Arizona Bay - My Biography

Biography & History

Here I have decided that I will tell you a little about myself.

The Basics

I am 33 years old, born in 1970, and live in Runcorn, Cheshire. I work in the employ of Cheshire County Council, but previous jobs have included a stint in the Royal Air Force (from 1989 until 1996) and 2 years as a full time student @ Liverpool John Moores University (1996 - 1998).

My interests include reading, history, film, television and music (see the links page). I also like to go for long walks and keep fit by going to my local gym. Most of all, though, I am a fan of playing the drums and it is the only thing that I have ever been even slightly good at in my life! Thus, I have done this little site.

The Drums

When I was 15, I was minding my own business at home when a video by Dire Straits was shown on Top of the Pops. This was money for Nothing - which was also the first single I can remember buying. This video is remembered by most for the brilliant computer graphics of the two guys working in the television shop and moaning about the stars being shown on it (now looking a bit dated!). I, though, remember it for the close ups of the drummer (the computer footage was cut with shots of the band playing live at Wembley Arena). From that moment on, I had found my calling - I was going to annoy everyone by playing the drums! Later that year, I was able to see Dire Straits live @ Deeside Leisure Centre (December 15th 1985).

I pestered away and finally got my first kit from a small ad in the local paper - it was a horrible old Premier, finished in Silver, with one old Zyn cymbal and a brilliant snare drum. This was the first of my kits - and you can find out more in the Images Section. This would have been around 1986.

The Bands

I had been talking to a guy at school, Rob Stratford, who was sure that he was going to form a band very soon - he was a bass player but had yet to lay his hands on a bass. He recruited a friend, Goffy, who could also play guitar and keyboard. I had vaguely known both of these guys throughout school. I knew Rob was good on this sort of thing as he had given a talk in English about the Stranglers. He also knew stuff about stuff - like 2000AD - which I was very impressed with. I had spoken to Goffy a few times but had no idea he was a musician.

This all happened at the right time. I had just made the discovery that drums are just soooo loud (along with most of my neighbourhood)- I once sneaked into the garage for a quick blast and managed to alert my dad to that fact and he must have been a fair old distance away taking our delightful Corgi for a walk. My mum worked for the local scouts and managed to secure the local hall for practice purposes - unbeknownst to my mum, my fellow musicians, as well as a lad who was prepared to have a sing (lets just call him Barry and leave it at that!) turned up - and we jammed away until we were too knackered to do anything else.

As far as I can remember, the only thing we rattled off was a very hesitant version of the Monster Mash, half of Living Doll by Cliff Richard (it ended up being a bit lame as Comic Relief had just used it as a charity single) and a catchy little number called Down at the Jobshop.

I managed to get in touch with a local guitarist who had made some waves at my school by performing Johnny Be Goode at a school disco. This was Mike Clancy and he slotted in quite well. Around this time, Goffy was just getting into keyboards in a big way. He rounded off our expansion by getting a Roland Jupiter 4 Keyboard (as beloved by Japan and Depeche Mode) from Dougie's Music in Northwich (don't look for it - it's not there anymore - it's a kitchen showroom now I think). I contributed by upgrading to my beloved Supreme Custom Kit.

Barry had long since departed and singing duties passed to Rob. Mike was a fine guitarist but was a big fan of Rockabilly stuff (that Rob disliked). Our practices always included a version of Johnny Be Goode - and this was the cornerstone of our Jam Sessions - along with Wild Thing (also available in a big band version with an extra 2 guitarists) and a few blues improvisations. This would have been around 1987.

During this time we were also joined by Dave Hewitt on lead vocals (his brother, Andy, was also to join me on other jams) and we polished off a version of All Day and All the Night - at the time this was doing well in the charts after the Stranglers had done a cover version of it. Dave really enjoyed singing with us, and, as an added bonus, he had a bloody great Ford Transit!

Mike and Dave were sporadic attendees at our practices and we soon reverted back to a 3 piece. With Goffy alternating between guitar and keyboards, Rob pitching in on vocals, this turned out to the most fun and creative zeal we had together. Goffy got an old four track portastudio and we were soon able to build ambitious multitracked pieces - choice cuts from our jams at the time were Hey Joe - our version of the Hendrix track with Goffy adding keyboards to his guitar, You Really Got me, My Generation (also available as a tongue in cheek concert version with crowd noise from the recent Nelson Mandela Concert making us sound like a stadium band - the closest we ever got to playing live!), Wild Thing (this time a very heavy version after Goffy discovered the delight of using a digital delay on a heavily distorted guitar - like hitting yourself over the head with an amplifier) and countless other electronic and electric jams. Looking back, this is the most fun I have ever had in my life.

I also spent some time with other guys I knew. Worthy, one of my best friends from primary school, knew a couple of guys who could play a bit of guitar - Rob Clucas and Danny Ashley. Worthy also played a little bit of bass (a shortscale bass if I recall). Andy Hewitt, the brother of Dave, had bought a 4 piece kit around this time (from John Rose Drums in Altricham - I got a lot of my stuff from here - can anyone tell me what became of this shop?). We only did the one jam with this line up (two drummers!) and we mainly succeeded in drowning out the guitarists - more amplification would have been nice! I also joined Andy for a few drum 'salons' (just us 2 and no other musicians). Now and again I joined Mike Clancy for a jam - and we both even auditioned with Carrion - a big Heavy Metal band from Chester (I turned down their offer - what an idiot).

