About
Recent History
Having only 'dabbled' in song writing over the years, at the beginning of 2017 I began to take the writing of my own songs more seriously. By the middle of the following year I found I had enough material to start recording a solo CD of original songs, which I completed towards the end of that year, with the title - 'Post Modern Man'.
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My friend, John Mannel, who runs a regular monthly 'open mic' evening in Ewell, Surrey, offered me an extended 45 minute slot to launch the CD in January 2019 and, rather than do this solo, I asked John (flute) and another two musician friends, Ronnie Laing (percussion) & Mark Campbell (bass) to join me so that we could present the songs in a 'band' format.
The line-up worked well and feedback was encouraging so, when I finished writing my next collection of songs, I asked them if they'd join me for the recording sessions, to put their own stamp on the songs from the outset. In addition, I wanted an accordion as part of the 'band sound' on the CD and was pleased when my old friend, Dave Shires, agreed to play on the recording.
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With John M. providing backing vocals and playing rhythm guitar, flute and some terrific harp, Mark playing his wonderful, eclectic bass lines, Ronnie adding guitar and amazing banjo to his excellent percussion work and Dave's empathetic accordion playing - the final result proved to have a real 'group' feel about it and the CD 'Postcards from England' was released in early 2020.
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It should have been great fun taking the songs out 'live' in whichever musical combination was deemed appropriate for the occasion i.e. solo, duo, trio, 4 piece or even the 5 piece band!
Unfortunately, Covid 19 intervened at this point and put a stop to all 'live' music, leaving 'live' performance in a state of limbo.
In the interim, I continued writing new material and produced two 'live' home concerts, performing many of the new songs. The concerts can be found on YouTube under 'John Clachan' while the words and chords of the songs can be found on this website.
Work on my CD '65 Million BC to AD 1945 (A History of the English People)' began in earnest during the summer of 2021 with Mark and Ronnie providing the rhythm section for the recording. The CD (a 'concept' recording) was completed in October and released on the 5th November 2021.
Lockdowns and Covid issues meant that there were no 'live' band performances of the CD and work started almost immediately in 2022 on the next batch of songs. These would eventually see 'light of day' on the CD 'The More You Think it Changes....', which was released on 01/01/2023.
The songs were recorded throughout 2022 with the band line up as follows:- Mark Campbell on bass and Fender Strat., Ronnie Laing on percussion, banjo and acoustic guitar and Dave Shires on accordion, acoustic guitar and spoons. Many of the tracks have more of a distinct 'folk-rock' feel to them than past recordings, which was the main idea of the project.
A successful private 'live' gig took place in March 2023 featuring 'John Clachan & Friends' and, in April, the same line up as above played a booking at Dorking Folk Club, both gigs giving the band a long awaited opportunity to present some of our more recent recordings 'live' for the first time.
A solo gig to help celebrate the Centenary of the Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall, in 2024, led to 4 other solo bookings in the following months and work on the next CD, 'It's Us, Without a Doubt',
progressed slowly (due to illness in the band) throughout 2024.
As things currently stand (early Jan. 2025), the new CD is currently being mixed, the band have a return gig to Dorking Folk Club to look forward to in April 2025 and I'm working on uploading a selection of past home recordings, going back over the last 45 years, for free download as a retrospective to celebrate my 70th birthday in January! Watch this space.
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Ancient History!
My early musical heritage was purely 50's and 60's 'pop' music, which my mum played non-stop in our house! Once I was able to afford to buy my own records, I worked my way through the early 70's 'rock' and 'prog rock' bands like The Moody Blues, Deep Purple, Yes and Genesis et al.
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Having joined Rumford Morris Men in 1974, I was introduced to 'Folk' music and quickly developed a love of English traditional folksong, along with the more feisty folk rock genre. This also gave me material that I could learn to sing and play at home on my own.
By the time Chris (my wife) and I discovered our first folk club at The Green Man, Ewell in 1983, I already had a repertoire of, mainly traditional, songs up my sleeve. This later enabled me to become an unaccompanied resident singer at The Greyhound, The Hand & Spear and, eventually, The Foley Arms folk clubs (all of which were run by Brian & Jane Ravenhill and were the embryonic versions of the well known 'Ram' folk club, which closed its doors in 2021).
