{"id":20,"date":"2024-03-26T18:41:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T18:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevanbundell.co.uk\/ourmusic\/?page_id=20"},"modified":"2024-09-28T18:07:45","modified_gmt":"2024-09-28T17:07:45","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/ourmusic\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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IVOR & KEVAN BUNDELL<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

About us and our music.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We grew up and live in the county of Hampshire, not far from the ancient city of Winchester, and the port cities of Southampton and Portsmouth. We have also travelled far and lived abroad, before returning to our roots, so there is a strong local and historical theme to some of our songs, and a more personal theme to others. They range from the serious to the (hopefully) amusing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our sound is sometimes acoustic and sometimes accompanied by \u2018the band\u2019, made up of friends and family, with electric lead guitar, keyboards and drums. Our music can reasonably be described as contemporary, English and original folk and folk-rock \u2013 our own compositions mostly, some more contemporary and some more traditional in style.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have recorded four Albums\/CDs :,<\/em>\u2018Secret Lives\u2019<\/em><\/strong> (2001); <\/em>\u2018Stood on the Shore\u2019<\/em><\/strong> (2006);, <\/em>\u2018Far as far\u2019<\/em><\/strong> (2010) and, <\/em>‘Bright Day’ <\/em><\/strong>(2016). You can listen to all of them on our <\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/strong><\/a> Channel and find out more about them on this site.<\/em>

We have been playing together, and with others, for many years, especially with Paul Gateshill, who assisted us on all four of our albums. The three of us, plus other friends, also made an album back in 1976, called <\/em>‘Presence’<\/em><\/strong> – now re-issued as a CD double album. (See the <\/em>Presence<\/em><\/strong> pages on this site). Paul has also brought out two fine CDs of his own (on which we assisted) :<\/em>‘Years in the making’ <\/em><\/strong>(2002) and <\/em>‘Take my Hand’ <\/em><\/strong>(2014).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our<\/em> “Musical Genealogy”<\/em><\/a> shows where we’ve come from, who we’ve played with on the way, and what they and we have produced in the way of tapes, LPs and CDs over the years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can find out even more about us from an<\/em> <\/em><\/a>Interview with us by the leading UK music journalist, author, critic – and friend of ours – Peter Doggett<\/em> – below.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our influences include: the Incredible String Band, Robin Williamson as a solo performer, hymns ancient and modern, English literature, and time spent living, working and playing at home and abroad. Plus the fact that we are English. We are still exploring where all these influences might take us. We hope you will want to hear and will enjoy where we’ve got to so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivor & Kevan<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE BUNDELL BROTHERS \u2013 An interview by Peter Doggett.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second-hand record stores are full of unnecessary records by unnecessarily prolific artists, who\u2019ve kept making albums for decade after decade because they don\u2019t know what else to do. So it\u2019s refreshing to discover two Hampshire singer-songwriters who helped to create one of the legendary folk-rock records of the mid-70s, and who then waited a quarter of a century before unleashing another album on the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that, the Bundell Brothers \u2013 Ivor and Kevan – positively raced to complete their second record as a duo, which was released late last year. Like its predecessor, it sidesteps both the traditional folk scene, and the emotional exhibitionism that you often associate with the \u2018singer-songwriter\u2019 tag. Instead, both 2001\u2019s Secret Lives<\/em><\/strong> and Stood On The Shore<\/em><\/strong> occupy a unique place in the story of Southern acoustic music, combining history, humour and human insight with rich, mainly acoustic textures. Their records feature not just the inevitable guitars, but also mandola (Ivor\u2019s creative inspiration), penny whistle (Kevan\u2019s current joy), jaws harp, harmonica, keyboards and a variety of percussion \u2013 all topped by vocals solo and in harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bundells\u2019 story would not be complete without mention of an invisible third \u2018brother\u2019 in the person of another former Hampshire schoolboy, Paul Gateshill, whom they\u2019ve known since the 60s. \u201cHe basically taught me guitar,\u201d Kevan says. \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to overstate his influence on me, and on Ivor as well. He was an amazing songwriter at a very young age, and we soon learned to play many of his songs, which in turn encouraged us to start writing our own. This was an era when acoustic music was in the air. People were listening to Dylan, Donovan and, in our case particularly, the Incredible String Band.\u201d \u201cDonovan songs, Simon & Garfunkel \u2013 they were probably the first things we learned to play,\u201d Ivor adds. \u201cThen very soon after that, singers like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor came along. The whole mood of the times was acoustic and melodic.