The Grey Lady Music Lounge, Wednesday 26th October 2011

From performing in a West End musical to backing singing for the great Paul Weller, Alex is a diverse powerhouse vocalist who also writes his own equally diverse songs. "I like to write songs in the moment so expect some songs to be slow with a deep meaning then suddenly a fast paced catchy upbeat tune. But all my tracks tell a story". You can expect any of his shows to be full of energy and heart. When it's all said and done you'll leave tapping your toes or humming to his catchy hooks. 

His recent EP 'Mannequin Man' is his first concept EP telling his story of breaking the mould against odds and setting a course to be yourself. With heavy influence from Frank Turner this EP is proof that his songwriting is ever evolving. 

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Liverpool born songwriter Mark Chase was the leader of the notorious 90's band World of Leather, who released 2 albums and 7 EPs through Sony. They toured extensively in the UK and Europe and sold respectably in Japan & Scandinavia, whilst skilfully avoiding the UK charts.

Prior to this, Mark had been a successful session musician & session singer, working with numerous artists including Belinda Carlisle, T'Pau, Taylor Dayne and Julian Lennon. He also worked as a commercial session vocalist, recording ‘sound-alike' tracks for TV shows and adverts.

After seeing Beck perform a solo gig a few years ago, Mark altered his approach to music, favouring the ‘stripped down' acoustic style of Neil Young, Damien Rice and Rickie Lee Jones. He continues to perform live regularly, both with his band and as a solo performer. Four of his songs have been used in movie soundtracks.

In tandem with his music career, Mark has also been a TV Presenter on a variety of shows, including; The Survivors Guide, Sextalk (both C4), Breakfast Time, Going Live! (BBC1), Wideangle, Country File (ITV) and Toyah & Chase (VH-1).

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Formerly based in Crowborough but now Brighton, East Sussex, Reo Rae's interest in music grew from the experience of playing various instruments including violin, piano and clarinet. At 14 years old she decided that she wanted to learn to play the guitar. With the help and encouragement of Simon (her older brother) they formed an acoustic duo called "Reo". This was the first musical project for both and Rae's debut as a lead singer. They are receiving considerable plays on youtube and myspace and perform at various different events across the county. However, with the departure to university of backing singer and guitarist Simon, Rae was left to continue the work alone. This sparked the idea of becoming a solo act and her songwriting skills began to take shape. Five years on she is now living and performing in and around Kent & Sussex as a solo artist and occasionally performs with her backing band - Rick Eastwood (drums) & James Watts (bass guitar).

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Back in 1989 at the age of 15, Darren Smallman put down his keyboard, tuba and skateboard to start legendary Australian rock band Warped. The next three years saw him perform around Melbourne and Geelong with the likes of Bored!, Fugazi, 5,6,7,8’s and The Meanies, gathering a reputation for putting on a flat out live show finishing in a 15 minute noise sludge track Snufelupikus. Throughout these years the band produced all their own merchandise, recorded multiple demos sold at shows and were included on 3 compilations that were distributed worldwide, one that featured Darren’s track Dog Killer that was a live favourite.

In 1992 Darren left school and started a band Toad alongside Warped that featured members of Bored!, Tumbleweed and Fridge. Throughout this 2 year period Darren and School mates Jeremy Geddes & Glen Pearce had multiple exhibition spaces in old warehouses where they exhibited their art and promoted music events to coincide with the exhibitions. Toad disintegrated in 6 months and was the catalyst of what was to come musically. Toad breaking up and separating from Warped, he found himself wondering where to go. At this point he decided to follow new ground along the lines of idols Redd Kross, Dinosaur Jr and Buffalo Tom creating Thee Vinyl Creatures.

The band played alongside artists such as Spiderbait, Magic Dirt, The Dirty Three and Tumbleweed as well as playing Meredith Music Festival to 2000+ people. Recording an album, 8 inch EP and multiple demos until 1996 when he moved to Europe to travel.

On returning in 1999 he moved to Melbourne and formed The Sound Platform with past band mates Karl Inderberg and Simon Baird. The band took a more experimental line at this point incorporating strings, brass, electronics and samples to their shows and recordings. Even though the band toured Australia quite heavily it was mainly a recording project producing a demo album, a 7 inch EP and two CD EP’s. In 1999 Darren, Simon and Karl started the record label Low Transit Industries as a vehicle for their own releases. In 2003 the record label had started releasing/touring other artists such as The Essex Green, Trans Am, Royal City, Kim Salmon & The Surrealists, Black Mountain, Okkervil River and Of Montreal.

Whilst in the middle of recording their first full length album in 2005 the band found time restraints too difficult between work and the burgeoning label so decided to finish up the band to focus on LTI. Between 2003 and 2010 the label released nearly 100 releases and toured multiple artists in the US, Australia and New Zealand.

The label closed its doors in 2010 so Simon and Darren could focus on other interests with Darren building the back catalogue of most of his bands over the years which will end with The Sun & The Silver Anthology. The anthology is a collection of 6 releases, spanning nearly 20 years worth of material and ending in the final record that was never finished, The Sun & The Silver.

Darren has started performing again with material from the Anthology series.

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