Pete (The Engine) Barton

Ahhh......Mr Peter Barton a drummers drummer.

Pete like Steve grew up in the sixties but was born into a musical family.

Pete's dad was a professional musician, playing his Double Bass and Bass guitar in the London Philharmonic Orchestra,  as well as a popular Jazz Quartet, Show-Bands and playing live music in bands that would provide music for the popular TV shows of the era. His mother is a professional pianist. Was it any wonder then that the two Barton boys, Gary and Pete, turned out to be professional musicians.

His elder brother Gary is still to this day a professional Bass player in London, while Pete with his drumming skills left school at 16 and made a commitment in the seventies to a local band that went on to national recognition and adulation.

Touring the length and breadth of Britain in a transit van, playing large University Halls, Theatre's, both all over the UK and in Europe. Growing up  "on the road" was an excitng time for Pete, hard work yes, but exciting nonetheless.

As the band's popularity grew and the band started playing festivals and auditoriums the schedule slowly took it's toll on Pete, touring and then sharing recording studios with the likes of Paul Weller, The Clash and quite a few other popular artists of the age, then touring again was never ending, and although exciting at first, Rock and Roll was slowly draining Pete of his lifeline.

A change of scenery was needed, After the passing of Pete's dad, Pete's mum had moved to sleepy Newport in Shropshire, and it was here that Pete would come for some respite from his full on rock and roll lifestyle.

It was during one of those visits that Pete met Collete his future wife. A long distance relationship was not what Pete wanted, Rock n Roll had lost it's shine and so it was that he left the band and turned his hand to learning a trade.

Marriage, children came next and then a chance meeting with his old mate Mr Bebee Smith got the Pete  the job of drummer with the semi pro outfit "The Boogeymen".


Bebee had become the drummer for a short while in Merv's old band "Stonefly" and so it was that When Stonefly and then Dry Dog Nose went their separate ways and The Boogeymen followed suit a short time later, Pete was Merv's obvious choice of drummer, and finally "Bang To Rights",  was complete.

Steve "The Gentle Giant" Smith

Mr Steve Smith or "The Schist"  is a man of many talents. His weapon of choice in this band, is the 5 string Overwater Hand Made Bass Guitar.

By day he is a IT guru, but by night the Jaguar driving giant of a man becomes the groove laden partner of our drummer Pete Barton.

A master of instruments as diverse as Piano, Oboe, Drums and his beloved hand made Bass Guitar, this guy is a real rock maestro, and is the oil in the engine of this magnificent Rock & Blues band, that are "Bang To Rights".

Steve started life way back in the late sixties and having started playing piano at an early age he quickly moved on to the Oboe and then the Drums. Playing in school bands, Steve's talent was soon recognised at secondary school by his teachers. Steve, became a regular member of the school band, playing at all sorts of events, and even playing at The Royal Albert Hall.

Time was moving on, and so was Steve. Now In his mid teens, Punk had been and gone and the new romantics ruled the airways, and Mark King was the Bass player of choice.

Steve was captivated by Mark King and his mastery of the Bass guitar. He persuaded his parents to lend him the money to buy one, and with the promise of paying them back he visited his local music shop, and bought himself a Fender Precision Bass guitar, albeit a copy.

With his talent for reading music Steve practised endlessly until after 12months of making his fingers bleed he was offered the job of playing bass in a little known band called The Envoy. 

The Envoy got themselves known on the local Pub scene and became very popular, and most weekends could be seen playing all around  bars and clubs in The Black Country, and had secured themselves a recording contract with a national record label. Steve was at a crossroads in his life, to either try to become a professional Bass player or learn a trade in the fast growing IT industry.

Unfortunately for the music industry Steve chose the IT route and for the next twenty years worked hard at becoming one of the best, and most sought after IT Consultants in Britain, but damn it !! music just wouldn't go away.

In the late Nineties Steve began promoting Live music in his spare time, in and around the Telford area, and once again he began to pick up his Bass guitar. It would be around late 2004 early 2005 that Steve first met Merv at a open mic night and they quickly became friends, and formed the band Cladh Hallan. By now Steve had splashed out some hard earned cash on new equipment and was really getting "In The Groove".

Cladh Hallan was short-lived, recording only a couple of songs and playing only a handful of gigs, but their friendship continued and so it was that after that fateful day that Merv and Mark met, it became clear to Merv that Steve was the obvious choice to take on the role of Bass Guitarist,

And Bang To Rights were nearly there.

Weapons of choice: Ashdown Amplification, Handmade Bespoke Overwater Bass Guitars.

Merv (The Badger) Williams

Merv has been a music lover all of his life.

Born in 1952 to a farm worker, money was tight. His very first single record was bought after saving up the money he earned, chopping logs for his neighbour.

The record was Diamonds, an instrumental by ex shadows members Jet Harris and Tony Meehan it was played until he wore the record out on his dad's old Dansette record player.

A Rolling Stones fan rather than the fashionable Beatles he explored bands of that genre. This led him to discover The Yardbirds, which in turn led him to John Mayall and Alexis Korner, which in turn led him to the origin of what he thought was most exciting music he had ever heard.

Howling Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Son House and of course Robert Johnson were regulars on the record player. Records that at that time had to be ordered in by the local record shop.

As an older teenager the likes of Cream, Led Zeppelin, Mountain, Taste, and many others of that ilk made for am impressive record collection. And in all that time never once did he think that he would be able to play in a band.

