James McKay

words

James has wanted to be a poet since he saw the beatniks in John Waters' movie Hairspray at an impressionable age. “I was really too young to know what kind of people these were supposed to be,” he remembers, “but I knew I wanted to be one.”

The dream lay dormant through years of studying and teaching classical languages, finally breaking out into the smoke-filled living rooms and cafes of Tyneside at the turn of the millennium.

James now lives in East London, where he enjoys cheap curry, secondhand bookshops and long walks in the post-industrial wasteland.

Dave Maughan

guitar, Hammond organ

Dave is well known as a producer/engineer and has a string of notable albums to his credit, including the one that earned Kathryn Williams a Mercury nomination back in 2000.

Subsisting on black tea (with the tea bag left in the cup) and the odd bacon sandwich, Dave listens to tremendous new stuff that unsigned people send him, and to rubbish by established artists on the radio, and just doesn't understand.

He has a Dobermann dog called Spike.

He hates watching Newcastle United getting beaten.

He has no interest whatsoever in cars, as long as they get from A to B without breaking down.

Alan Morton

bass

Plays old Fender bass guitars and the occasional Rickenbacker, while under the influence of Colin Hodgkinson (from Back Door), Ennio Morricone, Deep Purple...

Alan collects cars, particularly Land Rovers, Armstrong Siddeleys and Alfa Romeos.

His favourite foods are Tunnocks Caramel Wafers and grapes.

He hates umbrellas and telephones.