Andrew Stones
History
My varied musical career started out at the age of five, when I started my eleven years of classical training with the greatly respected instructor, Mrs. G Griffin, but it was during my teens that the first live performances were to take place.
Due to the expense of even the most basic portable keyboards at the time, my paper round pennies (with great parental help) funded a drum kit and although occasional piano gigs happened, my love for playing in a band in public was confirmed. "Arras Fox" played many rehearsals and only one gig before the guitarist left. Then "New Horizons" were formed with college friends and played many pubs and clubs in the local area, always to large crowds of friends and admirers. My love for performing was growing.
It was at the age of 19 that I started playing piano/keyboards in "No Sweat" before leaving them to join "The Harpbreaker Blues Band" at the age of 21. The Harpbreakers introduced me to a more professional outlook and for over four years we played many 'bigger venues' , even appearing on the front cover of the blues magazine "Blueprint".
Via JSP records, we backed and supported many great U.S. blues artists such as Carey Bell, Angela Brown, Guitar Shorty, Lefty Dizz, Phil Guy, and Mojo Buford... to name a few! It was at this time that I became self employed as a musician, as I was teaching a bit on drums, piano and even on guitar, as well as performing freelance (primarily with the Harpbreakers) and doing solo gigs too. I suspect the "Move to Cambridgeshire or take redundancy" offer helped with the timing.
It was in the February of '93 that I did my first gig with the "Winchesters" and it was the bands originality, musicianship and strong desire to entertain that convinced me to join them. For the following ten years, we played many venues and festivals at home and abroad - even appearing on TV and radio!
During this time, my solo work was also keeping me busy and in January 2003, left the Winchesters to pursue a freelance musician and solo performing career. Since then, I've played for many bands including the rock 'n Roll band "Jimmie And The Jackdorz", a rocking blues band called "The King Bees" and with the BBC radio presenter Nic Dow. Primarily though, I play solo gigs with an aim of being versatile and entertaining.