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

Alec Johnson (electric guitar, vocals)

Photo: Warren Page

Alec's first guitar was bought for him by his father for his 11th birthday. About a year later he was introduced to Jeff Leigh, a.k.a. Jode, by fellow budding guitar player Pete Woolley. They were soon joined by young Mike Clark on vocals and later by Steve O'Rourke on bass. The band was called The Divided Heart.

Jode and Alec then played in a series of bands. One particular line up, a later incarnation of The Conclusion, a band they'd had since schooldays, got re-named Hamlet's Milk Tooth when they were involved with a company selling Bontempi organs. They travelled all around England with the high point being the launch at Ronnie Scott's in London. "We're probably the only pop group to have played there, while Osibisa were playing upstairs", recalls Alec.

From 1970-71 Jode and Alec were in a heavy rock band called A 100 Watt Rabbit which provided their first gigs overseas. After that Alec, Jode and bass player Trev Quinton broke away to do a summer season at the Marina Theatre in North Wales just to earn some money. They called themselves The Tangled Web and Alec says that "Apart from playing pop music, that particular line up was undoubtedly the best ever. We had a sixth sense between us, which is rare to find with two musicians never mind three. We could improvise for hours and never played a tune the same way twice. It was great."

There followed a backing band period which involved touring all around the US air bases in Germany backing Arthur Conley Do you like good music? Yeah Yeah, and Carl, James and Ivory who were ex Detroit Emeralds.

Alec then joined a funk band, Shabazz. They played material by Average White Band and Rufus. Sometime after that, bass player Chris Alderman and Alec decided to break away and form a cabaret band to try and make some money. They enlisted the services of drummer Steve Bartley and the band Magic was born.

After that episode, Jode invited Alec to join Spontaneous Combustion. The band went to Germany and made an LP for BUK records with producer Connie Plank. The record company re-named the band and the album Time, which is still collected by fans of that period.

Alec then returned to Cheshire and a number of other bands - around the same time that Jode joined England. Magic got back together in the latter half of the 70's and Alec got involved with a band called Destiny in the early 80's. There was Pete Goalby, ex Trapeze and later Uriah Heep, on vocals and ex Pat Travis guitarist Pat Thrall and drummer Tommy Aldridge. Alec then joined Nightwing with old buddy Steve Bartley on drums and ex Strife bass player, Gordon Rowley. They made several albums together and toured Europe several times with bands like Ten Years After, Ginger Baker, Chicken Shack, Budgie and Ian Gillan.

In the late 80s and through the 90s Alec continued to write and perform - mainly in a freelance capacity and one of his songs This Love is Big Enough for Both of Us had the lyrics re-written and the title changed to, This World is Big Enough for All of Us by lead singer Max Bacon who had been involved with Nightwing for a while then worked with Mike Oldfield and then GTR a band formed by Yes guitarist Steve Howe and ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, After Steve Howe got back together with Yes members Anderson, Wakeman, Bruford and Howe together with bass player Tony Levin they re-wrote Alec's song yet again and called it Birthright. It's interesting to hear the three versions one after the other and see how it evolved.

In 1994, Alec joined Herman's Hermits which had the main benefit of enabling him to tour the world including working on the QE2, in Vegas, Oman, Japan and Australia and all over the USA.

In 2001, as well as returning to some solo work, Alec formed Plain Truth with Steve Bartley, and Chris Alderman gaining a strong following and joined later by the world-class bass player Simon Crumley.

Around this time Jode and Alec got together with Robert Webb and started work on a concept of Robert's called Wheel of Fortune, which included a very heavy version of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana which Alec hopes to revisit in the future.

In 2005, Alec was asked to join the reformed England and his phenomenal playing at the Baja Prog Festival in Mexicali and March has demonstrated that he was absolutely the right musician for the job.

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