However, all good things must come to an end and I rounded off the decade by joining the Royal Air Force.

The New Decade

I had a pretty ordinary life in the Royal Air Force. I never went overseas (I just missed out on a detachment to a warzone during the 1st Gulf War), fired a weapon in anger or got in much trouble (I was a very well behaved young airman). Above, you can see me as Senior Aircraftman Davies with my 7.62mm Self Loading Rifle (this photo was taken on x-mas day 1990) - don't be impressed - I was a terrible shot and could not hit a cow's arse with a banjo - the SLR was just too big for me - thank the stars for the short, stubby SA80 that replaced the big elephant gun.

Naturally, my drumming suffered during this time. I barely picked up a stick for a couple of years. Then, during a shift standown in 1992 (I think), I bumped into Rob Stratford again and we organised another Jam. This time, we were joined by a saxophonist called Barry Starmah (who was mainly famous in Runcorn for rolling his Mini Clubman outside his parents house) and Mark Smith on guitar (I think that name is correct!). Goffy was back with his keyboards (including a Roland SH101) and Rob was back with his bass. A couple of nights saw us practice in the YKK buildings in Runcorn Old Town (I think it is an old school bought by YKK as a sort of community centre).

It was nice to be playing with other musicians again but we laboured to get anything done. We did get Soul Love by David Bowie down on tape (a good saxaphone track with a wickedly difficult drum beat) and Peaches by The Stranglers (Rob was a big fan of them). I think the main problem was that the room was so small - so my pretty overpowering drums just drowned everything out - this was long before I could have got an electronic kit. You can find a pictoial record of this event in the gallery.

Eventually, I would have to face the fact that expecting mum and dad to cart the drums around for me whilst I was in the RAF was very unfair and I sold the bloody things to the aforementioned Andy Hewitt. Then I bought the bloody things back off him, took them down to RAF Lyneham (I was lucky enough to work in a bloody big hangar with a nice little caged off bit) and played them a couple of times (one of which was captured on video by my mate Kev Butler). Eventually I sold them again - to an airframes fitter whose name I do not recall - he got the bargain of the century - at the time of selling, the kit was 10" rototom, 12", 13", 14" Rack Toms, 16" and 18" Floor Toms, 22" Bass, 14" Ludwig Vistalite Snare, Paiste 400 SE Hats, Paiste RUDE 18" Crash Ride, Paiste 2002 16" Crash, Meinl 16" Crash, Paiste Coloursound 20" Ride (black) - and I still had the horrible old ZYN cymbal. It was heartbreaking - but I suppose it was the right choice - a kit that good deserves to be played!

So I was drumless. I was still a drummer in my mind - I used to peek my head around the corner of the various music shops whenever I was in Swindon (I was based near here @ RAF Lyneham). I made a discovery on one of these trips - the small Yamaha Drum pad (see kit development on the image page) - this whet my appetite and I suppose it became a sort of replacement.

Then I found out that Roland had re-invented the electronic kit - even including electronic cymbals. I had a hands on demo on this and it blew me away. In order to understand this you must understand just what a poor instrument the electronic kit had been up to this point - the Simmons Kit was a superb piece of British ingenuity but it was a very raw item - the sounds all sounded like sheep exploding next to your ear - the pads were not at all nice to play, and if you wanted cymbals then you had to provide them yourself! This Roland Kit was not at all like that - it had a functional hi-hat pad, responsive tom pads, loads of sounds and cymbal pads. I spent a long time and bored the arse off my shopping companions that day - but I was hooked.

The Electronic Age

On April 30th 1996, SAC Davies became Mr. Graham Davies again . I had quit the RAF to go to University - I had enrolled on a HNC Business and Finance @ Swindon College and decided that getting on an entirely different ladder - that of being a full time student. I bet my mum and dad were very pleased to have me back in the house again! This was the best choice I had ever made - but I was still without a drum kit!

I graduated Liverpool John Moores University in June 1998. After a bit of hard time getting going, I found myself in the Transport Industry. I basically enjoyed the work - but longed to escape before I became one of those transport managers that just bite everyone's heads off - but left for a life away from transport this year - thank you Cheshire County Council.

I did make a hesitant return to drumming in 2000 when I bought a Pearl Traveller practice kit - but this mainly collected dust....

In the Summer of 2002, I made the purchase of an electronic kit. I had considered this move for a very long time - but I don't drink or smoke - or basically do anything! So it made sense to actually have a bit of fun for a change. I popped along to Dawsons in Liverpool and spent £1000.

So a nice new Roland TD6 came into my life. They even threw in a pair of sticks (Vater Stewart Copeland Model) and a nice little stool for me to park my rear on (it also doubles as a nice computer chair). Since this time I have been rediscovering all of my old love for the instrument - and have tried to apply all of the stuff I have learnt by listening to music in the long, cold drumless years.

This completes the bio - to see what has happened more recently go to What's New (the Diary) via the Lobby.

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