Into The Next 100 years!   Before John Ciriani left at the end of 2000, we'd found yet another keyboard player in Andy Kneeshaw, a guy our age who's looking for similar musical commitment, i.e. rehearsals every other week or so and the occasional gig. This suits him as he's part owner of a business at the National Agricultural Centre, Stoneleigh, and also seems to have a very busy private life shuttling between two families of children, from his present plus a previous marriage. But things go on hold when John leaves.

We set about getting a new bass player, and after two or three try out sessions - it's inaccurate to call these things auditions when in fact both sides are checking each other out for suitability - we pick Barry Kingsbeer from Stratford On Avon. Barry seems to fit in splendidly because he has a tremendously energetic bass playing style that pushes the beat and really drives things along. His personality is also forthright and energetic although affable, and I'm really keen to have him on board. Wise Jim Mercer counsels against his joining on the basis his 'management style' would clash with mine and he was later proved to be right.

We have one row over whether backing vocals should be sung or not in one song but that gets patched up ok. I send him a peace offering of a copy I made of a Boz Scaggs double CD, (which he doesn't thank me for). At a subsequent rehearsal Barry says he isn't interested in learning a song I'd painstakingly worked out although he'd agreed at a previous pub meeting it would be a good one to adopt: Roddy Frame's "Somewhere In My Heart". We only run through it once when this happens and I blow up, angry that it's easy to criticise material others had brought along but that he'd brought nothing along to work on. The incident is exacerbated by the fact that poor Barry had only days before badly scalded himself from pouring boiling water on his forearm and he was bandaged and in some pain. He'd also been made redundant from his job in marketing at a small web services company. Barry picks up his gear and leaves there and then despite valiant efforts by Laurie and Jim to restore calm.

Almost immediately we find Barry's replacement in Tony English but after two rehearsals his previous band reforms, having broken up a few weeks before, and they call him back. And we're back to square one yet again, but by now we're used to it…

2001: After yet more try-outs we finally find a superb bass player in Charlie Douglas and for a while we forget about adding keyboards back in, concentrating instead on making the four-piece tight, which is all about melding bass and drums together to make a single, solid and synchronised platform for the rest of the instruments. We achieve this after a few months, with Charlie contributing a lot to the band in terms of effort, commitment and good humour.

2002: We advertise for a keyboard player and have a false start with a guy who I'll call KB, who is into 'prog rock', or 'pomp rock' whichever side of the fence you're on, and his favourite prog rocker is Rick Wakeman. If those early warning signs aren't enough, he turns up for rehearsals with a battery of synthesisers mounted on a tree of racks. We'd made this mistake before; of being beguiled by someone's musical abilities whilst neglecting the other crucial ingredients like compatibility of material and whether they'll fit in, personality-wise. Combine this with someone who loves pomp rock joining a bunch of blues/rock enthusiasts (did he think he could change us?) and you've got the recipe for disaster. After about three rehearsals I tell him we should call it a day on music compatibility terms with no reflection on his obvious musical skills. He knows this is true but somehow interprets it as being fired, and possessing a puffed up pride he unleashes a stream of unwarranted invective via email. I receive an even more extreme blast of vitriol when we he sees our next advert for a keyboard player which this time stipulates "No prog-rock widdlers" !

2003: We advertise again and Andrew Strain answers the call this time. From the same ad we also recruit Rachel Harris, who says she plays keyboards but would like to be a lead vocalist. For years I'd always dreamed of a line-up where I could step back from permanent lead vocal duties and concentrate on my guitar playing and providing backing vocals. The rehearsals are really great and we make a superb job of the likes of Sade's 'Smooth Operator' and Allanah Miles' 'Black Velvet'.  So Andrew and Rachel both accept the invitation to join. With this combination we decide to change the style of the band to 'cool and funky', doing away with the clichéd rock tunes. To top it all, we have a six-piece where everyone seems to get along really well with one another. But, dear reader, you know by now that events take a not unsurprising course…

Within one rehearsal of this lineup Rachel and Andrew fall for each other!  They turn up late for one or two Saturday practices and suddenly Rachel stops coming at all. At the next rehearsal Andrew also drops out: they’d become engaged...  We'd inadvertently acted as cupid, which is very pleasing although I felt annoyed at the time as that line-up could have been great fun for everyone.  2014 update: I managed to contact Andrew and I’m glad to say we managed to get back on amicable terms.  He told me that although Rachel had proposed, she let Andrew down and it didn’t happen, but Andrew later found his soul partner and is still enjoying ‘musical interludes’ which is very pleasing to know.  When Andrew updated me recently he said Rachel left the band ‘because of my ‘tantrums’.  Obviously between her inexperience and selfish nature she couldn’t see the difference between ‘tantrums’ and serious processes necessary to pull a bunch of musicians into a proper unit.