Bunkers Hill, Nottingham (part 5)

"Come forward and let me see the whites of your eyes!"
"We're gonna break the people down with some Punk Rock hardcore hooligan blues!"

"Hail the People! All the People! Hail the People!"

Bunkers Hill, Nottingham (part 4)

"To introduce to you ...

... Brother Jay. Brother Jay. Guitar hero!!!"

Bunkers Hill, Nottingham (part 3)

Wayne Simmonds hits out the rhythm on the skirting boards.

"Hey! Do you guys ever play those things or do you just pose for the pictures?"

"Quick, look busy, he's on to us!"

Bunkers Hill, Nottingham (part2)

In the early days, the mesmeric chord structures hammered out by bass colossus Keith Curtis sent John Robb into a trance for two or three songs at a time.
Eventually he overcame this condition by jumping about and shouting a lot.

Until Brother John found a way of combating his tendency to drift off into a trance during live performances, the drummer used to amuse himself by taking advantage of John's condition shouting out prompts like "Take all your clothes off John!" while the brass section cowered sniggering at this hilarious tomfoolery.
Of course, Brother Rob could just have been trying to distract attention away from his vainglorious attempts to grow a quiff.
To this day John still gets flashbacks of these experiences and from time to time still reacts to the voices in his head calling out for him to expose himself in public.

Bunkers Hill, Nottingham (part 1)

Young Goldblade fan meets the drummer:
"Wow! I'm stood next to somebody who actually knows Keith Curtis ... how cool is that!?"

Ten years ago he could get back up again too ;-)

John preaching the Goldblade gospel, Keith hammering out killer chords, the tambourinist (and occasional keyboard player) Mike Glynn tambourining and some silly sod in the audience playing dinosaur shadow puppets on the wall.
It's all go!

Work In Progress

Hell yeah!
There's more to come.

Keep calling back to see more pictures from 1996 to date as they are downloaded onto this blog and read historically correct(ish) words of praise appertaining to Brother Keith and his band Goldblade.

This blog will be updated regularly sometimes and sporadically others. r u ready 4 the 21st century?

Could this possibly be a sighting of an Eastenders character (in Keith inspired attire) invading the stage at a recent Goldblade gig?
Shirley not!

Fast Forward To The Present

Punk Rock n' Roll guitar renegades Johny Skullknuckles (above) and Pete 'Gorgeous' Byrchmore (below) were drafted in to fill the void left when Jay and Wayne moved on and the band had a bit of a mid-life crisis wobble.
But Goldblade came back off the ropes just as sharp, angular focussed and driven as they ever were.
And the non stop, never ending tour schedule continued at breakneck pace.

John Robb could now concentrate on his vocals with two powerhouse guitarists on board to weave their fret board magic around the omnipresent and unrelenting solid backbone of Keith's bass wizardry and the primal call to arms beat of his sidekick drummer Rob Haynes.


John had often played second guitar in the band but found that after Jay Taylor left he had nowhere up to the level of musical expertise required to play foil to the supremely talented Curtis and that's when Pete and Johny were recruited, both of them extremely proficient guitarists in their own right ... but the juggernaut bass pounding of Keith Curtis in full flight was always going to need more than one guitarist to offset it now.
Here was a man at the height of his powers, unleashed and unstoppable.

"Brother Keith ... Yeah ! Yeah!"

Rogues Gallery

Besides our hero Mr Curtis and John Robb, the early prototype line up of Goldblade also consisted of the following three musicians ....

Drummer, Rob Haynes, a young sticksman with jet black hair (no, not the old scruff out of the Stranglers) who's pounding rhythms complimented Keef's playing style perfectly.
Rob is still with the band, apparently irreplaceable.

Wayne Simmonds, a live wire percussionist, tambourine player and regular audience invader shared the vocal duties with John Robb. Excellent vocal range. Well, I guess one of them had to have ;-)

Jay Taylor, Guitar hero for the nu soul warrior Punk generation. Power chord merchant par excellence. A vast repertoire of Manchester bands and musical projects have benefited from Jay's finishing touches.

Brother John

Though Goldblade predominantly exist to showcase the bass playing prowess of Keith Curtis, he modestly shares the limelight with other band members and often takes an understated background role to help them forward their own careers.
Here is singer (author, journalist & B list TV celebrity) John Robb who Keith took to Goldblade with him from another band that he used to carry with his mercurial bass playing artistry and talents, they were called the Membranes.

Mr Versatile

Under pinning back bone of the band, bass solo specialist ... and he can sing too!

Brother Keith

Keith Curtis, pivotal driving force behind the Punk Rock power combo Goldblade.

He's my hero!

Jukebox Generation

Going Underground

1996 Promo Postcard
(sans drummer)