Deep within the Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire one will find the Village of Rawmarsh, marked by it’s Church Tower which rests at the top of the Hill looking down upon the Town of Rotherham.

At the heart of the Village lies the picturesque square of concrete where the locals will park their cars so as to visit the local essential services consisting of five quaint hostelries offering a fine range of mass brewed beer and lagers and the Fish and Chip Shop.

The very inappropriately named Green Lane Tavern is where you will find many villagers partaking in Big Screen Sports, or betting on which weeds will break through the paving stones first.

Running through the centre of the Village one will find the major road that takes travellers quickly on their way to the Cathedrals of materialism to be found at Retail World, and sometimes the villagers can be spotted cheerily waving exotic hand signals to the passers by and cheering them on their way.

But if you branch off the road, near to where once The Swimming Pool once proudly stood, you will seemingly be taken out into green hills and fields.  The grey carbon stained buildings giving way to open views across to the Hills of Sheffield, and on a clear day, beyond, it is said.

And it’s down this track that the feckless traveller will find a Public House known as The Monkwood and it’s within the hallowed walls of this establishment that The Rawmarsh Mashers were born.   

Two friends from the local music scene would meet each Monday, pulling themselves from their back bedrooms, to learn silly songs that they would later play to a wider audience at Open Mics or Folk Clubs.

They were initially known as Salt and Pepper, which  after an executive decision was changed to The Rawmarsh Mashers.

Nearly two years passed with only a select few knowing exactly what lay in store for the music lovers of Rotherham, which was why in the end Keith Masher had to go his own way, leaving Dickie Masher with no right hand wing man to take the flack.

It was then that another hapless musician with a non Yorkshire heritage and a slightly Southern accent was approached to become a Masher.  

After a lengthy and healthy period of thought, all of two seconds, Myke  agreed to link up with Dickie  and  so Mashers mark  Two was formed, playing their  favourite  Folk tunes in their own very direct style.


At about this time local commercial Radio Station Rother FM got hold of a recording of Hairy Mary that Dickie had made with Keith and very kindly afforded it some air time not realising just what they would be responsible for.  

That one play prompted a lot of interest in The Rawmarsh Mashers, leaving poor Myke only three weeks to learn enough Masher songs to perform live at The George and Dragon, Wentworth for the Mashers public debut.

Since that debut the Mashers have gone onto play at venues throughout South Yorkshire and Festivals across the Country, where their positive and entertaining style has made them a popular act with audiences.

Fast forward to 2009 and The Mashers  took a brave decision to seek out a third member .  It was a musical decision as The Mashers felt that they needed to give their performances a deeper sound, well that’s the official line.  The real reason was that they felt by inviting a third member preferably a good ten years older themselves, Dickie and Myke might have more luck with the Groupies.  An extensive search turned up Stan, and he has now officially been appointed as an Apprentice Masher.

                                                                                       

DICKIE MASHER:   LEAD VOCALS AND GUITAR          

A true “folkie” in his teenage years, Dickie could be found in any one of the numerous folk Clubs around his home town of Gosport, and being a true sea faring man he would often board the steam ferry to Portsmouth singing sea shanties, before hiding away in his Folkie hiding places.

A loose collaboration amongst three friends saw a folk group formed as a mirror image of The Kingston Trio, and Gigs were performed to little or no acclaim.  

And then real life got in the way.  Forced into accepting that even a budding star of the folk world needed an education Dickie headed for Ruskin College, Oxford, having won a Scholarship from his Trade Union USDAW.  And while Gosport and Portsmouth gave a collective sigh of relief that the strains of his nylon strings would not be heard again, it was suggested that Oxford was not quite ready for a wannabe Kingston Trio member.

The guitar was put aside, and even after conning Durham University into accepting his application the guitar, (except for low moments when the Leonard Cohen song book would be pulled out) stayed secure in it’s Gig Bag.

And so time passed and the guitar toured the UK, back to Gosport, over to Isle of Wight, Gosport again, Hereford, Worcester, Droitwich, Ledbury, Malvern, Pontefract, Swinton, Ackworth, Wath Upon Dearne, before coming to it’s final resting place of Rawmarsh.  

