FLOYD VINCENT AND THE CHILDBRIDES

From the age of ten when he first picked up the classical guitar through to his first professional band at the age of fourteen Floyd has been totally immersed in the world of music and performance. He has largely by-passed musical trends and fads preferring to follow his own muse and lead one of Australia’s most unique and enduring bands as they record and tour both here and overseas. Floyd got his first lucky break when just out of university he got a call to audition as guitarist for John Paul Young’s All Star band. He got the gig and spent the next five years with solid touring and recording in Australia and overseas. JPY was riding high at the time after a long series of hit records for the Albert’s label and the Australian live music scene was at a peak.

Floyd’s own music was then kicked along in December 1988 after winning the JJJ/ Sony sponsored Australian Music Video Festival Award for the best music video. He soon went traveling overseas in search of inspiration and contacts. A pilgrimage to the birthplace of Salvador Dali, a long standing love of Spanish culture and an early start in classical music led him to Europe and the exotic rhythms of the flamenco guitarists. After traveling Europe and then landing in New York he eventually ended up in Los Angeles where he met Frank Zappa. Floyd was inspired by Frank Zappa’s musical integrity, work ethic and “do it yourself” philosophy.

Back in Sydney Floyd’s song ''Child Thing'' from the award-winning video had been receiving airplay on JJJ. The song was in ¾ time, featured nylon string guitars and sounded like nothing else on the radio at the time. At the urging of booking agents in Sydney he formed the Childbrides and hit the road. The early line ups featured members from The Church, The Crystal Set, The Milky Bar Kids and Ed Keuppers band The Yard Goes on Forever.

Floyd’s early shows featured snake charmers and belly dancers as support acts and the band had a 3 strong female road crew that used to decorate the stages of the Hopetoun, Annandale Hotels and the like with a giant fish net full of paper mache sea creatures. This “rolling party” toured semi regularly around the country whenever the band member’s main acts were off the road. This approach worked well for quite a while and allowed Floyd access to experienced musicians.

Eventually frustrated though by the inability to keep up a touring momentum Floyd searched for like- minded musical souls who could form a permanent line up. On both the tours and recordings Floyd has featured the talents of some of the countries most exciting and technically proficient rock and jazz players including Chris Abrahams ( The Necks), Matt Peg (Jethro Tull, Ozzy Osbourne), Jo Accaria (Human Nature, Wendy Mathews,), Bill Jacobi (Warumpi Band, Shane Howard) , Dave Marsalis (Tim Finn, Not Drowning Waving) .

Floyd has always retained a strong degree of autonomy in his career being either a self managed or co-managed artist and in the mid and late nineties he again set his sights overseas and began touring internationally. He has now performed 5 international tours (4 band–1 solo) of up to 3 months predominantly on the European festival circuit and covering the territories of Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium Holland, and Spain. He is also one of the few Australian artists who has toured and released an album on a major label in Eastern Europe performing in Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

In the late nineties after the international tours began he was signed to Universal Music and released the critically acclaimed album 'Last Exit Motel' around the world. That album received strong airplay across Europe and the UK with 3 singles on high rotation on RETE 3 in Switzerland. Throughout the mid–late nineties the band literally lived on the road performing an average of 180–200 shows per year. They also maintained a constant touring presence in Australia during that time and performed 5 concerts to overwhelming response at the Sydney 2000 Olympics live sites organized by the Olympics Co-Ordination Authority.

The album 'Monkey Puzzle' was released in 2006 on his own label Godsplay and distributed nationally by MGM. It has received glowing reviews around the country and it is the first time he has been able to produce an album without the pressure of time constraints. The album continues the bands fascination with the dance rhythms of South America and breaks some new ground for them in the areas of rock and pop.

Two of the album tracks have achieved high rotation on Swizz Broadcasting Corporation’s Rete 3. The track ''Yamba Samba'' has been featured on ABC Oztrax and remains in the Jukebox there. The band has also recently performed live at the ABC program The Deep End and 3 of the tracks from the album have been featured on Australian TV Show McLeods Daughters. Over the past few years Floyd has become involved with the company Classic Albums Live and has been involved in 2 national tours firstly recreating the Dire Straits album 'Brothers in Arms' in 2010 and in July 2011 Fleetwood Macs 'Rumours' album. These tours have covered capital cities in the country's best theatres. 

In late July 2011 Floyd performed a specially commissioned 12-minute instrumental piece with sand artist Brett Bower in Singapore. Their piece opened an Australian business conference in Asia. Floyd renamed his band Floyd Vincent and the Temple Dogs that released a live album 'A Little Saturday Night Music'. It was recorded at live at shows around the Hunter region with his long-time collaborators bassist Bill Jacobi and drummer Dave Marsalis.The album contains the fans live favourites along with a couple of previously unrecorded tracks.

Members

Floyd Vincent (guitar vocals) Lindsay Page (keyboards, trombone, piano accordion)

Bill Jacobi (bass) Dave Marsalis (drums), Joe Giuseppe Accaria (drums)

References

http://www.floydvincent.com/biography