John O'Leary - biography

Blues Harp Player & Singer, John O’Leary was born in Clonakilty in the Republic of Ireland in October 1944. He moved with his parents to England in 1955. Interest in music began on hearing Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and King Oliver on a friend’s record player. His interest in jazz developed and is now a great admirer of Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus. Interest in the blues began on hearing the legendary harmonica player Cyril Davies playing with the great Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated at the Ealing Jazz Club in London in 1962. The Ealing club was really the birth of the British blues movement; it’s where it all began for a lot of people (including The Rolling Stones). As soon as he heard Blues Inc., he quickly discovered Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Little Walter & Sonny Boy Williamson. With inspiration like this, he took up the harmonica almost immediately and learned by carefully watching and listening to Cyril Davies.

Subsequently John has enjoyed a wide ranging career, founding The Savoy Brown Blues Band in 1965 after meeting and striking up a friendship with guitarist Kim Simmonds (who continues to tour to this day). The original line of the band was completed by Brice Portious (vocals), Bob Hall piano), Ray Chappell (bass) and Leo Mannings (drums). John left the band after disagreements with their management shortly before their album "Shakedown" was released.

Soon after this, John was invited by pianist Bob Hall to join the John Dummer Blues Band, featuring the Groundhog's great guitarist Tony McPhee. Other notable members of this band were Dave Kelly (now with "The Blues Band") and his sister Joanne Kelly, a wonderful country blues singer. John was featured on the album Cabal with the band before leaving in 1969.

Whilst still with the John Dummer Band, he organised a studio session using the name Sweet Pain. The album was essentially a jam session with members of Alexis Korner’s Blues Inc., and John Mayall’s Blues Breakers – Dick Heckstall-Smith, Victor Brox, Keith Tillman and Aynsley Dunbar. Most of the vocals are beutifully sung by Victor’s wife Annette Brox and the guitar chores were handled by the underrated Stuart Cowell. The results were issued by Mercury and received some very good reviews. A second album by Sweet Pain was recorded, but unfortunately, somebody stole the tapes!

Shortly after the Sweet Pain collaboration, John recorded an album for the French Byg label with the great New Orleans blues singer and pianist Champion Jack Dupree. Jack used The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation along with jazzmen, saxophonist Ray Warleigh and trombonist Nick Evans. The album , originally released as The Heart of the Blues is Sound , is once again available in the Charley Blues Masterworks Series and has since been renamed "Home".

The next two ventures were both short lived affairs, with bass player Jerome Arnold’s attempt to form a band in the UK, and "never quite made it to live gigs" in The Brunning/Hall Sunflower Band. However some sides were issued on their Gemini album and have been recently reissued by Indigo Records on CD.

Following a retirement from the music business, John returned to the scene in the late 1970’s and in collaboration with his long term friend, bassist Keith Tillman, they formed The Famous Bluesblasters. The band drew it’s inspiration from the Sweet Pain session and it worked constantly in the London area and built up a solid following. The core of the band consisted of saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith, singer/pianist/trumpeter Victor Brox, and the brilliant jazz guitarist, Kenny Shaw from the jazz rock band Nucleus. From time to time other musicians such as Pete Bardens (keyboards), Chris Mercer (tenor), Tim Jones (guitar) and Roger Jones (drummer now with Angela Brown) gigged with the band. Although these were difficult times for blues bands the band survived up into the early 1980’s untill it was relaunched as Mainsqueeze.

This new incarnation, a step on musically from The Bluesblasters, had a really strong line up... John, Dick, Keith and Victor remained to form the nucleus of the new band, whilst Keef Hartley joined on drums, Eric Bell from Thin Lizzy came in on guitar and vocals, Diana Wood on vocals and alto sax and Dave "Munch" Moore on Hammond organ. The band toured mainly in Europe and recorded a live album during its residency at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London. The album was issued on the Expulsion label and is now deleted. The end of Mainsqueeze was an acrimonious affair (a real "can of worms") with John and Diana Wood leaving. A scaled down version of the band continued for a little while under Keith Tillman’s leadership with an irregular line up. The one high spot for the remainder of the band was the probably the fine tour and album with Bo Diddley.

