Sebastian Rochford performing in October 2008

Sebastian "Seb" Rochford is a British drummer who spans many musical genres.^[1]

He comes from Aberdeen and has a large family of 2 brothers and 7 sisters. His father, Gerard Rochford, is an accomplished poet in the north east of Scotland.

Band associations[link]

Rochford plays drums in bands such as:

• Polar Bear
• Acoustic Ladyland,
• Oriole,
• Menlo Park,
• Ingrid Laubrock Quintet
• Bojan Zulfikarpasic's Tetraband

He leads Polar Bear, both part of the F-IRE Collective.

Seb Rochford has also worked extensively with Joanna MacGregor and Andy Sheppard and leads the band Fulborn Teversham and has an improvising duo with Leafcutter John. He also has a solo project called Room of Katinas.^[2]

He has also drummed for Pete Doherty, with his band Babyshambles, in the early days of the band, and has continued to make guest appearances with them. He drums on the first Babyshambles release, a limited edition single "Babyshambles", released on the High Society label.^[3]

In 2008, he drummed on the David Byrne and Brian Eno album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.

Recently, Seb has been working with Corrine Bailey Rae and Herbie Hancock.

Seb drums on 5 songs on Carl Barat's solo album released on 4 October 2010.

In 2011 he drummed on Brian Eno and Rick Holland's album Drums Between The Bells.

Seb produced and co-wrote a four-track EP with UK Hip-Hop MC Mikill Pane, "The Guinness & Blackcurrant EP", which was released independently on 24 October 2011.

He recently played live with Brett Anderson on Later Live... With Jools Holland. 1 November 2011.

Polar Bear[link]

There have been four releases by Polar Bear—Dim Lit, Held On The Tips Of Fingers, Polar Bear (self titled) and Peepers. Held On The Tips Of Fingers was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2005. Rochford also received a Mercury nomination in 2007 for the self-titled debut album by Basquiat Strings With Seb Rochford. Polar Bear's fourth album, Peepers, was released in March 2010 to widespread critical acclaim.

Influences[link]

Seb's range of influences include Napalm Death, Venetian Snares, Björk, Prince and contemporary electronica as well as a large dose of jazz. His appearance (notably his large hair) and phenomenal technique and imagination have made him one of the most in-demand drummers of modern times in the London Jazz scene.

Awards[link]

Seb won the BBC Jazz Award for best newcomer in 2004, and has been nominated as best musician in 2006. He has also been nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2005 and 2007. Seb also plays drums on Adele's Mercury Nominated Album 19.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Polar Bear website
• Acoustic Ladyland website
• Room of Katinas
• All About Seb Rochford from SoundJunction

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Coordinates: 51°34′56″N 0°42′23″E / 51.5821°N 0.7065°E / 51.5821; 0.7065

Rochford
Rochford  Rochford shown within Essex
Population	7,610 (2001 census)
OS grid reference	TQ876904
District	Rochford
Shire county	Essex
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Rochford
Postcode district	SS4
Dialling code	01702
Police	Essex
Fire	Essex
Ambulance	East of England
EU Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	Rochford and Southend East
List of places: UK • England • Essex

Rochford is a small town in the Rochford district of Essex in the East of England. It is sited about 43 miles (69.2 km) from Central London and approximately 21 miles (33.8 km) from the Essex county town, Chelmsford. According to the 2001 census the civil parish of Rochford, which includes the town proper, Stroud Green, and London Southend Airport, had a population of 7,610.

