Me and Ryan started out last summer
when we didn't even know each other... Wierd I know but let me explain. I used to play guitar in a metal band called 'Spitroast'
which was of course going no-where. Ryan was the frontman/Bassist in a band called 'Park Backwards' (Who after much debate
and name changing shortened the name to just 'Park' but that doesn't matter). Anyway, I used to play acoustic guitar on the
side but couldn't find anyone to do a duo with then one day, Cheesy (Drummer for 'Park'), said "Yaaaaaaar. Me thinks yous
and ryans should yaaaaaar, get together and play the banjo together. Shiver me timbers you'll sound good... 'n stuff." or
something along those lines.
So we did.
We learned a few songs (Goldfinger, Reel
big fish, Blink 182 etc.) and played them at an open mic session in a pub. Luckily, a guy called Dan Baxter was there and
asked us to play a couple of gigs for him in a couple of events he had organized.
So we did.
The only proviso in doing this was that the
songs we were gonna play had to be strictly our own material. We had to write two or three of our own songs if we wanted to
play.
So we did.
Bear in mind Ryan and I only new each other
for a week by this point so we didn't really know what to expect from each other. So we both just got completely wankered
down the park (On Hock and Castlemaine) and wrote two songs, 'Fools Without A Name' and 'Another lager Please... (The
Beer Song). And still today everywhere we go people are singing them at us. Which is a good thing by the way. I'm not
complaining. Since then we've just been writing, Drinking, Gigging, Drinking, Smoking, Dri... You get the point.
We did have alot of trouble coming
up with a name. At first and for a long while we were just Ryan and Ben. But that was crap. Then we thought 'Fools Without
A Name' was a good idea. But that was crap. Then 'Shaven Wookie' or 'Us Vs The World' or 'Fist Full Of Cats' But they were
all crap. So we just settled for 'Ben and Ryan' or 'Ryan an Ben' Whichevr you prefer
So here we are now Having just recorded our first EP '...Untill
the bitter End.'. It is now available to buy. You can either order it through paypal on the home-page, or you can find me
and buy it in person. CD's cost £5 each.