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As time went by I increased my song repertoire, widened my choice of material and began to accompany myself on the Irish flat back bouzouki. I joined the Knock-Kneed Bumblebee Band in the mid to late 80's, playing recorders and bouzouki at barn dances and, in 1992, formed a duo with a fellow folk club resident, Dave Illingworth. As the duo 'Old Friends', we played many folk clubs throughout the South East of England, only calling it a day when I began training to become a horticultural teacher in the early 2000's. During the 1990's, I also played a number of solo gigs at various folk clubs.
On meeting up with an old acquaintance from the folk scene, John Mannel, in 2002, we decided to form a 50's, 60's and 70's covers duo called 'The Riotous Brothers' and gigged successfully in the Epsom area for over 16 years. We thoroughly enjoyed playing these songs and our enthusiasm, harmonies and sense of fun hopefully came through to the audience - the songs were all played 'live' without backing tracks!
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About 6 years ago, John and I decided to return to our folk roots and formed the folk duo 'Machan'. In order to test some of our new 'Machan' material out, we began frequenting a local 'open mic.' night in Epsom run by 'The Rusty Rovers'. This proved to be a really valuable experience and so enjoyable that we regularly attended the monthly sessions, where we met and befriended so many local musicians. It's difficult to over-state how important this connection was to us.
We then set out to perform a variety of traditional, contemporary, roots and acoustic music in the same venues that we had played in for years as 'The Riotous Brothers'. Amazingly, many of our RBs' supporters followed the change of direction and, with additional support from a newer audience, the two duos appeared to be equally popular. For 3 years up to the Covid lockdown, 'Machan' had a bi-monthly, Sunday evening residency at 'The Barley Mow', Epsom.
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The break in 'live' performance, brought on by lockdown, made me reassess my desire to continue 'regular' gigging in the two duos and I decided to take the opportunity to retire from both acts, leaving the music, hopefully, on a high.
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Which brings the 'Ancient History' up to date........in the musical world post Covid, it's difficult to know where the next stage of my musical adventures will eventually take me but I'm still writing new songs and singing & recording them at home, so the creativity is still bubbling under................. long may it continue!
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Friends on recent recordings
As much as I enjoy performing and recording solo, there's always an extra buzz playing with other musicians and I've been very fortunate to have played music with some of the best of them on the local scene - my huge thanks go to all the following for their time, commitment and enthusiasm.
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Mark Campbell -
Ben Hickman -
Ronnie Laing -
John Mannel -
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​​Dave Shires -
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Martin Wayne -
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Mark Campbell
Mark has so far played on four CDs - 'Postcards From England' (bass guitar), '65 million BC to AD 1945' (bass guitar), 'The More You Think it Changes...' (bass guitar and electric guitar - rhythm & lead) and 'It's Us, Without a Doubt' (bass guitar and electric guitar)
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Mark has a long history of playing music in bands (even, at one time playing in my home town of South Ockendon many years ago!) although we only met more recently, through the local 'open mic.' music scene. When I first saw him, I really liked his electric guitar playing and rather assumed that it was his main instrument! However, I soon learnt that he was a excellent bass player too. With his friends Dave Berry (now sadly departed) and Ben Thackwell in 'The Re:Cooperators', also as bass man with 'The Prime Numbers', he's certainly one of Epsom's top musicians.
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Mark gets 'right into' the music he's playing and, like the other guys, makes his inputs his own on all the CDs. He's also a completely 'laid back', all round nice guy and great fun to play music with - thank you Mark.
Ben Hickman
Ben plays on the CD 'It's Us, Without a Doubt' (violin)
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I met Ben through seeing him play at the Dorking Folk Club and, with Ronnie out of action in 2024, I asked Ben if he'd care to join us for the recording of the above CD, which was good fortune for us indeed as he is the most skillful and empathetic of musicians and his playing fitted perfectly into the current band sound.
