Amledd is proud to be part of the strongly developing Welsh music scene. Live, Amledd truly come to life and must be seen to be believed!

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ANDY MAULE (GUITARIST/COMPOSER) 1964 - 2007: Self-taught guitarist Andy performed and recorded with many different artists around Europe.

Andy led the Jazz/Fusion outfit Strange Fruit, performing all-original music by Andy. They toured throughout the UK and Europe. Equally capable as a soloist, accompanist or band leader, Andy was most at home playing his own compositions or looking for new, original interpretations of popular jazz standards, thus making him one of the most in-demand players around. With hundreds of concerts and recording sessions to his name, he has played all the top jazz festivals in the UK and toured Switzerland frequently as a guest of the Swiss Jazz Society.

In October '97 Andy began performing with violinist Billy Thompson and, together with bassist Dafydd Lewis, recorded the CD 'Iff & Butt'.

In his later years Andy started to concentrate more on composing for various media. Recent projects included a Channel 4 documentary and the S4C TV series Rapsgaliwns.

Andy set up his own music production company called Maule Music. On the 12th of April 2007 Andy died in his sleep after years of fighting chronic pancreatitus. He was a true friend to Billy and an inspiration to many.

DAFYDD LEWIS (BASS): Originally a trombonist in shows and youth orchestras, Dafydd began playing electric bass when he started at Salford College of Performing Arts, where he moved on to the double bass.
Dafydd spent four years playing with the Andy Prior Big Band, including three seasons at the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool, three albums and numerous TV and radio appearances.
From '94-'97 he was bassist for the resident band at the Casino Cabaret in Monte Carlo and at the Monte Carlo Sporting Club, supporting major artists including Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey.
Dafydd Lewis returned to Britain in '97 to continue touring and recording with Andy Prior and has recently worked with American singer Salena Jones (on whose latest album Billy can be heard) in London and Japan.

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THE AMIGOS:
Gary Philips (Guitar/slide/Banjo/Mandolin/Vocals): Founded The Amigos around 10 years ago. Guitarist and MD for many American and British Blues/Soul Artist. Appeared at British Blues Festival (including CD) Cork Jazz Festival (3 Times) 14 European Tours. Guitar Workshops/Concerts. Lecturer at Swansea University. Guitar Tutor for W.G.C.C. Currently commissioned to write more film and TV music. Band leader for The Amigos for around 10 years.
Andy King (Guitar/Vocals): Co - founder of the Amigos, Andy has toured Britain on the Country Music scene including Wembley Country Music Festival. Toured with Max Boyce. Currently a very busy session guitar player.
Andy 'Wal' Coughlan (Double Bass, Bass guitar): Moved to London early 80s, became a session musician playing with bands ranging from Gary Numan to Alison Moyet. Played BassÊon film soundtracks (including 'A Fish Called Wanda') to Nasher from the "Frankies", World tours, Television and radio jingles. Recent session credits range from the Gorky's Zygotic Mynci toÊ Fernhill, with a few album productions for Phil James.
Nigel Hopkins (Accordion): Nigel was classically trained on Piano and continued to pursue classical music through progressive rock bands in the UK. A Roland UK programmer and a top producer/engineer, Nigel has produced albums for hundreds of artists including albums in Nashville, Tennessee and has played Keyboards on over fifty Television series. Works frequently with Elvis Costello, Chris de Burgh and Martyn Joseph. Check out his producing skills on Martyn Joseph's latest CD Deep Blue. Check out his main original project at www.myspace.com/toyshopmurders

