Family Tree

Standard Telephones & Cables was a large telecommunications company which had many sites in the UK. One of these was located at New Southgate in London. At its peak, the New Southgate site had over 10 000 employees. It also had a large Athletic and Social Club with many active groups. One of these was the Music Section which during the fifties and early sixties boasted its own dance band which used to play at Dinner Dances held at the site and at nearby local events. Throughout the sixties the number of employees at the site slowly dwindled; peoples leisure activities also changed, and by the mid seventies the Music Section was no longer active.

In 1979 Peter Ison, a development engineer at the New Southgate site bought himself a guitar and this seemingly innocuous act lead to the reformation of the Music Section. Peter Ison talked to Fred Howett another engineer at the site who also played a little guitar. The two got together after work for jam sessions and were soon joined by other musicians who worked at the site. These included: Terry Layzell - trumpet; Roy Core - guitar; Ted Brading - piano. Later they were joined by Jerry Deans - clarinet and harmonica; and then Nigel Beasley - guitar. The type of music played by the members changed around this time from the more dance-band jazz numbers into a more blues/rock'n'roll oriented mixture.

Subsequently a seperate group evolved (which for no accountable reason consisted of people in the then Audio Division) to focuss on more blues/rock/r'n'b/swing music. This small group consisted or Nigel Beasley, Roy Core , Jerry Deans, and Fred Howett and in 1982 performed their first gigs at Audio Division events such as the Chrismas party and the new lab warming . For some reason lost in time they called themselves "Nigel Beasleys Men From The Hills". They were subsequently joined by a drummer and bass player.