Photo by Jayne Lloyd

Born out of frustration and galvanised by confusion Ghostwood Shanks began their journey out of the recording studio and onto the stage in early 2006, with its current line up of Rik de Ritis (Souls of The Ghetto) on drums, Steve Couldrey (Black Lodge Cooper) on bass, Tim Hobart (Foot in Mouth, Black Lodge Cooper) and Paul Dale (Foot in Mouth, Broken, Dew Embers, Black Lodge Cooper) on guitar, vocals, and song writing duties. The band mix up the lazy sounds of American college Lo-Fi with contemporary British rock and use dry witty lyrics to paint their world where sea captains marry monsters, life lessons can be learnt from our canine companions and where the Fonze would be king.

Beginning in 2005 in Paul's bedroom where he wrote and recorded the first Ghostwood Shanks record 'Farewell Dead City' with a dusty drum kit and some egg shakers, but it wasn't until he started experimenting with the loop function Boss DD6 delay pedal that the project took to the stage. In the form of solo acoustic shows Paul would use the pedal to layer up different guitar parts to create a dense wall of sound.

At the start of 2006 Paul finished the next Ghostwood Shanks album entitled 'Ohmydog' featuring 13 new songs and a new version of 'Nessie's Daughter' (to which you can see the video for at
www.peculiarity.co.uk) and he decided to form a loose live band so that the songs could be brought across different venues. The original line up featured Rik on percussion, and Kat Howchen (Traffic to Nowhere, Dew Embers) on guitar until she left to devote full attention to her other band. With Kat's departure Paul enlisted Tim and Steve who had played in a form of Black Lodge Cooper and Rik switched to a full drum kit and the sound was now complete. Still touring songs of both 'Farewell Dead City' and 'Ohmydog' the band is looking forward to new gigs and new material in the up and coming months.
SHANKS POWER!

Photo by Jayne Lloyd