The aftermath

Here we are a week further down the line but for the btr lads a time to take it easy this weekend.

A great gig last week at the rock4shock gig at Stafford rangers club which earned the band some extra gigs.

With the total raised now over £2700.00 it was a good result for Sue Wyke the rock4shock organiser.

Rock4Shock

Well here we are September 14th, and Rock4Shock is tomorrow night.

Merv is feeling a lot better, but can't really lift or do anything to manual, still tomorrow we will all be at Stafford Rangers Football Club, setting up and blasting out some great rock songs come 9.30pm.

Have you got a ticket for this great show. I hope so as there are no more left on sale.

See you there.

If it isn't Merv's ribs it is something else!!

Bassist and groove-meister Steve has found himself a new contract. Steve who heads an IT company and untill recently had a IT contract with the Brittania Building Society, has gone and got himself a new contract with the Nationwide but alas ... based in Swindon.

What does this mean for the band???....

Sweet FA ... it just means we will change our rehearsal plans!!!

So for all you Bang To Rights fans we will be playing a venue near you very soon, but just not on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.

Happy headbanging guys.

What The Hell !!

Here we are at the end of August. August the 30th to be precise, what a damn day.

With two weeks to go until the Rock4Shock gig, Merv has fell in a pit and fractured two ribs.

Hopefully the pain will subside within two weeks, he's just gotta take it easy until then to help the healing process.

A sell out show at Stafford Rangers Football Club is looming, the 15th September is around two weeks away so fingers crossed that he will be ready.

Have you bought your ticket??  If not I'm afraid you have missed the bus.

We have everything crossed here at Band Camp.

Well how time flies. August has been one of those months when for one reason and another (mostly holidays) the band has not been very active.

It's now creeping up to the last weekend of the month, and things are beginning to take shape for the next big gig.

Stafford Rangers Football Club is being taken over by Mrs Sue Wyke  for the day. The day my friends is the 15th September 2012 for an event that Sue has named as Rock4Shock.

You can read about Sue's cardiac arrest and recovery here,  http://www.justgiving.com/Sue-Wyke

Give it a read and see if there is some way in which you can help out either on the day or perhaps a raffle prize or donation of some sort.

Catch up with you soon.

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.