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BARBARA THOMPSON & PARAPHERNALIA:
Barbara Thompson (Composition/Saxes/Flute): Barbara was born in Oxford and educated at Queen's College, Harley Street, London and the Royal College of Music, where she studied clarinet, piano, flute and composition. Whilst retaining a strong interest in classical music, Barbara was captivated by the jazz work of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane and developed a consuming passion for the saxophone.
She formed her own group Paraphernalia in 1977. The band, still actively touring and recording to this day, has become one of the major instrumental attractions on the European concert scene. Barbara's original and inventive compositions and soaring saxophone and flute improvisations, have earned her international acclaim, while the originality of the music has appealed to a wider audience than merely contemporary jazz buffs. Barbara released her 15th album "Thompson's Tangos & Other Soft Dances", in October, 2000.
Barbara worked closely with Andrew Lloyd Webber on many of his earlier projects such as "Variations" featuring Julian Lloyd Webber, "Cats" featuring Elaine Page and Wayne Sleep, "Tell Me On A Sunday" featuring Marti Webb, "Starlight Express" and "Requiem". She has composed and arranged for many line-ups including her 20 piece big band "Moving Parts", "the Medici String Quartet", the BBC Singers, and her "Concerto For Three Saxophones" was performed at the Freiburg Festival and broadcast by the Hannover Radio Symphony Orchestra for the NDR, in Germany. She has also composed several short classical works commissioned by Radio 3 and several TV and film themes including 'A Touch of Frost'.
"Barbara Song", a series of contemporary arrangements of Kurt Weill songs for saxophone and string quartet, was recorded with the "Medici String Quartet" and received its premiere at a sell out concert in the Purcell room at London's South Bank. It was broadcast by Classic FM , and later two thousand people turned up for the first continental performance at the Freiburg Festival, Germany. Gary Booth's review of the album (released Nov 95) in the BBC Music Magazine reads : "As a composer of extended works for large ensembles and as a featured soloist in other writer's projects, this classically trained saxophonist has never confined herself to straight ahead jazz. In this selection from the Kurt Weill songbook, reflective versions of favourites such as 'Mack the Knife' and 'September Song' are provided by nine arrangers, including Richard Rodney Bennett and John Dankworth. Each provides space for Thompson's superior technique and warm tone. The combination of strings, reeds and Weill seems so natural here, you wonder it hasn't been attempted before." During November 95, "Barbara Song" provided the 1st half of a concert broadcast live from the Queen Elizabeth Hall, on London's Southbank by BBC Radio 3. The second half was Barbara's 50 minute BBC commission "Love Songs In Age", based on the poems of Philip Larkin . This was scored for string quartet, 24 singers, percussion, bass, piano and saxophones. Chris Parker's review of the concert in the Times reads: "a collaboration between composer/saxophonist Barbara Thompson, the Medici String Quartet and the BBC Singers exploring the music of Kurt Weill and the poetry of the late Philip Larkin proved genuinely uplifting. Thompson has a round pure tone on all the saxophones, particularly well suited to blending with strings, and the arrangements of Weill material, from Geoffrey Burgon's suitably melancholic Surabaya Johnny, to the stunningly adventurous version of Mike WestbrookÕs September Song, were wonderfully rich."
Recently Barbara recorded a new work with Evelyn Glennie and her accompanist Philip Smith. This is an extended piece commissioned from Barbara, by Eastern Arts, which was first performed at the Theatre Royal in Norwich as part of the "Women in Music Festival". This work entitled "Rhythms of the Gods" is in eleven movements and is based on surviving ancient Greek music and fragments of poetry by the Greek Lyric Poets such as Sappho, Plato, Anakreon, Pindar, Alkaios, and features Evelyn Glennie on percussion, Barbara on saxophones, recorder and clarinet, and Philip Smith on grand piano. 'In Time of Storm', one of the movements from 'Rhythms of the Gods' is based on an evocative poem by the Greek poetess Sappho. You can hear the rippling of the waves and the ominous tones of the aproaching storm, followed by crashing hymnlike chords on the grand piano with alto saxophone on soaring high notes accompanied by the deep eerie tones of a large gong heralding the beginning of the calm at the end of a storm.
