Joe Gooch
Joe Gooch is familiar to most from his work over the last seven years with rock legends Ten Years After. Having toured the world and recorded four albums with the highly respected rock veterans, Joe has now embarked on a new collaboration with bass player/writer Leo Lyons. Hundred Seventy Split is an exciting high energy blues/rock extravaganza that showcases Gooch and Lyons in their most exciting incarnation to date.
Joe grew up in a musical environment due to his parents being keen jazz, blues and classical music fans. The sound track to his early years was made up of artists and composers such as Stephan Grappeli, Django Rhineheart, Robert Johnson, Debussi, Steely Dan and John Mayall.
By thirteen, taking his music seriously, he enrolled on a course of classical guitar lessons. The disciplines he learnt were a good grounding for him, but he soon realized his interest lay outside of the classical sphere and moved towards other styles including rock and blues. At first, influenced by his childhood heroes, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Buddy Guy and later Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, John Petrucci and Larry Carlton amongst others, Joe experimented with various musical styles, and was constantly looking for new ideas and inspiration to expand and improve his techniques.
He strives relentlessly to be a better player and to express himself with an individual voice. Joe can communicate his emotions through strong, energetic playing, and gives a sensational dynamic to his new outfit Hundred Seventy Split.
Joe and Leo both resigned from Ten Years After at the end of 2013 and to celebrate a new beginning Hundred Seventy Split released a new CD, simply titled, HSS.
