Home of the Widdler

Collectively, the members of  Zephyr have over 50 years experience in playing live music!…. Almost every gig gets the same reaction…..’best band we’ve ever had on here’, ‘amazing musicians’, ‘where are you playing near here again’, ‘I’m a drummer and been playing 15 years but never seen anyone as good as you’, ‘I play guitar but I think I’ll go home and burn mine after seeing that!’, ‘great front man’, ‘seen Bon Jovi but you blew me away’, ‘great Bass player, sounds awesome’.

Two encores is normal. It’s more often three just to avoid a riot or a hefty bill to replace the glasses that have been banged on the table whilst the crowd chant ’one more, one more, two more, three more…’ You know how it goes. And that’s not just the audience. Even the committee members, bar staff, ’man in box’ join in. They absolutely can’t get enough and that’s no lie.

Zephyr play in their own style so even though they have to play all the old favourites such as Livin’ on a Prayer and Summer of ‘69 to be able to make a living on the club scene, the songs have been refreshed and given a new lease of life because of the original slant that’s put on them. You will never hear the same gig twice.

Now, Zephyr play hard and they rock, but for those readers that think ‘eek, that means just too loud and just a lot of noise’, do not be put off. Their playing is melodic, their sound equipment is top notch, they are tight as hell and they don’t play any Motorhead!  We can work with decibel metres and whatever other restrictions are necessary for each gig and still rock. It doesn’t have to be deafeningly loud when you’re as good as these guys.  And for those venues with bad lifts…we’ve done worse and survived!

Now these guys like to party as much as the anyone else but they know their limits! Rest assured there’ll be no turning up too drunk to play or anything like that. The only thing they take seriously is the music and performance and they will guarantee a truly professional gig. They save the partying for after. There’s plenty of time for that on the way home.

RYAN WINKS (VOCALS / ACOUSTIC GUITAR)

- Ryan (a.k.a. ‘Droid’) started his career as a jockey believe it or not and was very successful too, especially considering his age. He almost got into the record books for being the youngest jockey to win races alongside the likes of Frankie Dettori.

As his mum and dad fronted the legendary club act ‘Teaser’ (who were quite awesome in their day), it wasn’t long before he was drawn into clubland life and was doing sound and lights for Teaser from age 12! However, it wasn’t long before he took to the stage himself at age 14 as a vocalist in a boy band (eeuww!!). Thankfully his taste in music improved with age and his main vocal influence is now Paul Rodgers from Free. Ryan’s voice really shows great tone on the Free & Bad Company numbers he sings with Café and he’s proved he can turn his hand to almost anything else too. He just gets better and better.

And finally, as Ryan would say… keep music real, keep music live, and lets keep it livin’ forever!!!! Enjoy!

RICH SPENCER (GUITAR/BACKING VOCALS) -

Rich (a.k.a. ‘The Widdler’)

I started playing guitar in 1985 after having the idea that if you were into rock music you must want to be in a band (not a bad idea really!!). At age 15 I started learning guitar after getting a chord book and learning alongside a few schoolmates I found guitar fairly easy to play (at first!). It was the mid 80's and for a guitarist learning how to play and liking the sounds of heavy rock (or hair metal!) the calibre of players, especially from America were great to learn from. Guitarists such as Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert, Zakk Wylde and Doug Aldrich to name but a few were tremendous influences. Some might say they had their licks stolen! After a few original bands the first 'club' band I played in was Guns n Oatcakes (one of a very long list of former members!) I was with them from 1996-1999. We played in Israel for 3 weeks in 1997 with Danny from Billy Black Band on drums. That was great fun. In 2000 I joined a Led Zeppelin tribute band called Graf Zeppelin in which I first met Paul Oliver. After I left in 2002 I didn't play live for about 18 months, then Paul told me Cafe needed a new guitarist and I joined with no rehearsal. My first gig was the rehearsal! I enjoy putting my own slant on the songs we do, it's my way of keeping them fresh, hopefully they come across well. I love doing the Drill Song by Mr Big because it's a challenge and when Deano and I use the drills in the song, people wonder what we're doing!

 PAUL OLIVER (DRUMS)

Name : Graham Alexander

Instrument : Bass Guitar

Age : 33

Height : 5"6

Sex : Always on offer !

Past Bands : Saigon Kiss, Stadia, Sideline, FLAME, REM Tribute, Joker's Wild, Gladragz, Snatch.

Experience : Vast touring and recording experience over the last 15 years. Supported Saxon in 1995 with Saigon Kiss, Toured America with FLAME in 1996. Also with the Space Cadets for 2 years before trying a Duo project with Snatch. Good to be back though !

Worst Nightmare : Running out of food, and bad load-ins !

Influences : Steve Harris from Iron Maiden, Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, to name a few.

Equipment used : Fender Precision Bass Lyte (1989)

Ambitions : To keep Bass playing alive by sounding better than a sampled dance riff !

Likes : Fishing, most types of music (although i HATE Country and Western), Online Gaming (Nobody can match my sniping skills !)

Dislikes : Slow drivers and speed cameras

Quotes : "We're Doomed!" and ".....which was nice !"

Fav song to play : Space Medley in the set, and Phantom Of The Opera by Iron Maiden when I'm at home