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PETE BOY
Pete got into his first bands as a teenager in late 70's . He went
through the late 70's rockabilly craze that got the whole Finland
( well, almost) boppin' and shakin' like there was no end! But the
end for that phenomenom came sooner than you could think and in the
early eighties rockabilly went underground. At that time Pete had
formed a band called Butterfingers with his mate Tommy T., who played
drums in all of Pete's bands to come.
Butterfingers played a mixture of Gene Vincent and Johnny Burnette
material and their own songs followed in that same direction. Butterfingers
released a couple of EP's and worked also as a backing band for other
artists until the late eighties.
Pete's next band was formed in '88 and it was called Pete Boy and
the Virginia Gang . The musical style was still the same and it was
only showing signs of far deeper dedication to Gene Vincent's musical
heritage. Pete's crusade in the musical world of this particular crippled
rock'n'roll legend reached it's peak with a line-up that had a full
horn section, piano and clapper boys for that late fifties Blue Caps
sound! In ´'90-'93 the lineup was back to 4-piece and it worked
under a name Pete Boy's Party. Pete Boy's Party released a live recording
in -93. The band split soon after that and the rest of the nineties
Pete worked as a solo musician and studio engineer. In 2003 he got
together with Chris and Jay and with Tommy T. in drums they started
a band that got named T-BIRD GANG! At this point of the story it's
probably obvious who became their main influence...
HEROES:Gene Vincent, Johnny Burnette and Eddie Cochran.
MOST IMPORTANT RECORD:Gene Vincent :Rocks and The Blue Caps Roll.
Other notable records that have left their mark on Pete are:
- Johnny Burnette Rock'n roll trio
- Dave Phillips and The Hot Rod Gang:Wild youth
- Stargazers: Watch this space
- Tommy Steele: Story
- Elvis: Sun collection
Pete's gear on stage consists of Levin royal jazz guitar (012 stringset)
and Beyerdynamic Opus 69 vocal microphone.
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C H R I S
Chris started his musical career at the age of 6 when he started taking
piano lessons.
As a teenager he started collecting records, picked up a stand up
bass and formed a rockabilly band in 1983. His first bands played
mostly what you could call as rock’n’roll / rockabilly standards,
songs like Twenty Flight Rock, Rockin’ Daddy etc. main influences
being SUN artists, Bill Haley and Eddie Cochran. That lasted a couple
of years and between 1985 – 1990 Chris played rhythm guitar, took
lead vocals and wrote songs in a band called Daisy Chain. That was
more like sixties stuff with a hint of then popular sleaze / street
rock.
Nothing lasts forever and in 1991 it was time to pick up the bass
again. This time Chris was looking for more modern rockabilly sound
with a band called Space Bandits. The band took influences from British
neo-rockabilly veterans like Restless, Polecats and Deltas. Chris
wrote a lot of original material, Space Bandits visited studio four
times recording total of 14 tracks but nothing was ever released.
Between 1994 – 2000 Chris played bass and sang backing vocals in various
groups ( incl. Bull’s Eye, Bop Cats, Rock-Ola, ) and then came the
Hoedowners.
The Hoedowners recorded a mini CD on Goofin’ Records, did many good
gigs, the most memorable being Hemsby Rock’n’Roll Weekender in spring
2002. Somehow, the singer of the band got enough for gigging and moved
to the other side of Finland and that was it this time.
Chris and Jay, who was the guitarist in the Hoedowners, started looking
for a new singer and that’s where Pete came in the picture. Hoedowners
was a drumless rockabilly trio and that wasn’t Pete’s cup of tea.
He came up with an idea of adding a drummer, Tommy T., and with a
stronger sound the band needed a new name as well as a new setlist,
too.
In the summer of 2003 T-Bird Gang was born…
Chris's biggest influences are Ray Brown, Eddie Cochran, Bill Haley
and his Comets, Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps, Dave Phillips and
The Blue Cats.
The top three LP’s are Gene Vincent: And The Blue Caps, Bill Haley:
Armchair Rock’n’Roll and Dave Phillips and The Hot Rod Gang: Wild
Youth.
Other important LP’s are:
- Mystery Train: Teach You to Rock ( The best Finnish r’n’r band in
the 1980’s )
- Stargazers: Watch This Space
- Blue Cats: The Tunnel
- Big Sandy and The Fly-Rite Trio: On The Go
- Oscar Peterson Trio: Night Train
Chris has two stand up basses; a blond for photo sessions and jazzier
playing
( steel strings ) and a brunette for pub gigs and slappin’ with Rotosound
monel / nylon strings. With his bass he uses Barcus Berry 3150 microphone
and Hartke and EBS amps with 1 x 15” speaker.
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J A Y
Jay Saine started his musical study playing classical guitar while
he was 12 years old. But his practising got more determined at the
age of 15, when he switched to electric guitar and started to emulate
Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and the like.
After experimenting various styles of rock music in different bands
during the 90´s he wanted to dig deeper into the core and history
of electric guitar playing, and since then he has been musically digesting
early electric blues, 50´s rock n´ roll plus rockabilly
and 60´s instro music, for example.
Some of his biggest influences are: Cliff Gallup, Grady Martin, Carl
Perkins, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, Freddie King, Elmore James, Hank
B. Marvin..
Besides T-Bird Gang, Jay plays/has played in such bands as: The Sleepwalkers,
Hoedowners, The Stumble..
Currently Jay is using Gretsch Thinline Synchromatic semi-solid guitar,
Fender ´59 Bassman amplifier (reissue) and Ibanez echo pedal..
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