Band History
THE
EARLY FOLK CLUB DAYS
The Dufflebags were formed in late 2002. The founding members (Chris Davies & Martyn Cornelius) had met 3 years prior to this in various Folk music clubs in the local Exeter area.
Chris had picked up the guitar at a late age but found ease in writing songs straight away and even before joining forces with Martyn already had an impressive backlog of material he wanted to perform. It is to be noted that some even today have not yet been performed out. Chris began performing either his songs solo or with his younger son, Sean on electric guitar.
It wasn’t until 2002 that he joined forces with Martyn Cornelius, who had already been performing out in the folk clubs almost 20 years earlier, from the ripe old age of 3. Martyn had been brought up with his parents in the folk club circuit in the local Devon area and began by singing, later learning to play guitar. This would eventually lead to further instruments such as the Mandolin and Mandocello, both also performed in The Dufflebags.
So in early 2002 Chris, Martyn & Sean performed together in the clubs, performing only Chris’ self-penned songs. Early songs that came out of these folk nights included, The Promised Land, Time & Tide, I Believe and Things we do for Money, all of which would soon become popular favourites of the band.
ERNIE
& THE DUFFLEBAGS
In September 2002 Joe Davies-Black (Chris’ older son) joined the trio for a seemingly one-off performance, even though Joe was ever the keen bass player. During this time, however, it was suggested that the four of them start up a group. Chris had already secured a charity concert for the West of England school for the Partially Sighted in 2003 and needed to get a group together to make it interesting for the children.
Even though Joe didn’t attend this gig, the seeds were sown for future performances as a four-piece. But the band wanted a key fifth member in the form of a drummer.
In 2003 Chris, Sean & Martyn began attending pub music sessions, including The Village Inn, Exwick, where they performed on a regular basis. It wasn’t long before Chris landed himself a modestly successful gig at the venue. The band may have now found a drummer, in the form of Joe Cook, the drummer of Sean’s second band, Notch, but they needed a name.
When the landlord of the Village Inn asked what the band was called Chris replied Ernie and the Dufflebags. It was, apparently the first thing that came to his head! To this day Ernie remains a mystery to fans and even to the band. It has been suggested by some that he is an unseen fifth member of the band, though no one knows for sure! The band stuck with this name for a couple of years before deciding to simply shorten it to the snappier, The Dufflebags.
THE
MATERIAL
The 5-piece band featuring Guitars, Mandolins, Mandocellos, Bass, Electric lead guitar and Drums struck up a unique sound, which interested many who came to see them. Their set lists were also different from other bands, choosing to mix both popular cover songs with self-written and arranged material.
The cover material in the early days was more acoustic-orientated and didn’t really give Sean a chance to show his ability to play his guitar.
But several gigs later the emergence of songs like Comfortably Numb transformed the band and made them more accessible to a wider audience and steered them away from being labeled an out-and-out folk group.
The group’s vast range of covers stems from each of the members’ eclectic musical backgrounds. Combining Folk, Rock, Prog, Blues, Heavy-Metal & even punk the band struck an immediate chord with audiences, who knew that the band would offer something for everyone, a trait that still continues today.
They have performed songs from the 60’s and 70’s by bands such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Neil Young and The Moody Blues as well as more modern songs of the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s featuring bands such as The Stranglers, Radiohead, R.E.M. David Gray and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
With cover songs like Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb, and R.E.M’s Losing my Religion and original songs like Neon Blue and Hypocrite’s Ball, performed in the early gigs, to later cover songs like Ocean Colour Scene’s Mechanical Wonder, The Stranglers No More Heroes and original songs, Monkey on my Back and For our Sins, the band were getting a small but loyal fan following, which grew as the band continued to perform.
THE
DRUMMERS OF THE BAND
While the four original members have remained with the band their drummers have constantly changed. Their first drummer, Joe Cook, was soon unavailable due to other commitments, and in the interim between finding another drummer, they did some gigs with talented female drummer, Sarah Morgan, who performed with the Japanese Drumming group, Kagamusha Taiko and later with bands like El Cajones and Powderstrip. This collaboration was, sadly, short-lived and a new drummer was added on a full-time basis. Geoff Tresize became their second drummer in Mid 2004, and even after lasting 21 months was forced to leave due to musical differences.
In 2005 Geoff was quickly replaced by Village Inn resident drummer, Graham Pickard, who remains their current drummer today. Graham has been performing in bands for many, many years, from as far back as the 60’s. One of his local bands, Insect, had the honour of supporting Cream at Exeter University. The new drummer breathed new life into the band and has been at the heart of the band’s recent promotional campaign.
VENUES
PERFORMED
The Dufflebags have had many gigs at local Exeter pubs including many crowd-packed evenings at The Village Inn, The Showman and The Globe, as well as traveling out to the now-closed King’s Head in Cullumpton.
Notable performances have been a Wedding reception at Exeter’s Gypsy Hill Hotel, and a couple of Music in the Park events.
They have also performed as various line-ups at Alphington and Clyst St Mary Village Halls.
The band still remains available for functions and charity nights.
ALBUMS
In 2004 the band recorded their first album, Welcome to the Hypocrite’s Ball, at Willand Abbey Studios in Devon. Recorded over a period of 4 Months and released in the summer of that year, the album featured 12 original songs by Chris Davies and arranged by Martyn and the rest of the band. Because of confined space the band couldn’t record any drums, the recording engineer, Mark Spiller, gave a couple of tracks some drum effects. The album was quite raw and acoustic, a sound that didn’t reflect the band’s live pub sound but rather that of the folk clubs.
Fuelled with the desire to record a better album, which would also feature drums the band recorded a second album in 2006. Titled For our Sins, the album was recorded at Firefly Studios, Throwleigh, Dartmoor by Richard Knapp, over the course of 6 months. The album featured 10 tracks, all of which had a much rockier sound with more electrics, the addition of drums, sound effects and heightened musical proficiency from all members, owing to the 4 years experience of the band. Because of the absence of Geoff, who left shortly after the album was recorded, the band hired a young talented drummer, Dan Harrison, to give life to the songs. Despite having had no prior knowledge of the band and with no practice with them prior to going into the studio, the drummer played along to the new original songs like he already knew them and was exactly the step forward the band wanted to improve on the stripped-down sound of the first album.
A Demo CD of original songs is still in the pre-production phase, as is a demo showcasing the band’s best cover versions. The band also hopes to record a full-length Covers CD, which will include their favourite cover songs.