History[link]

The town is the main settlement in the Rochford district, and takes its name from Rochefort, Old English for Ford of the Hunting Dogs. The River Roach was originally called the Walfleet (Creek of the foreigners). It was renamed the Roach in what is known as a back formation. This is where it is assumed that Rochford means ford over the River Roach so they renamed the river to fit the theory. The town runs into suburban developments in the parishes of Ashingdon and Hawkwell. Kings Hill, in Rochford, was notable for containing the Lawless Court up until the 19th century.^[1]

First World War[link]

Nearby Southend Airport started life as a grass fighter station in World War I.^[2] The site was founded in the autumn of 1914 when farmland between Westbarrow Hall and the Great Eastern railway line at Warners Bridge 2½ miles north of Southend Pier was acquired for RFC training purposes. Training continued until May 1915 when the site, known also as Eastwood, was taken over by the RNAS to become a Station (night) in the fight against intruding Zeppelins. After the last RNAS action from here on it became once again RFC Rochford. Initially it was defined as a Home Defence night landing ground but in September was reclassified as a Flight Station (night). Normal Home Defence duties continued until after the Armistice when a run-down of unit activities began, with No.198 Sqn disbanding in May and No.61 in June 1919. Except for the occasional civilian flights aviation lessened, even more so when the station closed in 1920 and the site returned to farmland.

Second World War[link]

Southend Airport was opened on the site on 18 September 1935. As World War II approached it was requisitioned by the Air Ministry in August 1939^[3] for use as a fighter airfield by No.11 Group RAF. RAF Rochford was a satellite station for RAF Hornchurch and was primarily a fighter base, home mainly to Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane aircraft. Rochford airfield was accompanied by a radar base in Canewdon (around 4 miles (6.4 km) away). Due to the presence of the airfield Rochford was bombed a number of times during the war.

It was returned to civilian service on 31 December 1946.^[4]

Lesneys[link]

Until the early 1980s one of the largest employers in Rochford was the Lesneys factory, who manufactured the famous Matchbox miniature die cast model. However, this company relocated to Rugby, Warwickshire in 1990.

Geography[link]

The town is just to the north of Southend on Sea, but is sufficiently separated from both Southend and Rayleigh to preserve its own identity.

Governance[link]

The Member of Parliament for Rochford and Southend East is James Duddridge (Conservative).

Landmarks[link]

There is a Hall in Rochford which is privately owned by a family which live within the building, along with the golf course who also own a part of it. In 1525, Henry VIII awarded Thomas Boleyn the title of Viscount Rochford. Rochford Hall subsequently became the home of Mary Boleyn, sometime mistress of Henry VIII and (probably elder) sister of (Queen) Anne Boleyn, during her second marriage to William Stafford.

Leisure[link]

Rochford Council are in partnership with Virgin Active in running Clements Hall Leisure Centre and Rayleigh Leisure Centre.

Transport[link]

Rochford railway station from which trains run to Southend Victoria and to Liverpool Street station in the business district of central London. In consequence it has long been popular as a dormitory town for commuters. Southend Airport railway station on the eastern boundary of the airport, opened on 18 July 2011.

It also has good bus links to the surrounding towns. The Number 7, 8 and 9 service going to both Rayleigh and Southend-on-Sea in both directions.

Services 7, 8 & 9 are normally operated by modern low-floor easy access buses.

There are twice daily scheduled flights to Waterford available from London Southend Airport and with budget airline easyJet operating flights 9 destinations, from April 2012. Dublin and Geneva have also been announced as new routes from the airport for 2012.

Rochford Hospital[link]

Rochford Hospital used to be primarily the district maternity hospital. It was here, in 1956, that Sister J Ward made observations that led to the development of phototherapy for newborns suffering from jaundice.^[5]

This hospital was closed and housing was built on much of the site. Some of the hospital was demolished in 1997, with the remainder being utilised for mental health inpatient services by South Essex Mental Health and Community Care NHS Trust until spring 2005 when services were dispersed and Rochford Hospital closed for redevelopment as part of the Runwell Hospital reprovision programme (latterly South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust) The old boilerhouse which was built in 1933 and provided heat and power for the hospital still stands. It is a grade 2 listed building. it has been converted into apartments

In February 2008 the new Rochford Hospital opened to mental health inpatient services provided by South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, Rochford Hospital provides services for wards which moved from Runwell Hospital.