Never did the guitar see the light of day until one day an enquiring son asked for a demonstration.

And so it was that the dust was wiped away from Gig Bag the strings tightened into tune, and the wood polished.  It even played a tune, much to the delight of Dickie’s sons who not knowing any different were most impressed.

Encouraged, Dickie dug out the song books of The Spinners and Tom Paxton that he had stashed away on his book shelves, and the word “practice” was heard around the Masher residence.  

At around the same time Dickie was diagnosed as having MS.  Not wanting to give into what for some people is a terrible disabling condition, Dickie decided that the discipline of hand movement and brain thought required to even bash out the simplest song would help him to combat the pain and might even be therapeutic.

Up to this point all singing and playing had been reserved for the back bedroom, but bravely Dickie stepped out, taking his instrument to evening classes run by local guru Mark Hearne, and surprisingly the guitar started to sound a lot better.

Then one fateful day Mrs Masher decided that it would be nice to have drop blinds fitted to the windows of Masher Towers.  This brought Ken The Hat into Dickie’s life.  First he convinced Mrs Masher theat Dickie should visit a Monday night bash session, and then with a minimum of arm twisting dragged him off to The Rotherham Singers Club, held at the Rugby Club in the Town.

And from there it began.  For eighteen months Dickie tortured audiences at Open Mic sessions with his experiments with his favourite songs which he had found access to via the wonders of the internet. And then when feeling a little braver he found Keith Masher only too happy to join forces to see what they could do, with some notable performances at local Folk Clubs up until their parting of the way.

By then Dickie’s confidence had grown, and so when Myke Masher joined the party he was ready to take on the World......................   Well Rawmarsh at least.


Dickie plays a Taylor 810CE guitar - (just for all those trivia heads who like to know)

MYKE MASHER: LEAD GUITAR AND SUPPORT VOCALS (HE SAYS)

Trying to make Myke sit down and talk about himself is near to impossible.  It’s not his favourite subject.  

What has been gleamed from conversations is that Myke picked up a Guitar for the first time at School, where apparently he would treat all members of his sixth form Common Room to his early efforts with bar chords and tunes.

He has been a bit of a travelling minstrel, leaving mayhem wherever he has laid his head.

Myke, as if you need telling has been in virtually every folk band worth writing about, notably Rhiannon and it’s component side shoots, Whale Of A Time and Jig For A Kiss’s and was a founder member of the notorious Sheffield cult support band Earthtales.

More recently as he has attempted to convince the “Job Centre” that he really “IS” a professional Musician he has toured the Open Mics and Folk Clubs of Rotherham and indulging his music writing skills on a Folk Opera.   He assures me it is near completion.  

Dickie discovered Myke at the Rotherham Singers Club, a weekly gathering at The Rotherham Rugby Club, where many budding stars of the local music scene have made their first teetering steps towards greatness.  

Myke would sit with his ear to the PA speaker, listening intently as Dickie ploughed through his new songs of the week, and later would join in as Keith Masher attempted to keep Dickie on the straight and narrow path towards musical perfection.   

How he ever became involved in The Masher project Myke simply does not have a clue.  The initial promise of some beer money was attractive, but then somehow it just grew to where despite all his musical prowess he is known as a Masher....... His claim that he wakes in the middle of the night having nightmares about being a Masher can be confirmed by the bags under his eyes.  

Indeed, Myke claims to have been a young man before meeting Dickie.

Myke plays a cricket bat and a match box, the choice of which rests with whether or not he can be plugged in.

MURIEL MASHER: THE MUSIC STAND

And yes a special mention for Muriel, the third and most important member of the duo.

Frowned on by the “clever” or those who just think that Dickie Masher is bone idle and does not practice enough, Muriel is essential.
Dickie has to take a range of drugs, which in their totality do have an adverse affect upon his mid-range memory, which means that while The Mashers do script in several Deliberate Mistakes into all their performances, just so that the purist folkies have something to tittle tattle about, there would be a lot more without it and that would spoil it all for everyone.  

Dickie also uses the stand to hold his reading matter of the day, for when Myke goes off on one of his solo’s.  

So have a heart and don’t forget to give Muriel a big hand of applause.

COPYRIGHT 2009 MASHERS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.