With his departure from Mainsqueeze, another lean period set in. Although not touring, he continued to play with numerous bands in the London area. Some of these bands include:- The (Chicago)Sunsets, Black Market, Juju Blue, The Sidewinders, The Engineers, Grass Roots, Sugarcane and a special concert at the Marquee to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the death of Rolling Stone Brian Jones with folk singer Donovan, Eric Bell, Noel Redding, Marianne Faithfull, and others.

In 2001 John began working with The Andy Cortes Band. Andy is a brilliant young guitarist, who is deservedly fast making a big name for himself in the blues world. Andy has also had the good fortune to have been helped by the many wonderful musicians who have played in his band... Noel Brown (guitar), Rob Millis (hammond organ), Foxy, Chris Belshaw, Nick Dalton & Dave Hadley (bass), Ed Spevock, "Funky" George Dare, Mark Freeman, Roger Hunt, Frank Diamore (drums) and multi-instrumentalists Pete Sargent & Pete Brown. In 2005 Andy signed with Universal Records as a solo artist.

In 2002 John branched out on his own as The John O'Leary Band. With an original line-up of Joachim Greve (drums), Dave Hadley (bass), Lol Sanford (guitar) and Malcolm Bruce (piano), the first 18 months saw several personnel changes, however since 2004 the line up has been fixed with Jules Fothergill (guitar) joining the band alongside Joachim and John. Having used several bass players through 2004 including Mike Bailey, Dave Clarke, Nick Townsend, Sylvio Galasso, John Kaettner, and others, in 2005 the excellent Roger Inniss came on board, bringing with him in 2006 Jools Grudgings on keyboards. See below for their individual biographies.

Jules Fothergill - biography

28 years old, Jules is an excellent guitarist, who was given his first guitar for his 16th birthday and has been playing ever since. Picking up the bottleneck when he was 19 give him a chance to play something a little different to the norm, and it has become a trademark of his style. Amongst other accolades he has been described as being "eyeball-meltingly brilliant" by "What’s On In London" Magazine, "one of Britain's brightest guitarists" by Maverick Magazine, and as being "undoubtedly in the very top rank of UK blues guitarists" by bluesinthenorthwest.com. Drawing on a wide variety of influences – such as The Allman Brothers Band, Jimmy Smith, Miles Davis, Lee Morgan and Robben Ford – Jules has defined a style of playing quite unlike his contemporaries on the London circuit.

Notable events in Jules career include being chosen from 70 other guitarists to play for The National Youth Music Theatre for their performance at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1996. They went on to play 70 shows in 30 days! He appeared on BBC Radio Scotland in which he had the opportunity to jam with The Geno Washington Band. In 1999 he opened for the then-current chart acts St. Etienne, Space and Terrorvision. In 2000, he was reunited with The National Youth Music Theatre for their GMTV appearance. During the same year he played on the "Bugsy Malone Original Soundtrack" which was recorded at Abbey Road Studios.

From 2001-2004 Jules also played guitar in London based roots band Roadhouse, working throughout the UK and Ireland, with frequent trips over to Europe as well.

In recent times he has been acknowledged as a gifted guitarist by both fans and musicians alike. Concurrently with his work with The John O’Leary Band, Jules works regularly as a founder member of original funk-rock band funkydory.

Joachim Greve - biography

Since his arrival in England in 1999, German drummer Joachim has established himself as a much sought after musician. He’s been playing since the age of eight! During his studies in Dusseldorf he was awarded First Prize in Final Oberstufe and later in Paris he was awarded First Prize is Superierur/Master Class at Ecole de Batterie Dante Agostini Premier Ecole Nationale Paris.

