Broadside formed in December of 2000, created by two members
of Rotherham's leading family of guitar players with the express desire to
play blues and classic rock covers around the Sheffield area and basically
just have some fun. The band consist of Paul Woodcock on guitar, David
Woodcock on guitar, keyboards and harmonica, Gregg Braden on drums and Lee
"Leeroy" Bradley on bass. Two singers, Simon and Danielle, were also
recruited, but later left, leaving Paul to take over on vocal duties.
During this period, the band spent most of its time rehearsing and appearing
at various jam events, such as at The Deep End and The Slug and Fiddle. Their
main organised gig to date was a spot at a Sheffield Hallam
Halls of Residence leaving ball held at Cutler’s Hall in the centre of
Sheffield, although this was an experience the members have mixed feelings
about.
Since then activity has been pretty quiet, due to the student holidays
meaning Lee and Gregg have had to return to their native Nottingham and
Norwich. However, the band is now busy writing and rehearsing original
material which they will add to their established collection of covers, and
are looking forward to beginning an active gigging schedule sometime after
September.
Influences
The musical influences of Broadside are wide ranging. Paul is a committed
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Hendrix fan and has a strange and embarrassing
fixation with cheesy 80’s rock music; David has every album Bob Dylan ever
released, even the really bad ones; Gregg enjoys getting angry to Rage
Against the Machine; and Lee has compiled a ‘Bass Players Guide to
Christianity’, with John Entwistle of The Who as God, John Paul Jones of Led
Zeppelin as Jesus and Jack Bruce of Cream as the Holy Ghost.
These diverse musical tastes are united by a passion for blues and classic
rock music of all kinds, and this has led to a large range of covers in
addition to a number of fresh sounding original songs. The band is also
blessed with a number of fascinating individual abilities, such as Gregg’s
unique tendency to turn his cymbals inside out halfway during a song, Paul's
extensive past history of guitars (he claims to have gone through 35 in
total since he began playing a few years ago) and David’s X-Ray vision. The
group hopes that these abilities will add to their musical prowess in order
to create a band the like of South Yorkshire has never seen, nor will be
likely to again...
