Simon Stokes

There are currently two artists producing under the name of Simon Stokes:

1. Simon Stokes - Minimal / techno producer and DJ.
2. Simon Stokes - American Psychedelic Rock band.

The biographies for the two artists are displayed below:

1. Born in Scotland's capital of Edinburgh in 1983, Stokes emerged from a decade well known for musical atrocity with a keen ear for quality sound. Ever fascinated by the technical world of making music, Stokes creates his bouncy, bass-riddled techno using an impressive hardware setup. Stokes' approach to music is all about personality, and it is this philosophy that sets him apart from the pack. 2008 has seen him signed to various labels and unleashing his own unique brand of minimal. Expect to find floor-filling attitude packed into every track.

2. Produced by Michael Lloyd (WCPAEB, Smoke...),designed by Cal Schenkel (Zappa) and dedicated to Jack Kerouac, Simon Stokes' first album is an excellent psyche blues album a la Captain Beefheart. Big City Blues, Voodoo Woman, Ride On Angel and Which Way are fast blues/rock numbers with the growling voice of Stokes and the inventive guitar of Butch Senneville (ex-Quatrain). Almost all of the songs were composed by Stokes and Randall Keith and five tracks also appeared on the soundtrack of "Outlaw Riders", a bikers movie.

In 1973 Stokes was back with Senneville for a new album The Incredible Simon Stokes And The Blackwhip Thrill Band produced by David Briggs. Its sleeve designed by Pacific Eye and Ear shows mad monks whipping girls and S&M scenes. Weird! The songs have strange lyrics too (The Boa Constrictor Ate My Wife Last Night, The Wolf Pack Rides The Night, The Devil Just Called My Name, She's Got The Voodoo) and there's a new version of Ride On Angel. John Locke of Spirit plays keyboards on this album too.

The fourth LP contains a new version of Big City Blues but is not as interesting, being orientated more toward mainstream rock. This album is generally thought to be his last one, but, in 1996, Simon Stokes came back with no other than Timothy Leary to release as Leary and Stokes, Right To Fly (Psychorelic Records), a CD with twelve new songs co-written with Randall Keith. This year saw also the release on Baloney Shrapnel Records of Ride On by Conqueror Worm, a group formed by members of various US alternative groups (Rancid Vat, Poison Idea, Alcoholics Unanimous). They covered twelve of Stokes' songs, including Big City Blues, Hot Summer Nights, Wolfpack Rides The Night and Voodoo Woman.

Prior to forming the Nighthawks, Stokes released some solo 45s and was in Perpetual Motion Workshop, who released one sought-after 45. Robert Ledger was previously in Armageddon and Harry Garfield had been in Gary Lewis and The Playboys.



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