Robert Webb | Martin Henderson | Alec Johnson | Steve Laffy | Maggie Alexander

Martin Henderson (bass guitar, vocals)

Photo: Warren Page

Martin formed his first band whilst still at school in 1968 with Colin Jones on Hofner bass, Chris Wright on Les Paul type guitar, Mark Ibbotson on drums and Martin on Telecaster type guitar.

Martin Joined Alice Band in 1971 with Keith Stack, Ray Kemp and Mark Ibbotson on Drums playing gigs in England and touring Germany and Italy in 1972.

Although this band was blues influenced, sometime during this period the band mutated into the embryonic England with the band's musical direction heading to a more English feel. After leaving this band in 1973, Martin switched to bass guitar and continued to gig with various bands until 1975 when he joined England together with Robert Webb on keyboards, Jamie Moses on guitar and Mark Ibbotson on drums.

Within a short while Jamie left and was replaced by Frank Holland, followed by the departure of Mark who was replaced by Jode Leigh.

It was this group of musicians that were responsible for writing, performing and producing Garden Shed. For reasons which will forever remain obscure, despite the album's critical acclaim, the record company withdrew their support and the band broke up in 1978.

Martin continued to perform with a variety of bands, including a spell with Jeff Beck but by the 1980s had left music to earn a living as an engineer, until one day in January 1997 when a phone call from Robert re-awakened his musical spirit.

Martin recalls the event as follows:
Saturday 20th January 1997. (We haven't spoken for 19 years).
Robert - "Hi Martin, I thought that you might be interested to know that I have the Master Tapes from the record company and we are going to remaster the album on CD. The Japanese have given us an order and I am going to the studio next week. Are you interested in being involved?"
Martin - "Yes, great, but I thought that I had the masters in my basement" .

After the conversation, Martin went to his basement and eventually found in a corner an old mildewed box full of tapes. Contained within were two individual boxes of the original un- eq'd studio tapes for each side of the album. On the boxes the date was written - 20th January 1977 and so Martin and Robert's musical collaboration began again.

Creative Director: Robert Webb (info@gardenshedmusic.com)
Project Manager: Maggie Alexander (info@gardenshedmusic.com)