OTHER ROCK BANDS
As well as (co-)leading my own rock bands and guesting/working in a session capacity with various others, I have been a full-time member of a number of rock bands led by other people:
NøUGHT (member from 1997-8)
My involvement in Nøught as a live performing member was comparatively brief (amounting to only a few gigs and a John Peel radio session), as it coincided with Camp Blackfoot's period of busiest activity, and it quickly became apparent that it was not feasible for me to be involved in another full time band simultaneously. However, after leaving I continued to work with them on their debut album in both a performance and arrangement capacity, playing guitar, piano, clarinet and alto sax on the recordings, and working with James Sedwards on the horn and string arrangements. The other members at the time were Heini Lonergan-White and Alex Pickard. The album was released in 2000 by Shifty Disco and is available at the band's website , where you can also listen to mp3s of some of the tracks and find information about their forthcoming gigs.
POCKET (member from 2001-2008)
The original line-up of Pocket was John Bisset (guitar), Alex Ward (guitar), Christopher Evans (bass) and Oliv J. Picard (drums). We released one album, "Pocket", on 2.13 Records in 2002. The band went through a number of line-up changes with me and John as its only constants, and by the time of its dissolution had shifted towards predominantly vocal material (sung by John), as represented on its only other release, the single "Ready To Go/Stupid Cat" on the Orchestra Pit label. All the band's material was written by John Bisset - for more information about John, go to his website.
JOEY HERZFELD AND HOOVERVILLE (member from 1998-2009)
Starting life as a recording project of Joey Herzfeld, Benjamin Hervé and myself (in which form it released the single "Always The Same/What You Always Wanted" in 1998 on Shifty Disco), Hooverville eventually settled on a line-up of Joey Herzfeld (vocals), Alex Ward (guitar/clarinet), Luke Barlow (keyboards/alto sax), Dave O'Brien (electric and double basses), and Jem Doulton (drums). The songs were written by Joey and arranged collectively by the band. This line-up has recorded two albums worth of material, the first of which, "Other People's Pain", is due out on the Orchestra Pit label in 2012. You can find more information about Hooverville here, and details of Joey's new acoustic band here.
JOE WILLLIAMSON & THE INCONVENIENCE (member from 2006-9)
Original line-up: Joe Williamson (bass and vocals), Alex Ward (guitar) and Paul May (drums). Subsequently Paul was replaced by John Blease. Both of these line-ups appear on "Everything Should Have Been Just Fine", an album featuring 10 of Joe's songs released on Jedso Records in 2010. Since relocating to Sweden, Joe has formed a new version of the band, simply called The Inconvenience. Their website is here, and Joe's website is here.
All of these bands were very important to me while I was in them, and I enjoyed and continue to enjoy their music. At the end of 2009, however, I made a decision to stop being a member of rock bands that played other people's material, in order to devote my time and attention to my own writing projects and those groups in which my role involves a higher proportion of improvisation. Nonetheless, I learned an enormous amount through being in each of these bands, and without the experiences I gained from working with them I could not make the music I make now in remotely the same way.