The Self-Righteous Bros. were formed in November 1994 by Johnny Heywood and keyboard player Hilly Briggs.
The basic idea was for the duo to go out and play venues where a full band would not work, either due to the venues size or the licensing laws restricting performers to a maximum of two.
Although quite successful initially, Hilly found his own commitments were too filling, and although keyboard player Tom Dussek also had a spell in the band, guitarist Rob Sas was the obvious man for the job. Rob and Johnny played together for many years until 2005 when Rob left to pursue other avenues. Cliff Brown, of Fire In The Hole stepped in and the brought extra vocals in as well as incendiary lead guitar.
It was agreed that the material should greatly differ from heavier rock of Fire in The Hole and that all musical situations should be catered for. Consequently, music from the 50's to the present day is included: from Abba to Zeppelin, from Bacharach to Yes!
From the beginning, Johnny decided to use a drum machine and Bass sequencer to provide backing so that he could sing, play rhythm guitar and play keyboards. As the repertoire grew, the backing tracks were transferred to DAT, then to CD and finally to Minidisc. According to Johnny - "the safest & most reliable medium known to man." Many hours are spent getting the backing tracks right. Johnny says "If you have too much on the backing disc then people think you are miming, so we leave it at drums and bass, and maybe the occasional essential keyboard part. Most folk are used to hearing full band backing these days thanks to Karaoke, so we try and reproduce it in our home studio and then take it out to venues."
The range of material allows Cliff to play in many different styles. "From balls to the wall rock, to a little blues and jazzy stuff to keep it fresh." Cliff is using his custom made Moon Guitar through a self-modified Marshall amp.
As of 2007, The Self-Righteous Bros have stabilised their line up after numerous changes into Johnny on guitar, bass and vocals and whoever is available to spaff through a few solos. This has often led to the inclusion of a drummer and thus, a full band has resulted with no-one any the wiser! Recent inclusions have seen, Gary Davies and his electronic guitar, Lee Herbert on singing percussion, Ian Herbert from WingsBanned and Ed Hamilton from Fast Buck.
GIG LIST
Feb 12 Belle Vue, High Wycombe (Full Band) 18 Halfway House, Rickmansworth (Full Band) 19 Hope & Anchor, Wokingham (Full Band) Mar 4 Black Horse, Eastcote 5 Amersham British Legion Apr 1 General Elliott, Uxbridge (Full Band) 2 Sportsman, Croxley Green (Full band) 8 Duke Of York, Windsor 9 General Elliott (Duo) May 7 Halfway House, Rickmansworth (Full Band) 14 Hope & Anchor, Wokingham 21 Flackwell British Legion June 11 General Elliott, Uxbridge 17 General Elliott, Uxbridge (Full Band) 18 Belle Vue (Full Band) July 23 Green Dragon, Flackwell Heath 30 Hope & Anchor, Wokingham
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