THE IRONMASTERS

Ray has been associated with Ironmasters for many years now. Firstly as our ‘stand in’ bass player, a dancer at our Ceilidhs, our ‘employer’ at Ceilidhs in Sandbach and at Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival, and on one memorable occasion, band bus motorway breakdown recovery specialist!

His lifelong love of Blues and Heavy Rock music surprisingly diversified into Folk/Rock during a three year posting with British Airways at the Boeing Company in Seattle, when he became a founder member of the ‘English’ style Ceilidh band - Fiery Clockface - making appearances in Portland, Oregon and at the Seattle Folklife Festival.

Upon returning to the UK in 1994, he became a member of Adlington Morris Men, having danced previously with Mossyback Morris in Seattle and before them, Hammersmith Morris Men [we now believe that they desire being called 'the world famous HMM, but we seem to have got away with it!].

So, if Ironmasters, Morris Dancing and organising Ceilidhs for Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival and the entire Sandbach Day of Dance is not enough, he can be found playing bass with his occasional blues/rock band, and more frequently, in the mosh pit at some Heavy Rock concert. (If there’s a connection between Heavy Rock, Morris Dancing and Ceilidh music, then it’s evading us).

Ray plays Rickenbacker 4001, Fender Precision, and Gibson Thunderbird 4-string, and Dean Rhapsody 8-string, bass guitars.