I got my first guitar in 1974, I bought it from my Auntie’s ‘ Kay s Catalogue’, I don’t remember the make (something oriental!), but it was a £18.00 a ¾ size acoustic, and I hardly knew one end from the other.
I’d been thinking of getting one for a while and the final push was seeing a bizarre and hilarious performance by a guy called Buzzy Lindhart singing Bette Midlers ‘Friends’ on The Old Grey Whistle Test... it even made ol’ ‘whispering Bob’ laugh! I thought to myself; “I could do that!”
My Mum bought me half-a-dozen lessons with a stern guy (name long since forgotten) who taught upstairs at Tom Taylors Music along Shide Road , he had a preference towards classical style and berated me for always being out of tune, without ever properly teaching me to be in tune.
In 1991 a good friend of mine bought himself a nice new Ibanez electric and a Marshall ‘mini-stack’, and invited me over for a blast, I took to the electric like a duck to water, and despite being skint, knew I had to buy one.
This lead to me selling my prized Husqvarna TE510 dirt bike in order to raise funds for a new electric plank. Bike sold and funds in place, I got a good deal on a Washburn N2 - Nuno Bettencourt model (Nuno Bettencourt was the hot kid on the block at the time with the band Extreme), from Eddie Moors Music in Boscombe.
Initially I played it through a Marshall micro-amp, but soon upgraded to a 100w Marshall 1 x 12 valvestate combo. My mate Steve and I rehearsed with the intention of getting a band together, later being joined by weightlifting Dave on drums, but despite various try-outs we couldn’t secure a bass player, and eventually the thing fizzled out.
In the meantime I’d started filling in on rhythm guitar for The Red Hot Roach Band from Brighstone, and ended up playing a few gigs with them.
Meanwhile on the other side of the Island the original line-up of Rhythm Method had broken up and via a friend I was put in contact with Tony Weeks their bassist. By this time I had started to sing a bit, and realised I could be a half decent vocalist also, I did a vocal try-out with Tony, ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ clinched it, and we were on.
Tony very quickly christened us Tash on account of our long hair and extreme moustaches! We managed to recruit Jason Siviter, Tony’s ol’ mucker from Rhythm Method on drums and we were up and running.
Originally we had a brilliant guy called Toby playing lead guitar, but I bowed to pressure to become a ‘power trio’ and ended up playing all the guitar parts... a fairly steep learning curve!
Our first gig was at Atherfield Camp in 1993 and our last at The Worsley, Wroxall in early ’97. Tash were something of an inconsistent entity, and veered from being brilliant to dire from gig to gig!
After a ridiculously protracted name selection process we eventually ended up with the moniker ‘Lemonwedge’.
Lemonwedge played regularly from mid ’97 to late 2000, and sporadically after that until 2004. We were quite an adept band musically, but I’m told somewhat boring to watch (ouch)!!
After quitting regular gigs with ‘The Wedge’ I bought myself some recording gear, and started working on some original demo songs under the pseudonym Triangulation Station, eventually culminating in a demo album ‘Eponymous First Effort’. See http://www.reverbnation.com/triangulationstation for more details.
Well by the summer of 2004 and a change in personal circumstances for me, I fancied getting back to regular playing, and with little chance of this happening with Lemonwedge, I’d started chatting to Pete & Barb Close whose own band The Sliders was on the point of winding up. We decided to put a band together and with my old mate Jason joining in on drums again, we were off! Jason also came up with the band name RIPTIDE... yes it’s his fault! Our first ‘proper’ gig was at The Anchor, Cowes in March 2005 and we’ve steadily built up an interesting and varied repertoire and continue to gig.
And I’m still the ‘old git’ in the band!
Nigel Leppard AKA ‘The Cosmic Lawnmower’