Rufus Garside are a 4 piece group that came together in 2006. Made up of Luke Townley (Lead Guitar & Vocals), Andy Taylor (Keys & Vocals), Gill Taylor (Guitar & Vocals) and Rob Bane (Bass).

The band performs a mixture of their own material (eclectic), covers (useful in schools, and excellent fun!!), and worship material (which they just can’t resist completely reworking into their own unique style!!) They are highly flexible and competent musicians in their own rights, and together sound amazing!

Gill and Luke had known one another in some capacity or another going back some 10 years, performing in various place in the northwest, then after a few chance conversations in June 2006 between Gill and Andy at a gig they discovered a shared passion for a quality Christian worship band. This formulated into a temporary setting for a locally based event as the worship band but since then, the musical chemistry and friendship, that spontaneously happened when they all got together for the first time, surprised them all. In fact, early in 2007, they agreed to go into business together as David’s Key.

In December 2007 Martin Payne who had drummed with the members of Rufus, off and on for several years moved on, to devote more time to his other passions. Needless to say, if you see him on match of the day, or in the listings of a FIFA game don’t be surprised!

January 2008 brought John Kirby to Rufus Garside’s door (literally)! Sadly, this wasn’t something to last and shortly into 2008 John left to follow his other career, but Rufus Garside being Rufus Garside had another drummer in a matter of hours, Josh Potts, who came along to one (possibly 2 practices) learnt 3 of the bands own songs and performed brilliantly at a battle of the bands event in Blackburn town centre with them, and he seems to be sticking around so far (complete with all the Delirious drum beats you could possibly wish for).

Josh has since moved on to follow his own passion and ministry with his music and drumming, but he continues to drum with Rufus Garside as a session musician, so you’ll still get to see him at various events, but the good news is we now have a Rob “the bass player” Bane.  A new addition to the band in 2010/2011, Rob brings added depth to the band (get it, bass, depth? no? meh ..) and completes the sound meaning we can experiment further with the sounds we work on and (in the words of a judge at the Battle of the Bands we entered a little bit back) allows Andy to “get jiggy on the keyboard and not concentrate on the bass part so much.”

Now Rufus is ‘all singing’, but not yet all dancing (ask Luke about progress on that front!). 2008 is a pinnacle year for the band as they take their vision and venture forward into unknown territory for them all; doing community and schools based work together: – encouraging young people in their area with a mix of music and spirituality. This will all take place as David’s Key and they’ll be busy “unlocking music & spirituality for young people”.

Each band member has ‘given up their day jobs’ to be able to focus and develop this work and if all this is inspiring you too, and you’re interested in getting involved, or in working with them on this vision, then drop them a message and they’ll take things from there!

Keep your eyes and ears peeled, and note the name Rufus Garside and the Antiquated Juveniles” (Rufus Garside for short) as they’ll be hitting your ears like never before.