Built in the grounds of the old hospital, the new development has 111 beds and cost £25 million. It was designed to care for people with mental health needs in a modern and therapeutic environment, initially opening four new wards for adult and older peoples mental health care, these wards are Beech Ward (previously Elm Ward) and Maple Ward (previously Ashingdon Ward) provide services for older people, Cedar Ward (previously Boleyn One Ward) and Willow Ward (previously Chalkwell Ward) provide services for Adults age people, Poplar ward is a new development which will provide inpatient services for adolescents suffering from mental ill health, Poplar ward opened in February 2009. The new Rochford Hospital is part of the wider plans to permanently close the current Runwell Hospital.

Rochford Hospital was officially opened on Thursday 7 May 2009 by Professor Louis Appleby.

Churches[link]

Rochford Community Church was founded in 1983. Its mission statement is "To create a growing community of God's people that is loving, accepting and caring, and which is able to minister God's love, reconciliation and healing with a servant heart, in faith, both within it and to the world outside."^[6]

St Andrew's Church, Rochford is located near the Rochford Hundred Golf Club and is part of Rochford Deanery,^[7] within the Bradwell Area^[8] of the Diocese of Chelmsford^[9] of the Church of England.

Rochford Methodist Church is in North Street, Rochford, near the White Horse pub. The Methodists have been in Rochford since 1822, meeting in a building where Market Alley turns into the Square. In 1841, they moved to a new building in North Street near Weir Pond Road, and in 1880 they moved to their current premises. The link to the church website is shown below.^[10]

Gallery[link]

• 

  Town Square, Rochford

• 

  Aerial photo over Rochford. The old hospital boilerhouse can be seen.

• 

  Rochford Hall, Rochford

• 

  St.Andrews Church, Rochford

Notable people[link]

The following notable people were born in Rochford:

• Omar Abdullah (b. 1970), politician and Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, India
• Terry Alderton (b. 1970), comedian and former goalkeeper
• Adrian Bell (b. 1969), academic.
• James Bourne (b. 1983), member of pop rock band Busted and pop punk band Son of Dork
• Niall Buckler (b. 1985), bass player of rock band Mumm-Ra
• Digby Fairweather (b.1946), jazz cornettist
• Kirk Hudson (b. 1986), footballer
• Stephen Pewsey (b. 1955), author and historian
• Amanda Tapping (b. 1965), actress in Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Sanctuary.
• Peter Taylor (b.1953), England Football manager
• Andrew Tyrie (b. 1957), Conservative MP.
• Kevin Wade (b. 1950), medium and clairvoyant

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rochford

External links[link]

• Rochford Parish Council
• http://www.essexchurches.info - St Andrews Church on Essex Churches website
• 4th Rochford Scout Group
• Rochford Methodist Church
• Hawkwell & Hockley St John Ambulance
• Rochford Historic Town Project Assessment Report [1]

Kit Downes is a British jazz pianist. Downes plays regularly with his own trio, Stan Sulzmann, Troyka, The Golden Age of Steam, Sam Crockatt and Clark Tracey - and has played with Joe Locke, Gilad Atzmon, Empirical, Gerard Presencer, Seb Rochford, Iain Ballamy, Peter Ind, Gwyneth Herbert, John Warren and Eugene Skeef. He has also performed with British bands Fraud, Asaf Sirkis' Inner Noise, Gilad Atzmon's Orient House Ensemble, Acoustic Ladyland, Nostalgia 77, 2000 Black, Silhouette Brown and Dennis Rollins' Badbone and Co.

Biography[link]

Downes attended Norwich School, the Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music.^[1]

He was a member of Empirical, appearing on their debut album, Empirical (Destin-e Records). The album, produced by Courtney Pine, was the Jazzwise album of the year and the Mojo album of the year in 2007. Work with Empirical included The North Sea Jazz Festival, The JVC Festivals in New York, Montreal and Newport, and Vancouver Jazz Festival. Empirical also won the EBU Award at the North Sea Festival.

