Haze are Sheffield legends, forming in the late 70’s they have somehow managed to survive to the present day. I saw them last night & they were excellent. I’ve seen them at countless gigs over the years and their song-writing & musicality have always been so strong. They could have been contenders, but for the usual quirks of fate.

I first played with their bassist/keyboardist/bass-pedallist/bazouki-ist and singer Chris in 1988 as sessionj players for an an album called Love For All Seasons (available in all good charity shops) then supported their alter-egos World Turtle on several dates & played acoustic for them. I contributed guitar to various of Chris’ side-projects and we got on really well. In an extraordinary act of generosity, they asked me to contribute an entire track to the Wilderness of Eden CD. I put together some of my live looping and sure enough, it ended up on the album. Royalties have been sparse!

I last played with the McMahon brothers as World Turtle back in 1998 at the Boardwalk, along with Freddy Satsuma, another local leg end. I formed a wacky covers band with Chris and Freddie (called Satsuma, naturally) who blazed a trail of rock-fuelled ABBA covers around the district. We had the unique distinction of playing at the opening of the (doomed!) Sheffield Rock & Pop Museum – after our first set, they paid us off saying the crown wanted the disco instead! There’s some lost footage somewhere. We took a selfie at the gig last night 😉

Curiously enough, Paul’s son Daniel plays drums for Haze, but they’ve asked my son (Nick Jnr.) to fill in for an upcoming gig. Below is a photo of the recording sessions for Wilderness of Eden, with my son in orange. Who’d have thought?