ICEBREAKER

Since we had both left Easy Action, Jack and I had continued to talk on and off about getting together again and forming a new band. In late 1985, he and I together with Derek Bowley recruited Max Hoad on bass and vocals. We'd known Max for some time and in fact had tried unsuccessfully to get him to join Mirkwood some years earlier but Max had been in demand in jazz circles and had also played on and off with Vanity Fayre so it didn‘t work out at that time. Initially the drum seat was taken by Fred DeGrussa another former member of Easy Action but due to other commitments Fred was unable to continue and his place was taken by the excellent Bob Brown who Max had played alongside before. The line up was completed when we were joined by Max' son Matt on keyboards. Strangely, the new group didn't really have a name for some time! At the beginning this didn't matter much as it was more of a fun project in that we were playing together mostly for our own enjoyment and were content just to play occasionally. Matt's contribution quickly proved to be a cornerstone of our sound - so much so that when in 1987 Jack left to move to Wales, we decided that Matt's expansive keyboard sounds would enable us to cope without looking for another guitarist. Incidentally Matt also provided us with a much needed name - ‘Icebreaker’ was the name on the label of his padded jacket!

The newly named group started to play more venues becoming very successful and continuing until the end of 1996. By then we’d had a good run but during the mid 90’s we started to feel (not for the first time!) that what we wanted to play didn’t correspond with what some of our audiences wanted to hear. From a guitarist’s perspective, I remember thinking that whilst on the one hand I was pleased that Brit-pop was making guitar-based groups fashionable again it wasn’t what we wanted to play. Although we took some liberties with the music, Icebreaker was essentially a covers band featuring the cream of material from the likes of Toto, Van Halen, Journey, Queen, Bon Jovi etc. and we’d been spoiled by having had nearly ten years of indulging ourselves playing superb music that featured challenging instrumental and vocal parts for all of us. Whatever, the new stuff just didn’t do it for me! Inevitably there were changes of personnel over the years but the group always managed to maintain its high standard throughout. Among the other musicians who made valuable contributions to the sound of Icebreaker between 1990 and 1996 were Ken West, Paul Cuffley, Tony Lister & Jason McCluskey (drums), Tony Holt (guitar, keyboards, vocals) & Sean Flynn (bass).