Downes left Empirical and went on to form prog jazz group Troyka, as well as continuing to work with the Kit Downes Trio. Troyka has Downes on keys, Chris Montague on guitar and Joshua Blackmore on drums.^[2] The Trio, including bassist Calum Gourlay and drummer James Maddren, released their debut album Golden on Basho Records in November 2009, which was one of the 12 albums shortlisted for the 2010 Mercury Music Prize.^[3] In June 2010, the Trio recorded a new album, for release on Basho Records in March 2011, with guests cellist Adrien Dennefeld and saxophonist/bass clarinetist James Allsopp.^[4]

The Trio have been together since their first year at the Royal Academy of Music, in 2005. The band has played at the London Jazz Festival 2008 and 2009, Ronnie Scott's British Jazz Festival, BBC Radio 3 Live Broadcast, Glasgow Jazz Festival and Cheltenham Jazz Festival. The Trio are inspired by a wide range of influences, ranging from Bela Bartok to Keith Jarrett to Rufus Wainwright.

Downes has also worked with composer Micachu, with whom he recorded in Abbey Road for Matthew Herbert, recorded for BBC Radio 6 and played at the Sonar Music Festival '07 in Barcelona. He is also a member of the F-IRE Collective, an initiative set up by Barak Schmool, which is a musician-led collective to encourage shared learning and sharing of resources.

Awards[link]

• Winner of BBC Jazz Award 2008: Rising Star
• Yamaha Jazz Scholarship Award 2009

Discography[link]

• Empirical: Empirical, 2008
• Troyka: Troyka (Edition), 2009
• Duo with Tom Cawley: Homely, 2009
• Clark Tracey: Current Climate (Tentoten), 2009
• Kit Downes Trio: Golden (Basho Records, SRCD 31-2), 2009
• Kit Downes Trio: Quiet Tiger (Basho Records, SRCD 34-2), 2010

External links[link]

• Kit Downes — official site
• Kit Downes on Myspace
• Kit Downes / Kit Downes Trio discographies at Discogs
• Kit Downes — blog
• Kit Downes: A Young Jazz Pianist To Watch, profile article in The Daily Telegraph newspaper by Sebastian Scotney, dated 24 September 2009
• Kit Downes at Basho Records

References[link]

Paul Morley (left) with Chris Austin, in rehearsal for Morley's "Yet another example of the porousness of certain objects" at the Royal Academy of Music

Paul Morley (born 26 March 1957 in Stockport, Cheshire, England) is an English journalist, who wrote for the New Musical Express from 1977 to 1983, during one of its most successful periods, and has since written for a wide range of publications. He has also has been a band manager and promoter, as well as a television presenter.

Education[link]

Morley was educated at Stockport Grammar School, a co-educational from 1980 independent school (at the time of his education, a partly fee-paying direct grant grammar school), in the town of Stockport in Greater Manchester (at the time in Cheshire), followed by the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Career[link]

Morley is credited with steering the marketing and promotion of the phenomenal early success of ZTT's biggest act, Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Although it has never been confirmed, it is generally accepted that it was Morley who authored the provocative slogans on the band's T-shirts (e.g. "Frankie Say Arm The Unemployed", "Frankie Say War! Hide Yourself").

For a period of time, Morley produced and managed Manchester punk band The Drones.^[1] However, Morley first came to wider attention with a brief appearance in the video for ABC's "The Look of Love" (in which he mimes the words "what's that?" in a call-and-response routine with singer Martin Fry), but he achieved genuine notoriety as co-founder, with Trevor Horn, of ZTT Records, and electronic group Art of Noise.

He was the first presenter of BBC Two's The Late Show, and has appeared as a music pundit on a number of other programmes. For the short-lived Channel 4 arts strand Without Walls he wrote and presented a documentary on boredom. Morley still regularly appears on BBC 2's Newsnight Review programme.

He was the focus of BBC2's How To Be A Composer, in which he spent a year at the Royal Academy of Music attempting to learn to compose classical music, despite being unable to read music or play an instrument.

Morley is the author of Words and Music: the history of pop in the shape of a city. The book is a journey through the history of pop; it seeks to trace the connection between Alvin Lucier's experimental audio recording, "I am sitting in a room" and Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head". A synthetic Kylie features as the central character of the book. The book was later turned into the hour-long epic musical track "Raiding the 20th Century" by DJ Food, which features Morley reading from his book and speculating on the cultural significance of the mashup, amidst the sounds of those very mashups.

