Radio de Guillemots
Guillemots (sometimes written gUiLLeMoTs) are a BRIT Award nominated indie rock band formed in November 2004 by Fyfe Dangerfield. Fyfe Dangerfield began writing songs in his native Birmingham and then in Bromsgrove. His early band, Senseless Prayer, recorded a session for John Peel's Radio 1 show in 1999. Dangerfield then began song writing under the name "Fyfe Dangerfield and the Accident", and in 2004 he featured alongside Misty's Big Adventure, Mike in Mono, Dreams of Tall Buildings, and X Is Greater Than Y on a promotional CD that was offered free with The Birmingham Post, called Broader Than Broad Street. He then joined old school friend, Paul 'Booby' Tooby, on his "Ragamuffin Blues but Holes in my Shoes" tour. Dangerfield had moved to Bromsgrove in 1988; he moved to London in 2002, where he recruited the current line up. He also became a maverick music teacher for Cranbrook College. The name of the band is the plural of the name of a group of seabirds (but most often meaning the Common Guillemot Uria aalge) and should be pronounced 'gillimott' (and not in a French style). The 4-piece have often been joined by two saxophone and woodwind players, Alex Ward and Chris Cundy, who are known as the "Bridled Guillemots" (a real-life variation of the band's namesake). In March 2008, Alex Ward left the band to pursue his own musical interests, and he was subsequently replaced by Ruthie Phoenix- vocalist, alto sax and keyboard player.