 ODE & the Bebops describe themselves as Swindon’s number one skiffle band. They were formed in 1986 as a fun band by John McCarthy, Gareth Hamley and Andy Sloan – ‘Bone’ – with band practice once a week.
The band is made up of Bone on tea-chest bass, John on banjo and vocals and Gareth on guitar and vocals. Andy Ody – ‘Ode’ – started on the maracas and ended up with the washboard and hence the skiffle group was born. Their first success was winning a regional talent contest at the Victoria pub in Old Town. This led to them doing the rounds of local pubs and clubs, injecting a refreshing new sound from the usual aggressive and over amplified rock bands.
In 1989, Bone left and Tim ‘Sid’ Dobson took on the job of tea-chest player. 1992 saw the band change its bass player once again to Gary ‘Doris’ Durnford and the current line-up was complete. At all gigs audience participation is encouraged by handing out home-made instruments. The band’s style is a jazz mix that ranges from cotton plantation blues through ballads to rock ‘n’ roll swing.
Skiffle has been associated with railways since the American depression of the 1920s and it is appropriate that Swindon is an old railway town. The BeBops have produced a record, a video, met Lonnie Donnegan and won another competition – The Arkells Brewery 1995 Starsearch. 2004 saw the band being approached by Raucous Records to submit songs for a skiffle CD called Skiffle Revival.
Website: www.skiffleband.org.uk
Myspace: www.myspace.com/odeandthebebops
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