About The Band
Upcoming Gigs
The White Lion, Sheffield
Saturday 4th February
New Barrack Tavern, Sheffield
Friday 10th February
The New Roscoe, Leeds
Saturday 11th February
'Vamp!' are a South Yorkshire based band who play all over the north of England.
It all began in 2003 with various jam sessions at The Gardeners Arms in Hoyland, near Barnsley. The lineup has
been re-Vamped a few times over the years; Steve and Ian (guitarist) are the only remaining members from the original lineup. After a few bass players including; Hutch and Kate, Jayne joined the band in 2009. 'Vamp!' parted
ways with their original drummer in 2010 and Ian (aka Jock) joined the band, making todays lineup as follows:
Biographies:
Steve:
Ian:
Jayne:
Ian:
Lead Vocals / Guitar
Lead Guitar / Backing Vocals
Bass Guitar / Backing Vocals
Lead Drums / Percussion
Steve cites his main guitar influences as 'Eric Clapton', 'Peter Green' and American blues guitarist 'John Campbell'. His favourite vocalist is legendary 'Free'/'Bad Company' singer 'Paul Rodgers'.
Steve’s own career kicked off in 1970, when he was part of 'SOB', (the band that eventually became 'Saxon')
Steve left 'SOB' in 1975 to concentrate on his love of the blues, with his own project
'Mulesweat'.
This lasted right up to 2003/2004 when he joined 'Vamp!'
Steve favours Fender 'Strats' and 'Telecasters' cranked up through a 30watt valve combo.
Ian was inspired to play the guitar at an early age by artists such as 'The Beatles', 'The
Shadows' and 'The Rolling Stones' as well as the instrumental acts of the day like 'Duane Eddy', 'Jet Harris' and 'The Ventures'.
Of course it starts with inspiration and then develops and evolves with other influences, such as 'Eric Clapton', 'Peter Green', 'Jimi Hendrix' and 'Paul Kossoff'.
Guitars have always been 'Strats', 'Les Pauls' and such like, with the minimum of pedals into Valve amps… LOUD!!
Ian has played a variety of music over the years from heavy rock to cabaret to blues and back again, with a bit of bluegrass and folk thrown in for good measure.
The bands he has been in include: 'Asylum', 'Hole in the head gang', 'Johnny Calendar band', 'Back Street Band', 'Strongheart/Back Street Band' and a couple of duo’s.
Ian then took some personal time out of the music scene: Kids, work, various motorcycle accident recoveries, that sort of thing.
Then in 2003… a couple of ‘Jam nights’ turned into 'Vamp!'
Jayne joined her first band, ‘Rhythm Method’, aged 16 - a covers band influenced by various artists such as: 'Bad Company', 'Bad Finger', 'Cream', 'Free', 'The Rolling Stones', 'The Beatles' & 'Fleetwood Mac'. She did backing (and some lead) vocals and ‘percussion’ (“tambourine and an old pan cos we didn’t have a cow bell!”)
She then went on to do various jam sessions and songwriter’s nights for a few years
before… “I picked up a bass guitar about five years ago – and have never looked back!”
The first band Jayne played bass in was ‘Hindu Kush’ - Original band doing indie/rock.
Next came bass and backing (and some lead) vocals with ‘The Outfit’ covering a lot of 'Nine Below Zero' and 'Dr. Feelgood'.
Jayne says: “I learned how to play bass by watching 'Gerry McAvoy' live with 'Nine Below Zero' and with 'Rory Gallagher', although I’m still learning now, mainly from 'John Entwistle' ('The Who') and 'Andy Fraser' ('Free')".
Then one fateful night in 2009 Jayne says
she; “fell lucky and joined the bestest band
ever! 'Vamp!' are awesome!"
Ian started playing drums at age 11. He went to Music College at 16 and at 17/18 he joined ‘The Shakes’ (later and currently named ‘The Jives’), playing up beat melodic pop heavily influenced by 'The Beatles'. 'The Jives' then started playing WMC and such like playing 50s/60s rock 'n' roll.
He joined 'Vamp!' around June 2010 and says he is “thoroughly enjoying it!”
After sharing his time and talent between 'The Jives' and 'Vamp!' for a year, Ian now drums for 'Vamp!' full time!
Ian says: “Playing drums is a passion for me and I’m not going to stop as long as my body allows me to do it!