At present, Barbara is concentrating on composing. The Apollo Saxophone Quartet together with the Brighton Festival, commissoned a piece, Saxophone Quartet no. 1, which was performed May 2001, and subsequently became part of the Apollo Saxophone Quartet's concert repertoire. She has written another two Saxophone Quartets, and the ASQ are planning to record all three quartets during the Summer 2002. They are playing at the Purcell Room, London's Southbank this October 17th, 2002, and will premier some of Barbara's new music.
In the meantime, Norwich Arts have commissoned a 50 minute piece to be performed by the 80 strong choir Big Sky, accompanied by percussion/tuned percussion and church organ,in Norwich, on the 2nd, 3rd & 4th of April, 2003. The piece will be called 'Journey to an Unknown Destination' based on poems by the Calcutan poet Tagore plus a poem by Andrew Motion, who is a native of the locality. Other projects include writing a piece for the Leasowe Festival, Wales, at the end of July, 2002. She is also planning to record her big band 'Moving Parts' for which she has just written a tuba concerto featuring Andy Grappy. The plan is to play a short tour and then record the album.
Also in the pipeline, is finishing a musical with 20 songs already written, and pieces for the new Colosseum album. Colosseum will be touring next year. Barbara was awarded an M.B.E. for services to music in The Queen's Birthday Honours list 1995.
Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia has just finished touring a brand new album called 'Never Say Goodbye' which includes a band arrangement of the Tuba Concerto mentioned above...
Discography.
More information about Barbara Thompson & Jon Hiseman can be seen at their web address - Temple Music.
Jon Hiseman (Drums/Producer): Pearl Drums, Paiste Cymbals & Shaw Stix Producer, sound engineer and man with screwdriver and Tech Tools.
Jon studied piano and violin as a child but became intensely interested in percussion during his early teens. His first performances were given on timpani with a small orchestra but he very soon became interested in rock and popular music and by the time he was 18 he was working semi-professionally on the London scene with rhythm and blues and modern jazz groups. In 1966 he turned professional, replacing Ginger Baker in the Graham Bond Organisation and followed this with stints with Georgie Fame and John Mayall.
From 1969 to 1978 he led three pioneering Jazz-Rock groups - Colosseum, Tempest and Colosseum II. Throughout these years he was in demand as a session drummer and in 1977 met Andrew Lloyd Webber, a composer in search of an orchestra. Colosseum II, featuring Gary Moore, became the nucleus for the No 1 hit 'Variations' album.
Working alongside his wife Barbara Thompson and Rod Argent on this project led to the Rod Arget / Barbara Thompson album 'Ghosts' released by MCA in 1982. Jon's association with Andrew Lloyd Webber continued on 'Cats' and 'Tell me on a Sunday,' 'Starlight Express' and 'Requiem'. In 1979 Jon joined Barbara Thompson's band Paraphernalia, and MCA Records released 3 albums before 1982 when Jon built a 24Tk recording studio next to their home and founded TM Studios/TM Records. Jon and Barbara have averaged about a 100 concerts and a CD a year ever since. In addition they are in demand for their Film & TV score production, and currently work on the Yorkshire Television series 'A Touch of Frost' starring David Jason.
In 1975 Jon was a founder member of the United Jazz & Rock Ensemble. This ten piece band has released an Album and toured every two years or so ever since. Jon released his first solo album 'A Night In The Sun' (it's not a drum solo album!) which was recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1982. Since then he has produced and performed on seven Paraphernalia albums 'Mother Earth', ''Nightwatch', 'A Cry From The Heart', 'Breathless', 'Everlasting Flame', 'Lady Saxophone', 'Shifting Sands' and the latest, 'Thompson's Tangos' and Barbara's album 'Heavenly Bodies'. He recorded and produced BarbaraÕs album 'Songs From The Centre Of The Earth' - solo saxophone pieces recorded on location in the natural acoustic of a 12th Century mediaeval abbey in Provence, France, and 'Barbara Song', arrangements of Kurt Weill songs for Barbara and the Medici String Quartet. Jon is currently working on 'Rhythms of the Gods' a new Barbara Thompson album in collaboration with Evelyn Glennie and has recently completed the recording stage for a new live Paraphernalia Album.
Jon is famous for his drum solos and 60 concerts were digitally recorded during Paraphernalia and United Jazz & Rock Ensemble tours in 1985. This resulted in the album 'About Time Too!' being released in the Autumn of 1986. This is a drum solo album and has just been re-released on CD. It's a great album for parties when you want people to leave! In 1995 following serious pressure from the rest of the band, Jon reformed Colosseum. Following more than 140 smash concerts all over Europe, Jon recorded and co-produced 2 albums and a live video. 'Colosseum Lives - The Reunion Concerts' and the Video of the same name were released in 1995 with a studio CD 'Bread and Circuses' released in 1997. The reviews were ecstatic!