His earliest professional job in the UK was in the house band at The Fashion Café in London (1999), followed by recording work for poet Pete Brown. As drummer in David Hadley’s band The Phenomenal Pound Puppies, he played New York, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and the UK (1999-2000). His next touring engagement was as a member of "TRASH-An Explosion of Percussion", a drum and tap dance touring stage show which played Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Turkey... TRASH was spectacular show that featured 6 drummers and 4 tap dancers. Joachim was the soloist in the show’s grand finale.

In the intervening years, Joachim has worked with numerous artists such as Earl Green, Blues of Cain, Damien McCabe, Queen Bee & Snakes Blues Quartet (Colne Blues Festival), Shabitatabaka (Russia). Joachim has also given Master Class demonstrations and lecture at Drumtech in London and appeared on Ned Sherrin BBC radio show Loose Ends and BBC’s Blue Peter.

Joachim has also toured Turkey with Arteast and Russia with the heavy rock band Positive Arrogance.

Roger Inniss - biography

When Roger was a little boy he often dreamt of becoming an aircraft pilot, motor racing driver or painter like Salvador Dali. As he grew older he became aware of how these dreams influenced his life. As a musician Roger enjoys the freedom to fly like the pilot, he loves the attention to detail and teamwork of a motor racing driver and enjoys the surrealism of life and music like Dali.

Of Caribbean descent, the childhood music Roger heard was mainly happy, joyful and uplifting; life was not easy for his family in the late 1950’s and early ‘60’s in England and listening to music was a great release for the Inniss household. At around the age of nine Roger was sent to church on Sundays (to give his mum some “peace and quiet”). After a few years he started playing guitar (to help prevent boredom!). Accompanying gospel singers at church was a great education in versatility, unpredictability and improvisation as people would often just start singing and the musicians were expected to follow them wherever they went.

Being heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, the Rolling Stones, the Steve Gibbons Band, Steely Dan, Rufus (with Chaka Khan), the Average White Band and Steve Hillage, helped him visualise a direction he wanted to go in. But it wasn’t until hearing the 1977 Weather Report album “Heavy Weather” in 1978 that Roger was “blinded by the light” as he puts it. “It all came together at once. Everything I dreamt about was there – funky, rocky, jazz music ....... I flipped out and I’ve not been right ever since ......... It wasn’t just the bass playing (Jaco was incredible) but the whole vibe and concept.” Roger was already listening to Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, etc. and lots of gospel music. “But Heavy Weather was just what I needed to hear.”

As a self-taught musician Roger began to listen to and study everything from Bix Beiderbecke to Roland Kirk, Eric Dolphy to Cecil Taylor, rock, pop, country – anything that would give him the opportunity to perform expressively. Over the years he has spent most of his time touring, gigging, recording or working on projects with other creative people, including sculptors, actors and visual and musical artists. “It’s all about the spirit and the vibe” he says when describing his reasons for being involved in projects. “I love it when individuals bring their skills and expertise together and develop something that is totally unique to that time and space ....... When we all give but we all receive as well .. that’s my vibe man.” UK. France, Germany, USA, Japan, Cuba, wherever Roger has gone he has sought out this truth and answered it’s call.

He endeavours to share some of his musical and philosophical ideas in schools, colleges and workshops around the UK; mostly he can be found in some dark and dingy club somewhere, playing his heart out and having a great time! Roger has is own website at http://www.rogerinniss.com.

Jools Grudgings - biography

Biography forthcoming

Other musicians

There have been many players that have sat in and depped with the John O'Leary Band over the years, both on stage and in the studio, including:

Dominique Vantomme, keyboards
Marc Le Guerrannic, guitar
Tim O'Sullivan, guitar
Winston Delandro, guitar
Lorna Reilly, vocals
Rietta Austin, vocals
Lucy London, vocals
Michael Bailey, bass
Nick Townsend, bass
Sylvio Galasso, bass
Michael Curtis Ruix, bass
John Kaettner, bass