\u201d Yet playing acoustic was as much a necessity as an artistic choice, as Kevan notes: \u201cOnly a few kids could afford to buy electric guitars back then. We managed to get some acoustics second-hand, so that was what we learned to play. In retrospect, it was a blessing, as I think it meant we focused on playing music, rather than making noise. And it encouraged us to think about how we were going to arrange our songs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a school contemporary myself of the Bundells, my most vivid musical memory of the brothers is their loyal dedication during the 70s to the music of Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, the wilfully eclectic and inspired songwriters who were the creative core of the Incredible String Band. \u201cWe had all their records,\u201d Kevan recalls (\u201cTwice!\u201d, Ivor adds). \u201cAs far as I can remember, we were introduced to the String Band by my friend Paul Gateshill and his brother Min.\u201d \u201cWhen I was starting to play,\u201d Ivor continues, \u201cPaul played me albums such as Layers Of The Onion<\/em> and Changing Horses<\/em>. It certainly didn\u2019t hurt that the String Band were touring regularly back then, so we could go to see them in Portsmouth, Southampton – and even Chichester. And we spread their music through the school, and outside as well. They influenced us not only because they were acoustic, and used unusual instruments, but because of the strain of nature mysticism that runs through their work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living in a tiny village just a few miles north of Fareham, the Bundells felt at least one step removed from urban culture. \u201cWe definitely saw ourselves as people who lived in the country, not townies,\u201d Ivor remembers. \u201cWe were interested in the natural world \u2013 not necessarily in a mystical way, although that came into it later \u2013 and our early musical influences reflected that.\u201d The same strain of mysticism reached Ivor from a different source, when he studied the romantic poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge during his final school years. \u201cTheir work also affected the form in which I wrote,\u201d he explains. \u201cNot just the fact that I was writing poetry myself, but in terms of using the traditional ballad form, as Wordsworth did in particular, which naturally lent itself to being translated into songs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides Wordsworth and the Incredible String Band, the Bundells\u2019 background provided another, more localised form of influence. \u201cWe were brought up going to the Baptist chapel,\u201d Kevan says, \u201cgoing to church and singing hymns. Our mum is a piano player, who has played harmonium in chapel all these years, and she was also in the choir with our dad.\u201d \u201cSo we imbibed hymn tunes from an early age,\u201d Ivor adds. Both brothers have since soaked themselves in the Baptist hymnal tradition. Kevan explained: \u201cIra D. Sankey \u2013 the man who compiled the book, Sankey\u2019s Sacred Songs & Solos<\/em> \u2013 was a 19th<\/sup> century hymn collector and adaptor in the Southern United States. His music was very much part of the tradition which our parents used for their choral work. This was proper revivalist stuff.\u201d Ivor carries on the thought: \u201cAnd then there is the English Hymnal, and the New English Hymnal. Around the beginning of the 20th<\/sup> century, Vaughn Williams went through many traditional tunes, and tidied them up to be used as hymns.\u201d The effects of this schooling can be heard on Stood On The Shore<\/em>, in the form of Ivor\u2019s recasting of \u2018Who Would True Valour See\u2019, to the tune of \u2018Monks Gate\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this was obvious to anyone who heard the Bundells\u2019 earliest live performances, at Price\u2019s School\u2019s occasional folk concerts. \u201cAt some point in the mid-to-late 60s,\u201d Kevan recalls, \u201cboys were allowed to put on a concert for the first time. The headmaster, Eric Poyner, was legendary for his dislike of pop music; he apparently told a colleague that \u2018the guitar is the instrument of the devil\u2019!\u201d But folk music was just about permissable, presumably because of its traditional heritage, and so Price\u2019s started to stage annual concerts. By the early 70s, when the Bundells began to perform, trad tunes had given way to original material and covers in the singer-songwriter mould. As the family tree on their website reveals, the Bundell saga began when Kevan, Paul Gateshill and several friends formed Lonene. Not to be outdone, Ivor and his fellow editors of the school IVth Form magazine, the Black Lion<\/em>, responded with Autumn Stone. Various groupings followed \u2013 Spirits Rebellious, PINT, Grass Roots \u2013 until by 1975 unsuspecting audience members were unlucky enough to experience the current writer and Ivor murdering Beatles and Paul Simon tunes in not-so-close harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this paled alongside Presence, a landmark event in the brothers\u2019 careers. Founded under the auspices of the international ecumenical movement, Focolare, this group featured Kevan, Ivor, Paul Gateshill, singer-songwriter Veronica Towers (who has two subsequent solo records to her credit) and Mike Waiting. Over the course of three years, they performed at ecumenical youth festivals across Europe, including a memorable show at the Roundhouse in London; and made an album that became something of a legend. \u201cWe had both left school by this stage, and were travelling and getting ready for college,\u201d Ivor explains. \u201cThis was the first time we had ever really played together,\u201d Kevan says. \u201cIt was an amazing opportunity, being able to play in cities such as Rome, Amsterdam and Berlin, and at various English universities. Plus, of course, we made the record, over three or four days one Easter.