Band History

The Flyers' roots stretch back to about 2001. At first there was just an acoustic two-piece with Stan (vocals, guitar) and Leigh (lead vocals, bass), who stumbled upon each other quite by accident through their common membership of Lowlands Club in Eastcote, Middlesex. Stan had hardly seen his guitar in about 25 years and was keen to play again, and Leigh, experienced in gigging with The Phoenix Blues Band over the previous 20 years or more, was kind enough to collaborate. The duo was called 'Net Chord' and was specifically put together to play occasionally at Lowlands just for fun. Eventually Stan discovered a local Wednesday night jam at The Woodman in Eastcote and began going there on a regular basis, but Leigh had other things going on and couldn't go to this at the time. The way things panned out, though, Phoenix ended up hosting a Wednesday night jam of their own at The Mermaid in St. Albans, so Stan started visiting this from time to time as well.

When Phoenix's Wednesday jams came to an end Leigh started accomanying Stan to The Woodman, where the duo appeared under the imaginative name of 'StanLeigh'. Apart from that, they had their first serious outing at The Sportsman Blues Jam in December, 2002, but it was at The Woodman where things really shaped up and the lads became a regular feature there.

Eventually, Phoenix front-man and multi-talented Ray (vocals, sax, harmonica, banjo, mandolin), started sitting in, adding several new dimensions to both the music and the act. The band went fully electric under the name of 'The Rhythm Ratz' when drummer Keith joined shortly after Ray, but for one reason or another the name evolved into 'The Eastcote Flyers'. With the passage of time the 'Eastcote' has dropped into disuse and the band is now known as just 'The Flyers'.

The Flyers would like to give a very special thanks to Alan George, landlord of The Woodman, for all the support he has given us over the years. Alan gave us our first gig as a working band at his pub in Aylesbury on Halloween Night, 2004, and has been good enough to give us a regular slot at The Woodman on the second Friday of every second month (Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov...) since then (but check the Gigs page just in case a last-minute change has been necessary). The Woodman features top-notch live bands on Fridays and some Saturdays and has jam sessions on Wednesday evenings.

Last, but not least, the band would like to thank all you loyal supporters out there who come to enjoy our gigs whenever you can (those of you we have photos of are featured on the 'Picture Gallery' page of this site). It's your support that keeps us going, and we are grateful to you.

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