Biography Peter Gee

I joined my first band Argueda at 15 - formed with 3 school friends. We played rock covers like "Little Wing" (Jimi Hendrix), "Brown Sugar" (Rolling Stones), "Day Tripper" (The Beatles), "Stairway to Heaven" (Led Zeppelin) and "Freebird" (Lynyrd Skynyrd) - then we started writing our own songs. I can't even remember the title of the first song I ever wrote!

Then after Argueda split up through people going off to college, I formed Phaedra (named after the Tangerine Dream album) - a jazz rock band. I played lead guitar in both Argueda and Phaedra. But in Phaedra, we had keyboards and flute. We wrote all our own songs which were a mixture of Camel, Jethro Tull, Return To Forever, and Chick Corea!

I joined Pendragon in 1981, 22 years ago at the age of 18. They had been going since about 1976 or 77, and I had originally been a fan. When Julian Baker (the then rythmn guitarist) left, Pendragon asked me to join as second guitarist without even an audition! The band was then a five piece - drums, bass, keyboards, guitar/vox and rhythmn guitar - and did more lead guitar harmony parts in those days.

I think my first Pendragon gig was at Bristol University in the student union bar. And the first song I wrote in Pendragon was called "Peace of Mind" - I wrote the music and Nigel Harris (drummer) wrote the lyrics. Unfortunately it never appeared on any recording, apart from very bad old live tapes!

Then in 1983, just after we met Marillion and supported them for the first time, our bassist left/was asked to leave. We had already been offered a support with Marillion at the famous Marquee Club in London in a month's time - and so, not wanting to miss such a great opportunity, I offered to play bass for this one gig and see how it went.

So Pendragon then became a four piece, and I have continued to play bass ever since!!!

As I have lived in the same place as Thin Ice Studios, I have been lucky enough to have got to play on various different projects over the years - including:

- NO (some guitar on a track by Clive Nolan and Martin Orford)

- "The Jabberwocky" and "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" albums by Oliver Wakeman and Clive Nolan

- "Marked for Madness" by Michelle Young

- and "Rock of Faith" by John Wetton

I have also played in a band called Mercy Train with Karl Groom, Richard West, Nick Harradence and Richard Burge. We made a CD called "Presence" on SI Music (now deleted)

Finally, I have also, purely for fun, played in a covers band called Line of Fire - playing a selection of pop and rock covers in small pubs and clubs – the kind of venues which Pendragon no longer get to play!

Creative Commons By-SA License