With a growing family and with all the commitments that go with that, the seventies and eighties saw Merv concentrating on providing all the necessary things that families need. Fast forward and call it what you will, be it a little later mid-life crisis, or just the desire to have a go, Merv went out and bought his first guitar, in around 1997.

After fumbling around with it until the year 2000, his old friend Pat Briscoe, (he had been best man at her wedding), suggested that they attempt to learn the instrument together. Pat had known a few chords from way back when, and so they practiced these chords until they had got three or four "cover" songs put together.

Armed with these songs it was down to the Bridge Inn pub in Newport to "have a go" at the new local Open Mic.

Singing through a PA system gave Merv such a buzz, so much so that he went out and bought one. It was also here that he met up with local musician Ken Evans. Soon to become mates the pair created the band Stonefly, and after recruiting Diddy Evans on Drums, Merv's nephew Chris on guitar, Simon Bishop on Lead guitar with Ken on Bass and Pat and Merv on Vocals and guitar. the band went gigging.

The toll of gigging soon became too much of a commitment for Chris, Pat, and Ken and so it was that Stonefly mk2 was born. Simon on Lead Guitar, Diddy Evans on Bass Guitar, Bebee Smith on Drums and Merv on vocals and Rhythm guitar. Merv often commenting that the only reason he sang was because nobody else would. This band was different, with both Diddy and Bebee providing backing vocals.

Following Bebee and Diddy's departure from the band, Merv and Simon recruited the services of one Alan Vincent on Bass Guitar, and Tim Cartwright on Drums. New members, new name, and so "Dry Dog Nose" was born.

After a three year stint the band decided that they would pack it in, as once again heavy gigging was taking it's toll on family life.

And so it was that after meeting up with Mark, the seeds of "Bang To Rights" were sown, and with Merv's old mate's Pete Barton on Drums and Steve Smith on Bass The band became a reality.

Weapons of choice: Marshall Amps, My wonderful Yamaha 1820 in Vintage White, Gibson Jimmy Page Les Paul, Gibson Black  SG, and Cherry Red Dot 335, a SRV Stratocaster and various other fender strats,  a Hohner SE 335 and Peavey Professional and one or two other lovely bits of wood.

Mark (Fast Fingers) Langford

Mark from a very early age showed massive potential.

At school he excelled in music, and from as early as six years old was getting to grips with the piano. 

Born into a household that loved the popular tunes of the day his parents encouraged Mark to play music on the piano and were happy for him to play the tunes he had made up and were laying dormant in his head.

It was that time !! With Bill Haley been and gone, Gene Vincent all in leather, The Shadows with their cool guitars and moves, and then The Beatles, there was only one thing to do, buy a guitar. 

With his cap in hand, he approached his parents and asked them if they would consider buying him a guitar. He knew they wanted him to continue playing piano, with the promise that he would continue his piano studies and that he would pay his parents back, from his meagre paper round money, they agreed.

Now at Secondary Grammar School in Stafford Mark was in the starting blocks and away.

All around him were people with similar interests, POP music. It didn't take him long to team up with one of his friends and at the age of 12 he formed a duo and was playing his own songs to anyone that would listen. Music Folk music nights were popular in the late sixties, and it was here that Mark honed his newly found talent at writing and performing his own songs.

This new experience of playing to an audience was to set the scene for the next few years. He formed a band with friends from school called Axis, and started to play larger and more diverse venues. Pubs, Clubs, Village Halls and Parties and Studio work kept this by now, accomplished songwriter and guitarist very busy in the early Seventies, he was by now the guitarist of choice for the many bands in Staffordshire, until that fateful day when that thing called Love took over.

Although music was never far away it would be a few years later when with the children more grown up it was decided to move house to one a little larger.

It was here that Mark met his then new neighbour, Steve Renyard. 

Like Mark, Steve was also a keen keyboard and guitar player, and it was that common interest in music that started them off on the journey of playing and performing once more.  The pair performed at Parties, Pubs, Open Mic nights and just about anywhere that a music starved audience could be found. The word soon spread that this new duo were a forced to be reckoned with. Their own produced backing tracks filling out the sound, but something was missing a drummer and a bass player.

With the word out that this talented duo were looking for band members it wasn't long before the band Urban Dreamer materialised. These very accomplished musicians performed all around Shropshire, Staffordshire and The West Midlands, and always got the return gig. Gigging as well as the time taken practicing new material can take it's toll however and so it was that business and working hard to earn money to put food on the table, left Mark at a loose end.

Mark continued with his own music and grabbed himself a publishing deal with Vertigo films, but it was his love of performing that was missing from his life.

It was a fateful day in 2009 that at a loose end Mark attended the Newport Open Mic evening and after a chat with Merv Williams the band that is now Newport Super-group  Bang To Rights was created.

Mark continues to write and record own material in his home studio.

His weapons of choice are:-

A Pink Fender Stratocaster,  A lovely Green Yamaha SG,  A Hohner L59, A immaculate Hohner L90 Goldtop, 1972 Epiphone acoustic, and a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp.

 

A bloody cold this week has left Merv a little worse for wear, but no doubt he will be up and at it pretty soon.

We're in the process of putting some new cover tunes together as well as some new Tunes from our guitarist Mark. Songs from Wheatus, Guns and Roses are in the pipeline as well as some more songs by The Rolling Stones and Tom Petty.

Both Steve and Pete are working hard at these soon to be familiar songs.

Mark? hey he has them under his fingers already!!

In the meantime check out one of Merv's guitars. A Gibson 335 Cherry Dot.

A sheer thing of beauty, .. unlike Merv.