I’m exploring a Soundcloud account. One belonging to the username Muggerbass. A bassist obviously and from what I understand from Manchester, my next trip.
I believe the name of the person behind this account is Pete McGrath, currently bass player for WinterGreen. I also believe Michael Knowles, the guitarist of Wintergreen was in a band I had written before, The Catchmen. I had been in touch with Michael and interviewed him about that band.
He mentioned a little bit about Grifter when I asked him about Wintergreen: “An old friend of mine (Pete McGrath) with whom I played in a band post Catchmen (Grifter) saw I will still involved broadly in the Arts and got in touch and asked if I wanted to be in a band again. He is great in that he does the hard part of bands- organising etc so I can concentrate on the fun bit (though it is a very collaborative band). It’s a 3 piece band (the first time my guitar has been so prominent) largely because as you get older it’s a logistical nightmare to do anything larger. It was great that Ian from the Catchmen (who I have played off and off with over the year) added some keyboard to Whole (sent over the internet – wonders of technology)”
At that time I wasn’t aware of songs being online for Grifter. That’s the reason it has taken me so many years to find about Grifter.
There is a photo of a Raleigh Grifter bicycle. Perhaps that’s where they took their name from? I wasn’t familiar with these bikes, they seem to be British according to Wikipedia: “The Raleigh Grifter is a children’s bicycle manufactured and marketed between 1976 and early 1983 by the Raleigh Bicycle Company of Nottingham, England. It was the “must have” bicycle of its time and bridged a gap between the Raleigh Chopper and the Raleigh Burner models. Its frame was very similar to the Raleigh Twenty Shopper bicycle, but with a front triangle which resembled an upside down Chopper frame. It was part of a range of age-specific bicycles and was positioned at the top of that range. The smallest in the range was the Raleigh Boxer with the Raleigh Strika in the middle.”
We also know two of the band members of the band. I suppose there was a drummer at least. What was his name? Was it a trio? or a four-piece?
A trio it seems. Kev Burke was the drummer.
We know the band was active between 1995 and 1997. Afterwards we know that at least Pete went to be in bands like Stretch Armstrong, 1000 Cuts and The Fraudsters.
On the Soundcloud account there are a few recordings: “To Kill a Sweet Song”, “Mexican Moon” and “That Perfect Reason”. All of these, possibly from a demo tape, were recorded in 1996 at Noisebox in Prestwich by Steve Lloyd.
And that’s it really. I should drop Michael a note. Would be great to find out more about this band. They seem to have some really nice tunes. Wonder if there are more!
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