If
you were in Guildford, Surrey, in the mid seventies, and happened to be walking
down the High Street towards Quarry Street at about 8.30pm on a Monday night,
you would probably have heard the sound of music drifting down from the Kings
Head.
HOUSE were the band playing, and their Monday night gigs at the Kings Head were
standing room only. If you were lucky enough to fight your way in, it would
be quite possible that you would rub shoulders with Bruce Foxton of The Jam,
Jet Black of The Stranglers or a young Ben Elton. The music was all self penned,
and was hybrid folk rock. The line up was Tony Backhurst on vocals and acoustic
guitar, Sev Lewkowicz on keyboards and vocals, and Tim Wheatley on bass and
vocals. They augmented their line up with various drummers, and Squeaky MacGregor
on sax, and later by Dick Middleton on electric guitar, but they performed often as just a trio.
For some 3 years the Monday night gig was Guildford's best kept secret. As well
as playing at the Kings Head, HOUSE played at all the venues in the surrounding
area, as well as very occasionally playing in London at such gigs as The Marquee, and even the Rainbow Theatre, supporting Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow.
But it wasn't to be. Although they had a huge and devoted local following, major
success eluded them, and around 1980 they decided to call it a day....
As a result of the death of their sometime drummer Chris 'Wheelbarrow' Brayne
at the end of 1996, HOUSE reformed to record a track for a commemorative CD,
and to play live at a charity gig in celebration of Wheelbarrow in Chiddingfold.
With the new found enthusiasm generated, they decided to record a whole album of the songs they used to play 20
years ago - most of which had never been recorded before. The album is aptly
entitled Water Under the Bridge.
John Tobler, respected rock journalist and svengali at RGF Records agreed to
release the album on his label.
The album was recorded at Sev's studio, The Music Loft, and edited and mastered
at Tim's Keynote Audio It is available direct from our record company RGF Records.