UN-HIPSTER

Wanderin' Dave and the River Gang is a small band of waifs and strays who live sometimes on the river Trent, and sometimes on the canal system, in their leaky narrowboats. 

They eke out a hand-to-mouth existence, living on the proceeds of busking and freeganism. Even some of their musical instruments were retrieved from the municipal waste stream. Apart from a used acoustic guitar, these instruments can include everything from discarded food tins, to a broken radio.

Their music can hardly be called 'polished' (unless that polish consisted of diesel and sandpaper), yet their sound belies an honesty and realism that you'll be hard-pressed to encounter in today's world of manufactured pop pap.

I first encountered Wandering Dave during a drunken summer Solstice night spent at Silbury Hill. A ragged wildman staggered out of the gloom and thrust a grubby cassette tape into my hand before disappearing again into the mysterious night. I promptly forgot about the tape.

A week later back in London, I found it in my jacket pocket, and intrigued, I gave it a try. The room filled with sound, giving off a raw yet mysterious energy. I instantly pledged alliegance to their cause and so it was that I came to be their public intermediary (although this is partly due to their elusiveness as they eschew most of mainstream society).

Due to their extremely frugal off-grid lifestyle, the River Band's Internet footprint is almost non-existent. Since they're more often to be found in cider-space than cyber-space, this solitary page is their only contact-point with the mainstream downstream. This is a meeting point, If you will,  between the underground and the overground.  Come inside, make yourself at home and listen in. Future mayhem beckons...

Mick Singh, CEO of Mick Singh Records.
2015.