Spillage

Theo McCleod (Vocals & Percussion) and Graeme Gleaves (Guitars & Mandocaster) make up Spillage. The band was formed in 2004 to, basically, play live, write, record and have a good time doing it !! Spillage is based around Middlesex and Berkshire.

Theo and Graeme met in 2003 at a Jam night in Staines (Middlesex) where a drunken 12 minute rendition of Kind Hearted Woman was the highlight of the evening. The pair decided to form a band a couple of months later. There was never a plan to form a two piece band, it has just happened that way. Various members have been tried out over the years, bass players, drummers, other vocalists, to augment the duo to a full 'more traditional' line up, and this will continue to be the case as requirements dictate but the core of the band will always be Theo and Graeme.

Spillage went on hiatus in 2009, after recording a couple of EPs and their Songs From The Greenhouse album. The band briefly reformed as a four piece in 2010 before going their separate ways once more. In the summer of 2019 Graeme and Theo re-united and as they are both older and wiser felt the need to be Spillage once more.

Spillage played live a fair bit in their early years, including a residency at the Havana Bar in Windsor and a lot of pop up appearances at open mic and jam nights. The band did a lot of charity gigs and a few local fetes and festivals, indeed at one local fete their support act was the Salvation Army band and at one memorable festival performance in Wokingham the gig ended with a huge stage invasion. If anyone wants to book us for a festival or as a support then get in touch, because of our minimal set up we are very quick at setting up and getting off stage which is favoured by a lot of event organisers!

The band has it's main influences from both the bluesmen of the 1930s such as Robert Johnson, Son House, Tampa Red and the like along with punk and new wave of blues bands such as The Clash, The Levellers, The White Stripes, Giant Drag and The Black Keys. The problem with the blues is that the sentiment of the music will allways hold true but singing "I wandered this lonely highway 61 all alone" when you come from the home counties seems a bit of a fraud!! What Spillage try to do is take that influence and combine it with their own experience and make it their own, a lot of the songs are about places we frequent such as Junction 13 and Havana Bar Blues; or are inspired by people we know such as The Canoe Song.

Graeme;Guitars - Yamaha CPX-8 acoustic and Switch Ultima IV EQ hybrid guitar. Also a Dean electro-acoustic mandocaster is brought out from time to time. - Theo uses whatever he can blag!