His other books include Ask: The Chatter of Pop (a collection of his music journalism) and Nothing, a biographical book reflecting on his father's suicide and that of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, and unhappy parts of his teenage life such as the time he spent at Stockport Grammar School.

Morley has teamed up with The Auteurs' James Banbury to form the band Infantjoy and in 2005 released an album entitled Where The Night Goes on Sony BMG. An album, With, featuring collaborations with Tunng, Isan and Populous amongst others, was released in October 2006 on Morley and Banbury's own label ServiceAV.

Morley is a lifelong fan of the jazz musician John Surman and conducted an interview with the artist for The Guardian newspaper.^[2]

Personal life[link]

Morley was married to Claudia Brücken with whom he has a daughter.

He is the brother of filmmaker Carol Morley.^[3]

Cultural references[link]

The Cure played a version of their song "Grinding Halt", retitled for that performance as "Desperate Journalist In Ongoing Meaningful Review Situation", on the John Peel radio show, with new lyrics parodying Morley's writing style after an unfavourable review of their debut album Three Imaginary Boys.

Bibliography[link]

• Ask: The Chatter of Pop (1986)
• Nothing (2000)
• Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City (2004)
• Joy Division: Piece by Piece: Writing About Joy Division 1977-2007 (2007)
• Joy Division: Fragments (with Christel Derenne) (2009)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Morley and Banbury's virtual record label
• Infantjoy official homepage
• Paul Morley on John Peel
• An extended review/meditation on Paul Morley's book 'Nothing'. [1]
• spikemagazine.com on Paul Morley
• Raiding The 20th Century featuring Paul Morley and a cast of thousands
• Zang Tuum Tumb and all that
• Paul Morley Interview 1999

Mitch Mitchell
Background information
Birth name	John Ronald Mitchell
Born	(1947-07-09)9 July 1947 Ealing, London, England[1]
Died	12 November 2008(2008-11-12) (aged 61) Portland, Oregon, United States
Genres	Rock, psychedelic rock, blues rock, jazz fusion, hard rock
Instruments	Drums, vocals, percussion
Years active	1966–2008
Associated acts	The Coronets, Johnny Harris and the Shades, The Pretty Things, Georgie Fame, The Riot Squad, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, Gypsy Sun Experience, The Dirty Mac, Ramatam, The Who

John Ronald "Mitch" Mitchell (9 July 1947 – 12 November 2008) was an English drummer, best known for his work in The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Biography[link]

Early Career[link]

Early in his career, Mitchell gained considerable musical experience touring and as a session musician. He also had an acting background, and had starred in a children's television programme, Jennings and Derbyshire, when he was a teenager.^[2] He became a musician through working for Jim Marshall at his drum shop on Saturdays while still at school.^[3] Pre-Experience bands included Frankie Reid and the Casuals (1962), Johnny Harris and the Shades, The Pretty Things, Bill Knight & The Sceptres, The Riot Squad, Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, and The Who as a session drummer while the band was deciding on a replacement (Keith Moon) for Doug Sandom.^[4]

The Jimi Hendrix Experience[link]

Mitchell auditioned for Hendrix's band in October 1966, beating out drummers including Aynsley Dunbar, was their other final choice. Mitchell won the job on the flip of a coin.

Mitchell was praised for his work with the Jimi Hendrix Experience on the songs "Manic Depression", "Stepping Stone", "Little Miss Strange", "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", "Fire" and "Third Stone from the Sun". Mitchell came from a jazz background and like many of his contemporaries was influenced by Elvin Jones, Max Roach, and Joe Morello.^[5]

Mitchell played in Hendrix's Experience trio from October 1966 to mid-1969, in his Woodstock band of August 1969, and also with the later incarnation of the Experience in 1970 with Billy Cox on bass, known posthumously as the "Cry of Love" band. Hendrix would often record with Mitchell only, and the two were particularly "tight" during live sets as a result.