Rachael Wright Music // Biog

Rachael Wright
I found a mini disk recording the other day of my first ever gig at Gladstones café and it got me thinking... I was about 19 and had not long left my French degree at Uni, knowing that despite only being able to play about 6 chords and being terrified of singing to my boyfriend, let alone anyone else, it was what I wanted to do. I wanted to write and sing.

At that time my choice of vocation was more than a little surprising to most people who knew me. My previous musical experiences included terrorizing my family with a violin when I was about 9, barely getting past grade 1 on the piano, and moshing to Status Quo in the back of my dad’s Volvo with my brothers & sister. I would walk miles listening to Alanis Morissette’s ‘Jagged little Pill’ when I was a teenager and grew to really love music from that point on I guess, but I never thought it was something I would end up doing…

So back to that first gig…The recording was hilarious to listen to. The first song has an intro of about 72 bars because I was so scared of opening my mouth to sing. After the gig me and Tim drove down to the Mersey river and listened to it in the car accompanied by some spring rolls. I cried my eyes out because it sounded so terrible. Hee hee…Pride can be so painful. The memory is poignant though. I listen to my first album of songs after a few years of writing, gigging and working out what I’m trying to do, and I’m amazed at where we’ve got to and feel so thankful. I love the album. I love listening to it. I sing along to it in the car! The songs themselves mean so much to me. Often borne out of troubled thoughts and experiences, tested relationships and lots of yelling (literally) at God, they capture pieces of a personal journey and a musical one.

Tim has been with me from the beginning. I played him my first song and he ferociously encouraged me to write more. Bob joined us on bass a while later and that’s the way we’ve played most of the time. I would hide away in my room for a few days and then show them what I’d written. They’d then write their own parts and we’d arrange the songs together.

Over the past few years we’ve gigged all over the U.K, highlights including supporting the Blind Boys of Alabama at the Liverpool Philharmonic and the Levellers. We’ve made an EP called ‘Cover My Dreams’ and finally got around to making our first album. So many amazingly generous people have encouraged me to see myself as a songwriter and helped to make this album possible. Hopefully the songs capture the spirit of community with which it was made.

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Other Members:

Tim Wright
Tim plays guitar (mostly fiddly bits), sings backing vocals and is the catalyst for getting important things done. He also keeps threatening to get his old banjo restored and has been looking for a tenor guitar for eons. David Rawlings is his guitar hero. Tim loves posh whisky, cricket, mountains, being on the way to places, Monty Don, chillies, and would love to be in the Bad Seeds.

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Bob Burton
Bob has very bendy arms and fingers, which help him play some well funky bass lines. He also plays the glockenspiel, mandolin and if put in a headlock, will sing. You will probably find him in the Fact café on Saturdays playing on his spangly mac, drinking coffee and wrestling with the guardian crossword. Bob loves Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, cinema, gin and tonic, Neil Young, brown clothes and corduroy.

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Steve Pilgrim
Is far too talented for his own good. A drum wizard, and he’ll even sing soprano backing vocals if required (non-helium induced). He’s also a boss singer songwriter, makes a fine brew and will tell you the truth. Be warned. Can currently be found beating out time for Paul Weller. Steve likes garlic, American slice pizza, Adidas samba, Sudoku, sleeping in and marmite.

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Chris Taylor
Plays piano, hammond and most other things as well as being an amazing sound engineer and having an absurd amount of energy that he expends by being generous. Reminds me of Tigger. Says he can’t sing but I’m not sure… can be bribed with caramel digestives and pure tea runs in his veins. Likes chocolate almost as much as me but stubbornly refuses to accept that Galaxy is superior to Dairy Milk.