Biogs
Lead Guitar, Bass Pedals and Vocals - Shaun Hunt
I began playing guitar at about 12 years old and played guitar and bass in various line-ups over the years playing just for fun with the occasional live performance in bands I put together with friends. Being self taught my progression has been gradual and when I got to 40 I decided to try and do something with guitar or give up altogether. I had too much kit languishing in the loft to waste. I auditioned for a Genesis tribute band based in Kent called 'In The Cage' and spent 18 months playing 20 odd gigs around the UK. I did the double neck bass/12 string thing with Moog bass pedals too, which is something I wanted to do since I was 15 years old. Playing rock/blues is a departure for me since my early years and I have not sung and played guitar until this year. I do the vocals by default really but I think I'm improving and I enjoy it. My guitar heroes are Mike Rutherford, Steve Hackett, Joe Pass, Allan Holdsworth Pat Metheny and Jan Akerman. I've been lucky enough to meet them all.
I think Joe Pass was the greatest guitarist of all time, and Metheny the greatest living.
I currently use a Gibson les Paul studio put through a 2 x 12 combo. If space allows I take a Godin 12 string and Roland Bass pedals too for a bit of variety and colour.
I also currently play bass/12string/bass pedals for ReGenesis, and we are looking forward to a small national tour in October 2010. www.regenesis-music.com
Drums & Percussion - Tim Watts
After a chaotic and fun misspent youth playing for various bands where I was chasing the ever elusive dream of fame and fortune. I realised that that particular dream wasn’t likely to be happening any time soon and so I quit playing and didn’t play again for over 12 years. With the support and encouragement of my wife and four kids (two who are now chasing the dream themselves!) I came out of hibernation and started playing again and in doing this rediscovered the pure buzz of playing to and engaging with a live audience.
My early blues and rock influences include Led Zep, Free and Clapton. My drumming influences are many and varied but my drumming heroes are John Bonham and Steve Gadd. They are very different players but share a fantastic ability to lay down an amazing groove. Contemporary blues rock influences have been SRV, John Mayer and Wiltshire’s very own The Hoax where Jon Amor and Jesse Davey are in my humble opinion amongst the very best blues guitarists of their generation. With these influences it was a very easy decision to accept White Room’s invitation to join them as their new sticks man where I get to play some nice fat grooves and shuffles for the band's Joe Bonamassa inspired set list.
Coming back to playing after such a long break meant that my trusty old Pearl kit was no longer really up to it so I now play a custom built hand lacquered Mapex Chaos Saturn kit with a mix of Paiste and Zildjian cymbals. The kit has thin ply shells using a mix of maple and walnut which gives the kit a unique tone that is both melodic and fat sounding with great levels of natural volume. If you get the chance to come and catch us live, you may if you are a drum anorak notice that I have something in common with Phil Collins (another hero!) in that I play left handed. In fairness that’s probably where all comparison ends.
Bass Guitar - Dick Stewart
I got into Rock and Blues influenced music after watching the original Fleetwood Mac blues line up several times when I was twelve to thirteen. Peter Green was a master of soulful blues playing, lots of space in his playing and a great singer.
Shaun and I go back several decades and whilst we enjoyed the occasional jam together, I was never in any of his bands. My usual role was as bag carrier, driver and critic (What a great job that was ! ) I'm glad that Nigel, our original drummer and Shaun talked me into playing bass for this band, it's been good. I play most of our current set with a very heavy gauge plectrum and I play in traditional rock 'n roll style which gives a very powerful punchy sound. I'm probably much further forward in the mix than Carmine Rojas would be with Bonamassa and the result is a harder rockier bassline.The great thing about this band is that we are playing music that we all enjoy and we are having a ball ! We have some great Bonamassa albums to choose from and our current set, I believe, includes some of the very finest contemporary blues-rock.
I use a 350W Warwick Neo CL Combo with a Zoom B2 pedal set on High Compression. I'm a big fan of Yamaha instruments and I use a classic high output, passive pick-up, black Yamaha BB414 with a more subtle semi-hollow Californian built Yamaha Superlight RBX A2 as back up. I designed the website and update the content.
Simon Needler ~ Keyboards
I started playing drums in the early Sixties and by the age of 16 had turned pro on the strength
of a BBC team that followed us about on the road for three months making a documentary
about a young band trying to make it. Needless to say , we didn't !
Back home, with my tail between my legs, I changed to keyboards. I played in a Soul band for a couple of years then switched to an out and out 'pop' band, released a couple of singles that flopped and so gave up music at the advanced age of 21 !
Fast forward 25 years or so, my wife and daughters encouraged me to return to music. So I dusted off my drums and for about seven years I played all around the South of England with James Duke, a singer/songwriter from Swindon. I felt I was getting too old to thrash about on drums every night, so I again changed back to keys and played in a Soul/ Party band for two years before joining White Room, which gives me so much more scope to utilise those overdriven Hammond /Leslie chops that I love so much !
I play a Hammond XK2 through an original Leslie 145 which has been converted to modern spec with uprated horns and driver and crossover, powered by a Valveking 100W tube amp. The stage piano is a Nord EX88 played through a pair of Mackie SRM450v2's in stereo.
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