VILLAGE BIKE
Poet's Cottage, 14 Reed Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight, PO33 1EN
Telephone 01983 614121 Email villageb@iowrock.demon.co.uk
Biography

"They began in the middle of the hardcore Thatcherite years when everyone was into synthesizers. Folk, skiffle, Hawaiian music all went into the melting pot. They owe their roots to folks clubs, that element of the singer-songwriter bringing along their guitar. Their own songwriting had started. It led them to the obscure borderline where they are now."
- JC and Angelina's father John Rufus Grimshaw
"It's honest, uncomplicated music to do with emotion. Having said that, I don't want to be a carbon copy of Bessie Smith. I'm a nineties girl."
- Angelina Grimshaw
"To some people listening to a blues band, that would be like listening to an old record. Anybody up to sixteen, all they know is video, techno and unemployment. Ok my music is minority, but I'm not wasting time. Techno music is only going to have a shelf life of a few years. John Lee Hooker's got more respect now than he had at sixty. People like marketing history, but in the pop scene they want a new face."
- John Claude Grimshaw

JC and Angelina Grimshaw's musical taste runs like the Mississippi River, deep and wide. The duo's music, both originals and traditional, is steeped in hard Chicago blues, dark Delta ballads and kicking Cajun stomps. They'll even throw in Vaudeville jazz, Hawaiian, Mexican tunes along with traditional Irish and English reels.
Whilst the 1980s were flooded with synthesized Muzak JC and Angelina Grimshaw headed down a different road. Their independent label Village Bike continues to document their musical career in blues, country, jazz, hula and thrash skiffle.
The Village Bike story begins with the multi-talented ensemble Chuff Train Hot Dogs whose tape Jissum and Dynamite may see the light at the end of St. John's Station tunnel and be released on CD one day.
An offshoot from the Chuff Trains was JC and Jake Rodriques aptly titled Tapping Feet duo. A madcap South Sea Shuffle of jazz, Hawaiian and show tunes.
Heading further out to sea was the delightfully eccentric poetry/monologues of Mark Stedman set to music by the Village Bike crew. The label also gave voice to the talented violin playing of Irishman Donal O'Riain on the eloquently titled The Dog's Breakfast tape with Tom Kenna.
Angelina Grimshaw's solo tape Root Sap reverted Village Bike back to the blues. Angelina has a dark, dusky voice akin to the gin soaked Bessie Smith and the bawdy Memphis Minnie, two of her favourite singers. As well as penning songs for the duo, Angelina is also an artist. See her picture 'Two Crabs'. Village Bike has released two Angelina Grimshaw solo albums, Root Sap on tape and No Lonely Road on CD.
Aside from a couple of live tours as Midge Ure's guitar/mandolin player (with fellow Village Bike musician Jake Rodriques), JC has continued to record and play live with his sister Angelina Grimshaw.
Brother and sister play as a duo or in an expanded unit known as The Dance Preachers. The band has a reputation for stomping up a storm on Cajun, Texas/Mississippi blues, originals and Irish/Scottish reels.
The Dance Preachers features the superb rhythm section of Paul Armfield bass and Rupert Brown drums (a sought after session player and also a recording artist on the hip hop/trance beat label Holistic Records). They are often joined by Jake Rodriques on accordian and Donal O'Riain on violin. (O'Riain and Armfield are currently playing in a superb 'Gypsy jazz' trio called Tzigane, excellent CD available)
Village Bike recordings and JC and Angelina live shows often feature special guests and impromptu moments. Pretty Things guitarist and former Rolling Stone, and Isle of Wight resident Dick Taylor added electric guitar to JC and Angelina's Root Sap tape. There are also a talented string of Island musicians to be found playing on Village Bike recordings including Doug Watson, Keith Newnham and Rick Stokes.
The multi-talented Paul Armfield often gets up at the duo's gigs to perform originals and also beautiful Tom Waits covers. Cathy Flux sits in on violin too. And Stevie James Gadd steps up to play tea chest bass which John R Grimshaw aptly describes as 'Like the Charge of the ******* Light Brigade . . .'
And when he is around, the man immortalised in song, Rod Garfield (currently doing for the harmonica in Australia what Crocodile Dundee did for the bowie knife) will step out of the crowd to blow mouthfuls of wild, South Side Chicago, mouth harp.
JC Grimshaw is both a fine songwriter and a superb instrumentalist. If you have not seen JC play live do so. His playing on various guitars, slide and mandolins is fired by such diverse influences as Blind Willie McTell and Django Rheinhardt. He is simply a delight to hear.
At the roots of Village Bike are JC and Angelina's parents John R. and Kim Grimshaw. JR Grimshaw is a painter/poet/lyricist who is responsible for the cover of Dance When You're Living as well as supplying the inspiration and lyrics to many of the duo's songs. He is a man who likes his whiskey straight and his guitars unplugged.
If you have similar tastes then hear The Ballad of Rod Garfield on Dance While You're Living because it shines like a kerosene lamp in a dark Mississippi night. JC and Angelina Grimshaw. Two of a kind.
And in the Millenium summer JC and Angelina have performed at the Cambridge Folk Festival club tent and JC has released his second solo CD Footprints and Dreams more back bar musings set to the tune of strings and voices on life, love and 'sweet old kissing blues'.
Mike Plumbley
Isle of Wight Rock/Vaguely Sunny Promotions