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Ben also plays with a number of other regular performers at DFC, and other venues, and played on and mixed his father's excellent CD 'The Road to the Sea'. Thank you for joining us Ben.​
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Ronnie Laing
Ronnie plays on the CDs 'Postcards From England' (banjo, acoustic guitar & percussion), '65 million BC to AD 1945' (percussion) and 'The More You Think it Changes....' (banjo, acoustic guitar & percussion)
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Ronnie's musical pedigree goes way back to the 'Ark' - as a professional drummer/percussionist in South Africa he had few peers. It was England's gain when Ronnie decided to 'up sticks' and re-locate to Epsom. I first saw and met Ronnie at 'open mic.' nights, playing in a duo called 'R & R' with his good friend Richard Cusden. Both Ronnie and Richard are part of the band 'The Rusty Rovers' who have become well known on the local music scene with their 'Irish' influenced sets. Ronnie also plays regularly in a duo with local, well-respected musician Charlie Menagh.
Ronnie is certainly a superb percussionist but that barely scratches the surface of his musical talents! He plays a beautiful, empathetic guitar accompaniment that is a delight to sing to. He can also turn his hand to banjo, mandolin, bouzouki, whistles.......in fact, I'm not sure if there's anything he can't play!! He is also great company, with a mine of fascinating tales from his past and is a real pleasure to play music with - thank you Ronnie.
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Ronnie would undoubtedly have played on the most recent CD but for a serious illness which laid him low throughout 2024 - we all wish him well for the future.
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John Mannel
John plays on the CD 'Postcards From England' (flute, rhythm guitar, harmonica & backing vocals)
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John and I played music together for over 16 years, firstly as a 'covers' duo called 'The Riotous Brothers' and then as the 'folk' duo 'Machan'. John was very supportive of my early song writing endeavours and encouraged me to include some of the songs in our 'Machan' sets, which gave me the fantastic opportunity of trying them out on unsuspecting audiences!
John sings great harmonies and is also a fine singer in his own right. He's a multi-instrumentalist as well, playing 'rock solid' acoustic rhythm guitar, flute, harmonica and kazoo(!). He is also part of the duo 'Back of a Length' and the 4 piece band 'Cover Drive'.
John runs a monthly 'open mic.' evening called 'Last Thursday's Acoustic Shindig' at 'The Queen Adelaide' pub in Ewell, Surrey and presents a top quality music act, from the world of 'folk', once a month at 'The Corner House' theatre in Surbiton.
Dave Shires
Dave plays on the CDs 'Postcards From England' (button accordion), 'The More You Think it Changes....' (button accordion, acoustic guitar and spoons) and 'It's Us, Without a Doubt' (button and piano accordions)
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I've been playing music with Dave since the mid 1980's, whether in the barn dance band 'The Knock-Kneed Bumblebee Band' or during informal sessions round each other's homes for fun.
Dave has played accordion for the East Surrey Morris Men for many years and also in the aforementioned barn dance band. In more recent years he has taken up acoustic guitar and singing. He currently performs at the Dorking Folk Club as a resident singer/musician, as well as being one of the organisers of the club. He also sings in a duo with fellow organiser Terry Davey. (click on the link for more DFC details)
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Dave has recently started writing his own excellent songs, and recorded some of them on his own 'solo' CD, and we often throw our latest offerings at each other when we meet up - there's nothing like a little rivalry to keep you on your toes! - thank you Dave.
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Martin Wayne
Martin plays on the CD 'It's Us, Without a Doubt' (percussion)
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I first played with Martin ten years ago when he helped form part of the 'Moonlight Band' that backed me for my 60th birthday gig. We also played a few gigs together afterwards as John & Cahon, which was good fun.
He is currently drummer in the bands 'Strata' and 'Stokebusters' and was my natural port of call when Ronnie fell ill this year and was unable to record. Another empathetic musician, Martin recorded all thirteen drum tracks in 5 hours, with no re-takes...... amazing to watch and hear! Thank you Martin.