MUSICIAN/BAND MEMBER

Influenced by Dave Clark of The Dave Clark 5 Russell became a drummer at 13 improvising on biscuit tins and cardboard boxes as all he could afford were the drumsticks. His first band was called 'The Ice Age' which was very short lived. After being successful as a D.J he switched to songwriter and record producing for his then wife, pop singer Eleanor Rigby but was somewhat of a reluctant musician only learning the basics on guitar to show others what to play in regards to the songs he wrote and he occasionally played drums in rehearsals. But because he had management duties he never played live. Also in the recording studio he wanted to concentrate on production and so only played a token instrument on Eleanor's tracks like Tambourine.
After Eleanors demise he formed the first of two bands 'Ministry of Ska'. A girlfriend taught him a few bits of Keyboards and so this, percussion and vocals were what he mainly did in the band apart from writing and producing the songs.
(See full details about Ministry of Ska and their releases at link below.)

Box office Poison was his next band he wrote and produced and did occasional lead vocals for. He started as Drummer but after finding it difficult to find a Cello player that could improvise he decided to take a few lessons and play the cello, but rather than just play classical style he turned it into a unique instrument he called a Punk Cello. It was put through an effects unit and played in a different way to a normal cello often making Wolf, Dolphin, Saw and other sounds as well as musical riffs. On recordings he often played keyboards, Koto, percussion or drums and few other instruments as well as Punk Cello.
Live he would mainly play Punk Cello, do the occasional lead vocal and on occasion Keyboards.

In his next band 'Psykick Holiday' he did pretty much the same instruments occasional adding Trumpet to the proceedings.
(Links and more info about both bands a bottom of page.)
He occasional guested live with other bands, mostly doing Bongos or occasionally Keyboards and on many recordings he produced he would do percussion of some sort, Punk Cello featured fair bit on many cult themes tracks and even one off guitar bits.
Out of all the arts he does he considers being a musician the least important and the thing he is least gifted at although some would beg to differ when it comes to his punk cello playing.

Ministry of Ska
Box Office Poison
Psykick Holiday
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