Murphy's Law was formed in the
middle of 1988 from ex members of Christchurch New Zealand's
Muligans Irish band, Mathew Morley vocals, guitar, harmonica, tin
whistle and plectrum banjo, Patrick Wilkins, vocals, laggaphone,
percussion and bodran, Lawrence Cooper, tenor banjo, 5 string banjo,
mandolin, button accordian and concertina, with Dave Kershaw,
electric base, mandolin and fiddle, an ex member of Christchurch New
Zealand Bush/rock band, Bushfire, along with Pat Simmonds, mandolin,
5 string banjo, tenor banjo, guitar, electric base and fiddle, a
gifted musician from an Irish family that were living in Gisborne
New Zealand. The band was formed to provide entertainmet at a local
Christchurch Irish Pub, Warners Hotel. The Band played without a
name for a couple of weeks. As members could not agree on a suitable
name, and as Hotel Management required a name for advertising
purposes, we, in desperation, offered patrons in the bar a pint of
Guinness for the best name. As the night wore on, and the pints
flowed the names became a blur, so we settled on Murphy's Law, as it
was the only one we could remember that made any sense.
Murphy's Law performed with these original band members untill Febuary 1990. Durng this time we had a regular spot playing at Warners Hotel in the square, Christchurch New Zealand. We liked to get out of the city and perform in the smaller centers whenever we could and had many a good night's work performing at the Great Northern, a small hotet in North Canterbury. We also vetured as far south as Invercargil, and the odd trip over to the West Coast of the South Island. One highlight was to perform at the opening of a new woolshed at the historic Muller Station in inland Marlborough, with a special guest band member, George Stewart, legendary saw player, whistle player and laggophanist, who was convinced he only drunk 3 rums the whole night. As the rest of us consumed a reasonable amount of whiskey to ward off the extream cold, due to it being end of August in South Island High Country none of us were able to confirm or deny his version. Even the trip from Hamner to Muller Station via the Molsworth Road is a memorable experience. We finish off our time with original members with a tour of Universities, Lincoln and Canterbury in the South, Wellington and Aucland in the North. Also on this tour we had gigs at The Carpark in Welligton and the Gluepot and Irish Society in Auckland.
Murphy's Law - First Lineup
Mathew Morley - Lead Vocal, Guitar, Harmonica 4 String G banjo.
Patrick Wilkins - Vocal, Bodhran, Laggerphone, Percussion, Irish Nose Flute, Sleezy Latin Waiter.
Lawrence Cooper - Button Accordian, Tenor Banjo, Banjo Mandolin. Mandolin.
Patrick Simmonds - Mandolin, 5 String Banjo, Fiddle, Tenor Banjo, Guitar ,Electric Base.
Dave Kershaw - Electric Base, Mandolin.
At the beginning of 1990 Pat
Simmonds, headed for Ireland, became a fluent Gaelic speaker and
took his musicianship to even greater heights. He now resides in
Toronto Canada, Pat has continued his on with his musical career,
has added button accordian to the list of musical instruments he can
play well, and has become well known and respected in the local
traditional music scene and more. He can be found here :
http://www.spraoi.ca
. Another ex Bushfire musician, Andy Hills, tin whistle, flute,
clarinet, saxophone, and vocal replaced Pat. As we all grew older,
had families, needed to find careers that enabled us to live without
the risk of starvation, Murphy's Law fizzled out in the mid to late
90's.
Murphy's Law - Second Lineup
Patrick Wilkins - Vocal, Bodhran, Laggerphone, Percussion, Irish Nose Flute, Sleezy Latin Waiter, Washboard.
Andy Hills - Flute, Tin Whistle, Clarinet, Saxaphone, Harmonica.
Mathew Morley - Lead Vocal, Guitar, Harmonica 4 String G banjo.
Lawrence Cooper - Button Accordian, Concertina, Tenor Banjo, 5 string Banjo, Banjo Mandolin. Mandolin, Fiddle.
Dave Kershaw - Electric Base, Mandolin, Fiddle.
Murphy's Law produced 4 tapes, which we sold at our gigs. the first one, Murphy's Law - Behind Bars, sold about 300 copies. This tape was made from a demo we recorded. lineup was the original band. Tape 2 was called Murphy's Law - Live at the Gluepot, recorded live at his infamous bar in Auckland New Zealand, on our north island tour, which was a farewell to Pat as he flew off to Ireland at the end. The next tape Murphy's Law - Live in Nelson, was put together from a live recording of a gig in Nelson, New Zealand, and was by original lineup. Tape #4 Murphy's Law - Murphy's Home Brew was recorded by Terry Molloy at his studio, by the second lineup, and was our best qualify recording. I have presevered these tapes by recording them digitally and burning them to CD. As the tapes were well worn some of the quality has been lost. Tracks from these recordings can be freely downloaded by anyone who is interested, you may copy and give them away but must not be sold or used for comercial purposes without permission from the members of the Band "Murphy's Law". All tracks are full versions but quality varies from good to poor.
For anyone who has followed and suported Murphy's Law and to those that have not encontered our band before, I have provide a collection of some of our artwork and music. It is possible to download for free, mp3's of all our recordings along with artwork for CD covers in pdf format which you can burn to CD's for your own use. Also I will place pdf files of sheet music arrangements of many of our favorite songs and tunes as they become available. Below is link to Download page.
Murphy's Law Downloads
I
would like to thank the many who supported Murphy's Law, came to our gigs and purchased our tapes. I personally look back at this time and wish I could do it all again. Please feel free to email me and make contact
