JON HARRINGTON Jon Harrington is a highly advanced song writing robot with a cutting edge Megazionic crystal brain, sent from the Planet Zarl to rescue humanity from cheesy 1980s pop music. Unfortunately on the way his space ship was caught in a negatively-charged ionic storm, terminally confusing his neural pathways. He now only loves the music of Abba and Chas and Dave, and is currently working to produce the finest 1980s pop songs the world has ever heard. Sorry, humanity. The Planet Zarl is sending a replacement robot, which will reach you in approximately 45,000 of your Earth years.

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JON HARRINGTON is a 48 year old writer, artist, harmonica player and guitarist who has been writing and performing his own songs for many years around the Coventry music scene. Inspired by the large numbers of talented musicians and song writers in the area, he gathered together a group of like-minded souls to form the Coventry Singer Songwriters group with the aim of encouraging the writing, performing and promoting of songs within the Coventry area. Like the other members, he has been delighted to find that the group’s monthly song writing challenges have inspired not just the songs themselves but also drawings, poems and stories.

It seems that you go to the Muse for Sustenance, but she gives you Bounty. He is a former member of Coventry bands “The Kings of Broadway” and “Little Mountain”, contributing self-penned songs to the repertoire of each. He is also involved with the travelling journal group www.1001journals.com and the novel writing group www.nanowrimo.org. He has one self-published science-fiction novel to his name, and is working on a book of short stories.

Katherine Fear

KATHERINE FEAR is a Primary School Music Specialist who sings her songs accompanied by guitar or mandolin at folk clubs and festivals.  Her biggest inspiration is Bob Dylan, and other influences include Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, Shane McGowan and Arlo Guthrie.  Katherine credits the Coventry Singer-Songwriter group as being solely responsible for resurrecting her songwriting career, which had seen a three-year break following voice problems (too much shouting over the top of school children). 

She currently has two albums to her name: Crossing the Bridge (1998) and Tightrope Walker (2006).  However, having attended most of the meetings since the group’s inception, and completed all eleven challenges so far, she now has enough material to consider starting work on a third album. 

Jan Richardson

One of our newest members, JAN RICHARDSON grew up with a love of a good tune.  and subjected to everything from Neil Sedaka, to Mario Lanza by her mum. In the 70's she enjoyed listening to groups such as the Carpenters, Beatles, Country Rock bands Eagles and Dr Hook, and more folky leanings towards Simon and Garfunkel, Donovan and James Taylor etc.

Today she loves to sing an eclectic mix of music ranging from the traditional folk of Eric Bogle such as "No Mans Land" to The Eagles, " Desperado" and Bette Midler, Nora Jones "Don't Know Why" and Eva Cassidy, chucking in some Jam "English Rose" for good measure. Plans for 2011 are to write and perform as much as possible with the view to self improvement and development and the hope that it may also bring some pleasure to others. Watch this space!

John Longcroft-Neal

JOHN LONGCROFT-NEAL is still in his fifties - but not for long! Played his first guitar, a big semi acoustic inherited for 6 months from his uncle when he was 14. Learned 'Greensleeves' on the top e string until he had blisters but loved everything about it. His mum and grandmother were quite musical and offered some encouragement. in 1963 when pop music really took off with the Beatles etc, he was 12. What  a great musical teenage that was. When he was 18 he went to train as a teacher and quickly enjoyed the lively folk scene of the early 70's.

After his retirement from the "razor wire" of the teaching profession his younger son went off to study pop music and recording in London.  John has have written songs and recorded four albums in the last ten years and have had songs aired on local radio as well as playing live. John plays the guitar, mandolin, whistle and harmonica, he formed the Fox Acoustic Club at the Fox Public House in Attleborough in Nuneaton, and often gigs with Eric Rankin playing as the duo 'Jericho'.

Jo Wrabek

JOE WRABEK lives in one of those former colonies (but maintains it wasn’t his fault they seceded 235 years ago).  Joe writes stuff:  mostly country music, with a little blues and bluegrass thrown in, and a lot of dead animals—“exploring human relationships in terms of roadkill,” he calls it.  He lives near the Pacific Ocean with wife Sandee, Teddy the poodle, and two hyperactive kittens, Aslan and Hansolo, is occasionally employed as a city manager, and plays rhythm guitar for the band “Deathgrass.” 

For the Coventry songwriters, he’s written happy, upbeat tunes about a stalker (“In the Shadows, I’ll Be Watching You”), a serial killer (“The Dead Sweethearts Polka”), and a suicide (the country death metal anthem “Angel in Chains”), and a couple of others.  His 2005 bluegrass album, Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up, is still available; the Deathgrass album, Dead Things in the Shower, is expected out in March 2011.