\u201d Titled simply Presence<\/em><\/strong>, the 1976 LP featured several songs apiece by Gateshill (one together with Kevan) and Towers, plus two numbers by Ivor. \u201cPaul was the focus of that band, both in terms of his songwriting and his ability to accompany other people, vocally and instrumentally \u2013 something we\u2019ve been very grateful for again when he\u2019s worked on our recent albums.\u201d A zestful and refreshing collection of Christian folk-rock, Presence<\/em><\/strong> enjoyed a surprising renaissance in the 90s, when it was seized upon by record collectors as a prime example of a so-called \u2018private pressing\u2019 rarity. At one point, copies were changing hands for \u00a3100 or more apiece, and interest was so intense that the record was bootlegged as a Japanese CD. \u201cDon\u2019t tell anyone,\u201d Kevan says, \u201cbut the original album is actually still available from Focolare!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the group played together over a three-year period, this was anything but a full-time endeavour. \u201cWe were at university, or on the way there,\u201d Ivor explains, \u201cso we only came together for occasional gigs in the holidays.\u201d Once Presence had faded out, the brothers pursued their own vocations. Ivor continued to write songs and poetry prolifically, in Paris, Spain, London and even Egypt, where he taped a collection of material entitled Take One<\/em>. Kevan, meanwhile, was in Scotland, where he found himself performing reels and jigs with Marg Hall and Colin Wilson. \u201cOne of them played pipe, the other fiddle,\u201d he explains, \u201cand I was left to do the strumming . . . . It was great fun for them, but not so interesting musically for the person who was playing the guitar \u2013 it was boring and complicated at the same time, because of the absurd frequency of the chord changes! So that was only a short-lived project. And it was the last thing I did with other people for some time, except for an occasional performance with Paul if we happened to be in the same place on the same day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivor studied English literature, travelled the world, and then settled back in England. \u201cI kept writing while I was abroad,\u201d he recalls, \u201cbut when I came back here and started on a career in computers, I deliberately stopped.\u201d Likewise Kevan, who spent much time in India before working for Christian Aid. Both men would step up and sing if the occasion demanded, but family life took precedence. Then an old friend invited them to perform together at a concert he was organising. By now, both brothers had gravitated back to Hampshire, and so they resumed the musical conversation they\u2019d abandoned twenty years earlier. Ivor explains: \u201cWe exhumed some old favourites and some covers for the concert, but then we said that we had to come up with some new stuff. And with that, the floodgates opened. For me, 1999 was an annus mirabilis \u2013 or horribilis, depending on your point of view!\u201d \u201cHe seemed to be writing a new song every week,\u201d Kevan adds. \u201cIt was tough on me, because I had to keep learning them! And that\u2019s what forced me to start writing again. I had to keep my end up. But I\u2019ve never been a very prolific writer. They happen occasionally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For anyone writing songs in the 60s and 70s, the confessional mode was almost obligatory. \u201cMy early stuff was very much in that diary form,\u201d Ivor admits, \u201cbased on my own personal experience. Now, my writing has definitely shifted away from that, unexpectedly in fact \u2013 to the extent that it almost took me off guard, as if I didn\u2019t know where the songs had come from.\u201d The Bundells\u2019 first joint album, Secret Lives<\/em><\/strong>, contains the evidence: a set of Ivor\u2019s original material that predominantly features invented or historical characters. \u201cThat gave me a sense of distance, I suppose,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt was a way of dispelling the angst that usually comes to the fore when you\u2019re writing about yourself. And in a way, it leads you back to the traditional folk idiom, which is very much about narrative and conveying history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As his brother notes, \u201cIvor\u2019s lyrics are dripping with learn\u00e9d reference\u201d. (\u201cThings I\u2019ve nicked!\u201d, Ivor interrupts) \u201cThey\u2019re so rich, and I wonder whether people notice.\u201d Besides allusions to Shakespeare and Wordsworth, Ivor\u2019s songs are sometimes the result of historical research, such as \u2018Waltham Blacks\u2019 on their second album, about Hampshire\u2019s local equivalent of Robin Hood. \u201cOn Secret Lives<\/em><\/strong>, I\u2019m particularly proud of \u2018Clewers Hill\u2019,\u201d Ivor says. \u201cIt\u2019s about this man called Peter Cluer, who was murdered at Waltham Chase. There was a brief mention of him in the local village history book, so I delved deeper and emerged with a song, almost by accident. Another songs on Secret Lives<\/em>, \u2018The Andrea Gail\u2019, came from reading The Perfect Storm. But usually the less raw material there is for me to work with, the happier I am with the song, because it allows my imagination more space to play.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secret Lives<\/em><\/strong> was recorded at Bob Ross Studios in Portsmouth, over eight days in late 2000 and early 2001. Stood On The Shore<\/em><\/strong>, by contrast, was taped on professional quality equipment at Kevan\u2019s home. \u201cWe used a Yamaha studio in a box,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe quality is amazing, which allows you to come up with much richer arrangements \u2013 and that\u2019s almost my favourite part of the whole process.