Archway Mountain Lightnin' Boys

Maurice Wren, guitar and vocals. Maurice is former CEO of the Refugee Council and has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Edinburgh. A proud London Irishman, Maurice is an accomplished chorister, and currently sings with the acclaimed London chamber choir, Londinium. He has a house full of guitars, a shrine to Leonid Brezhnev and has compiled an impressive collection of books about Twentieth Century British composers. Sadly, he supports Man U.     

Crispin Wright, mandolin and vocals. Crispin is an architect and an actively practicing grandfather. While bluegrass came relatively late to Crispin, his musical background is in Irish music, which he plays expertly in regular pub sessions in London. He really likes Ry Cooder and digging around in allotments with his lovely wife Maggie. For some inexplicable reason he also likes to call beer ‘gargle’.     

Liz Menezes, fiddle, guitar and vocals. Liz adopted us, much as a puppy chooses to adopt a family. She approached us in the break of one of our gigs and said she wanted to play with us. We didn’t quite know what to say. As it turns out Liz is a professional musician who teaches violin, plays in an orchestra and is a light opera soprano to boot. She hit the ground running, and insisted on being a Lightnin’ Boy, even though we offered a more politically correct rebranding of the band.    

George Dallas, banjo and vocals. George is the band’s token American (one is enough), having grown up in Georgia. He has had a long career in international finance and currently writes about and teaches corporate governance and sustainable investment; he recently published his second book in this field. In addition to playing the banjo, George also sings bass in London-based Orlando Chamber Choir, focusing on a cappella Renaissance works and other early music. He knows pretty much all the banjo jokes and would like to refute the vicious misperception that banjo players regularly drool out of both sides of their mouths while onstage; stages are rarely level enough to allow that to happen.    

Richard Harrison, bass and vocals. Richard was a partner in a City law firm, where he specialised in corporate and financial disputes. He is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing a mean guitar and keyboard, as well as a four-string banjo type thing, tuned like a guitar. It should not exist.     

Charlie ‘Doc’ Inskip, guitar and vocals. Formerly a Head of Information Studies at UCL, Doc spent the early part of his career, pre-PhD, managing bands. He has infused these roots, and their related angst, into the band’s eclectic repertoire. Ever heard London Calling as a bluegrass tune? He is to blame for that – and for the band’s name.    

Ned Philips, harmonica. Ned is also an architect, as well as a keen sailor, spending many weekends on his boat on the briny East Coast.  Ned’s core grounding is in the blues, which distinctly flavours the band’s sound and gives us longer notes to contrast with the twinkles of the banjo and mandolin. Ned wants it known that the little metal box he carries with him to our gigs does not (usually) contain cash or contraband. It’s just a bunch of harmonicas. Blues Brothers style. So no particular attraction to would-be pilferers, except possibly for civil society campaigners who may wish to help cull the harmonica count in Greater London.     

We believe, but cannot confirm, that we are the world’s only bluegrass band (hence best-in-class) with two members who have (separately) appeared on the BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. But not to talk about music or bluegrass.