamed up with fellow broadcaster Midge Marsden to play Blues at the local clubs for a while. It was around this time that my work mates named me "Ned" because of my liking for the Goon shows.
In 1971 I was asked to join Dennis O'Brien and Triangle and had a very productive few years with them before they took of to find fame and fortune in Britain.
In '74 Roger Watkins ( ex Triangle) made contact and suggested we form a band to play at Ziggy's nightclub in Wellington. After various changes in line up we were rockin till the wee small hours three nights a week. Rough and ready but entertaining.
Eventually the owner of another club, disgruntled that his club was empty while ours was packed, arranged to "burn down the house" and we were out of business. Smoke on the water???
Next was a Blues band with ex-Sect member Mike Brosnan, a project that was doomed as the music scene at the time was going in other directions, as were the members.
Then there was the desperate old farts, officially known as "Hangover Square". A bunch of broadcasters who wanted a bit of life on the side playing various bars around town. I think this was the late eighties. Then came "Rueben the Goat" which gradually mutated into "Forced Landing".
The most recent band "The Jimmies" plays Celtic music and a bit of Kiwi R&R.
I saw "Itchycoo Park" at the Pukemanu in Martinborough and had a thoroughly good time hearing all the old stuff, so was quite chuffed when Bernard rang and asked me if I would audition. As they say, the rest is hysterical...or something like that.......
For the guitar techies, my main guitar is a mostly original '66 Strat which I bought in 1972 strung with 10 to 46 gauge strings. It's fed through a home-made fuzz box into a Ibanez chorus and a digital delay then to a rebuilt Jansen 8-FORTY with a Fender 12in speaker. Boring eh?
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