\u201d Ivor adds: \u201cThe danger is that it all takes longer \u2013 we worked on this record for almost a year! The whole movement from paying to have things done for you, to doing it yourself, being self-sufficient, seems to tie in with the ethos of our music, which comes from those same roots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The songs on Stood On The Shore<\/em><\/strong> are credited to both brothers, although in the great Lennon\/McCartney tradition you can usually identify the original author by the lead vocalist. So it is Ivor who contributes another priceless slice of history, in the form of \u2018Mr Mitchell\u2019s Angel\u2019<\/em>, a touching tribute to the man who created the World War 2 fighter plane, the Spitfire, and the rural vignette of \u2018Moving The Meander\u2019<\/em>; and Kevan inhabiting the character of \u2018Wandering Jack\u2019<\/em> and the poignant \u2018Slip Away\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What links these songs is a sense of authenticity. \u201cThe point is that we\u2019re English<\/em>\u201d, Kevan insists. \u201cPopular folk music has always been heavily influenced by the Celtic tradition, as it was transported to America. And that\u2019s wonderful. But it\u2019s not us. My wife always wants me to play the blues, but its just not a serious possibility. I mean, I could do a pastiche of the blues. But if you\u2019re going to create something original, it has to come from where you\u2019ve come from.\u201d \u201cMusically, I agree with you,\u201d Ivor says. \u201cLyrically, you can think yourself into outside characters. But I feel the same about the blues tradition. I love listening to it, and it\u2019s great fun to play, but it wouldn\u2019t be authentic for us to write in that style. We explicitly try to avoid Americanisation. It\u2019s so galling when people from England sing in an American accent, when they don\u2019t need to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within their Englishness, the Bundells are definitely \u2013 defiantly, even \u2013 the product of the South. In the USA, the South immediately conjures up an exotic collage of images. But what does it mean in this country? \u201cThere isn\u2019t the same strong, local identity,\u201d Ivor concedes. \u201cIt\u2019s much more amorphous. The whole of the South of England has a much more fluid, socially mobile identity, than the more settled communities in the North. People here are being pulled in two directions \u2013 up towards London, and down to the coast, and then abroad.\u201d In their music, the Bundell Brothers are trying to capture that imprecise quality of Southern-ness, through songs that are rooted in local experience, ancient and modern, traditional and freshly minted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inadvertently symbolising that shifting Southern identity, Kevan and Ivor continue to work outside the established network of folk clubs. \u201cWe tend to run our concerts for charity, once or twice a year,\u201d Ivor explains. \u201cEnough people come to make it worthwhile \u2013 I don\u2019t mean financially, but as an event. It would be nice to play more regularly, but we have to make a living elsewhere.\u201d Kevan confirms that, \u201cThis is something we do in our spare time. So we\u2019re not out there on the circuit, being part of a particular scene or movement, or even being very knowledgeable about what\u2019s going on.\u201d They could almost be characters in one of their own songs, proudly pursuing their own musical course regardless of the prevailing winds. Those who are lucky enough to have heard and enjoyed their music will hope that the breeze blows them onto a nearby stage, and back into the studio, before too many more years have passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Doggett<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Doggett<\/strong> is one of the UK’s leading rock writers and journalists. He was editor of Record Collector<\/strong> magazine for fifteen years, and a writer for Mojo<\/strong> and Q<\/strong> among others. He is also author of Are You Ready for the Country?<\/strong> (Viking), an authoritative history of country rock, and of biographies of John Lennon, Lou Reed and 1968 etc.  https:\/\/www.peterdoggett.org\/about<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bundell brothers at Petersfield Write Angle http:\/\/www.petersfieldwriteangle.co.uk\/guests_bundell.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For further information and a chance to hear music by the Bundell Brothers, visit: www.bundellbros.co.uk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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IVOR & KEVAN BUNDELL About us and our music. We grew up and live in the county of Hampshire, not far from the ancient city of Winchester, and the port cities of Southampton and Portsmouth. We have also travelled far and lived abroad, before returning to our roots, so there is a strong local and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-20","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/ourmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/ourmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/ourmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/ourmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/ourmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/ourmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":373,"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/ourmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20\/revisions\/373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/ourmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}