Somewhere in the Foreign Office...

Somewhere in the Foreign Office... was the name of the musical group I formed in Cambridge in 1983. We played in public about 20 times over 3 years and numbered variously 10 - 15 people. I formed this group with friends and local session musicians as a vehicle for my rhythm guitar playing which developed a "voice" when 12 years of practice collided with my discovery of Paco de Lucia & the Flamenco Rhumba*.

This band never made it onto vinyl though many demos, live recordings and even a video exist.

A number of concerts were played on RAF and USAF bases. These were booked by a local promoter, John Gammon "Ham Acts" (geddit?), and we'd be billed as a top London salsa band. The highlight was a mini-tour of Scotland. In order to afford to take and pay 9 musicians, it proved necesaary to forego the customary comfort of hotels and we stayed at local camp sites instead. The night before we played to the air crew and support staff of the USAF strategic air command at RAF Lossiemouth, we stayed at the amazing Findhorn community.

To say that Chris Morris is, by far and away, the most famous (infamous?) ex-member of SitFO would be putting it too mildly. Chris' subsequent carrer in broadcasting has taken him to stratospheric heights of public exposure - the furore caused by his Brass Eye spoof documentary on paedophilia dominated the front pages of most UK national newspapers for several days in July 2001. During the entire hoo-ha Chris, characteristically, was nowhere to be seen. I applaud him for that and for his unerring ability to poke hypocrisy in the eye.

Chris joined us from the Exploding Hamsters to play bass and toured Scotland with us in the mini-bus. He also wrote "Blind Date" which we played live frequently and which was decently demoed at Spaceward Studios. He was (is) an accompished musician and a helluva lot of fun to be around. After a while, both Chris and Jane started to spend increasing amounts of time at BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and the rest, as they say, is history...

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The complete line-up of Somewhere in the Foreign Office was variously...

Vocals - Jane Edwards, Steve Breeze,

Guitars - Jon Harris, Mark Graham, Steve Webb, Bruce Cameron

Bass - Chris Hopkins, Chris Morris

Drums - Richard Dixon, Chris Mann, Tony Shepherd

Brass - Kevin Flanagan, Neil Blacknall, Paul Dias, Phillip Dias

Percussion, foh sound & wheels - Zop

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* Rhumba - not the slow, sensual dance of Latin America - this is the "hot" version - usually fast and occasionally frenetic. I like to say that Somewhere in the Office was disbanded the moment I first heard the Gypsy Kings - it's not true but it might as well be - they are the supreme exponents of the form and have brought it to the wider audience it rightly deserves.