GRAHAM WESTON was born in Shepherds Bush. Moved to Essex when he was 11. Started learning guitar at age 18 and started writing songs at the same time as learning the guitar. By the time his playing was good enough to play gigs punk rock had arrived. Played in several Essex bands that supported some hard core punk acts like Crass and the Poison Girls. Played in local band Camera 3 with Andy Johnson, brother and sleeve designer of The The’s Matt Johnson. Camera 3 made a single which had an airing on John Peel but sold doodley squat. At this time as well as playing in rock bands also played at various folk clubs.

In the early nineties relocated to Leamington Spa where he met guitarist Stewart Whibley. Formed W & W with Stewart and has played several local events with him, playing a mixture of self penned songs and covers. Through playing at various sessions in Leamington, primarily the Red House has met country, pop and traditional singer Noel Willis and multi instrumentalist Caroline Horne and has played concerts with them too. With Stewart he joined Coventry songwriters in October 2010.

Tocando Sartori

TOCANDO SATORI fell off a ship somewhere in Europe in the late 1970s, after a long and thoroughly entertaining journey from his native Buenos Aires in Argentina. With nothing but a set of strange iconographs and a battered guitar, he blagged his way into the custody of Customs and Excise officials at Dover docks, before escaping from their dogs by placing small amounts of corn-beef hash in condoms to set up a false trail. Once free of his incarceration, the future beckoned and he linked up with a rag-tag group of wandering minstrels around Norwich, and was exposed to the strange music of the travelling bands he came across. Soon he was busking in Lowestoft before gravitating to the minstrel mecca of the Coventry area. He camped out in IKEA when it first opened, and was not rumbled until a year later. Since then, he has gone on to inhabit other stores and can often be seen lurking in the recesses with a guitar, and grin and a new change of clothes. Tocando likes to write and perform songs with animal themes and open endings. Sometimes he has even been known to sing Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, until someone gives him money to stop. He really kills that tune.

Bob Wilkinson

BOB WILKINSON is one of the hard-core members of the Coventry SongWriter mafia. Previously, along with the main anchor of the Coventry Songwriters, Jon Harrington on harmonica, and the slide guitar of Dave Cook, Bob performed in the local group Little Mountain, playing acoustic blues, country blues and folk. His own writing reflects his own musical interests – contemporary jazz and blues, African and Arabic music, guitar aficionados, gypsy jazz and R & B. His music also draws upon various narratives that stem from his years travelling and working in other parts of the world.

Bob’s other interests take him into the world of language and its role in shaping the world as we see it. The Coventry SongWriter group has given Bob the kick up the butt to write songs that he probably wouldn’t have contemplated, helped him reach the parts that others ignore, and has brought him close to others in the group who have, over the last 12 months, become good friends. You may find Bob in one of the local clubs, sometimes performing; always having fun.

Jayne Lloyd

JAYNE LLOYD – based in Warwick but originally from Coventry, joined the group with the aim of re-learning how to write songs. Having been ‘off the scene’ for a while, working in themed shows, she’s a ‘lapsed’ song writer. She has recently re-discovered tune writing on guitar and diligently attempts every challenge but, being a bit out of practice, find writing a huge challenge. Jayne admires the voices of Paul Carrack and Chrissie Hinds, the song writing of Joni Mitchell, Steve Knightley, Nanci Griffith, Chris Difford and the acoustic guitar playing of Clive Carroll, Martin Taylor, and Tommy Emmanuel. She’ confesses to being a bit of a guitar ‘nut’; playing and writing traditional ‘flat pick’ tunes in DADGAD, open D major and dropped D tunings but when singing favours D, G and F major open tunings (with variants), in addition to standard tuning, to compliment her low voice. All of Jayne’s regular instruments are all low tension and short scale; she favours small bodied instruments with cedar tops for additional resonance and projection. Jayne teaches guitar for a living, sings, plays guitar, bass, mandolins, tenor banjo, baritone ukulele and all sorts of whistles and recorders. Further details available at www.jayne.org.uk

Stewart Whibley

STEWART WHIBLEY considers himself as the 'reluctant' singer/ songwriter. Having learned to play guitar as teenager and strummed along to church choruses in his hometown of Southend on Sea. There then comes a 20 year creative break until local Eco-worrier singer, author and registered clown Chris Philpott invites him to play bass in the band on condition that he writes a song. This is where the productive partnership with Graham Weston has its origins, a partnership that has seen the production of some 5 CDs visits to local drinking hostelries and a World tour of Leamington.

With musical influences starting with Ralph McTell, Lindisfarne, The Strawbs, Little Feat and Steely Dan and then on through 70 & 80s prog rock finally coming to rest with Johnny Winter, Ronnie Earl, Duke Robillard, the great Ian Siegal and all things Blues based. That having been said he is still puzzled as to why most of what he writes ends up sounding like a bloody country song?