There is a brand new studio album by Colosseum called 'Tomorrow's Blues'.
Peter Lemer (Keyboards/Compositions): Peter Lemer's name has become an integral part of the extremely tangled British jazz scene since the early 1960's, and in the following decade worked with bands like Gilgamesh and Pierre Moerlen's Gong, not to mention his work with the Baker-Gurvitz Army, Seventh Wave, Mike Oldfield and many jazz and jazz-rock combos.
Born in London in 1942, his first gig was with Jeff Clyne and Tony Crombie in a dodgy Israeli nightclub. During this engagement he met both Jerry Garval (a student of Max Roach), and Jack Goldzweig ( a co-teacher with Mal Waldron and John Mehegan). This input led to him forming his own jazz trio with Clyne and John Stevens as soon as 1963 and eventually the group opened at the debut of Little Theatre Club, helping to pave the way for the British jazz movement of the late 1960's and early 1970's.
Peter made his recording debut as a leader (Local Colour) in 1996, the band by then including Jon Hiseman, John Surman, George Khan and Tony Reeves. A year in New York followed, which included extensive jamming, gigging and study. Coaches included famed jazz pianists Jaki Byard and Paul Bley and Double Bass guru David Walters. He also studied at the Royal Academy of Music and included Tommy Rajnaand Sven Weber among his classical coaches.
In 1969, he worked with the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. In 1974, Peter joined Gilgamesh, the band led by fellow keyboard player Alan Gowen. During his short stint, he took part in several gigs and a couple of BBC sessions. Developing an interest for electronic keyboards, he subsequently became an in-demand session player, while gigging with Harry Beckett, Barbara Thompson, Annette Peacock and others. During this period Peter recorded and performed with '7th Wave', the groundbreaking rock synthesiser orchestra.
In 1979, Peter was one of two keyboard players in Mike Oldfield's 50-piece touring band which also featured Gong drummer Pierre Moerlen. This led to him guesting on Moerlen's album 'Time Is The Key'. In spite of his brilliant performance, he didn't join Pierre Moerlen's Gong, although he kept working with the French drummer as part of Oldfield's band until late 1980.
Lemer joined Phil Miller's band In Cahoots in 1983. He played on 'Cutting Both Ways' (1987) and toured Europe extensively with the band. He left in 1987 to rejoin Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia, staying ever since to tour and record 'A Cry FromThe Heart' (1987), 'Breathless' (1991), 'Everlasting Flame' (1993), 'Lady Saxophone' (1997), 'Shifting Sands' and their latest offering 'Thompson's Tangos' released in November 2000. Each of the last four albums features a track composed by Lemer. He devoted most of 1999 to Paraphernalia's Shifting Sands Tour with Barbara, Jon Hiseman, Dave Ball (bass) and newcomer Billy Thompson (violin). In fact he spent most of 1999 playing Chess with newcomer Billy Thompson (violin), fitting in Paraphernalia gigs between moves!
Born: June 14th, 1942 - London (England) Past Bands: Pete Lemer Quintet, Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Harry Beckett, Gilgamesh, Baker-Gurvitz Army, Seventh Wave, Harry Beckett's Joy Unlimited, Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia, Pierre Moerlen's Gong, Mike Oldfield Group, In Cahoots, Miller/Baker/Lemer. Current Bands: In Cahoots, Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia, The Peter Lemer Quartet, The Billy Thompson Quartet and a duo with BIlly Thompson.
Dave 'Taif' Ball (Bass - Fretted & Fretless): Bass player to the stars... Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia, Lloyd Cole, John Martin, Jools Holland, Bower, Killing Joke, Voodoo Cult, Vanessa Mae and more... Fretless and fretted basses. Integral member of The Billy Thompson Quartet.

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DONA LEE CROFT (Violin Professor): An international performer since the age of fourteen, Dona has given concerts and broadcasts throughout Europe, Mexico and the U.S.A. Her initial Wigmore Hall concert was followed by much-acclaimed recitals in Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Edinburgh and Vienna. An experienced chamber musician - being a founder member of both Poetica Musica and Tamarisk - she has performed at the South Bank Centre, in St. David's Hall, Cardiff and, in Carnegie Hall, New York.

A student of such eminent violinists/teachers as Nathan Milstein and Ivan Galamian - and technique maestro Béla Katona. Dona is now herself a Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music; she has also been a member of the string faculty of the Welsh College of Music and Drama and of the Purcell School. She is in great demand as a performer, teacher, adjudicator, and frequently directs master-classes and workshops.

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