Profiles

Profiles

Who exactly are Spy51? What do they do? What do they like? Where have they been and where are they going? EyeSpy51 attempts to shed some light on the band everyone is talking about.

Charley Stone - Guitar and vocals

Charley Stone began life as the Pam Ayres of rock. As a little girl she told her Dad she would one day be a Pop Star and play a concert at Blackpool Tower.

At sweet 16 she would watch the sunrise over Barton Fields, and run up hills whilst wearing a permanent frown and a 'Cure' T-shirt.

In 1989, whilst still in her home town of Exeter, she joined Grrl Rock band Frantic Spiders. The band earned notorierty on the Riot Grrl scene and their first single, released in 1993, was an EP entitled "You're dead". What followed were tours, radio play and some line up changes before the band eventually relocated to London. It has never really been established whether Frantic Spiders ever actually split up. As Charley puts it "Doors maybe closed, but never locked".

After Frantic Spiders Charley joined indie band Salad, playing guitar, keyboards and vocals. Within a week of joining Salad she was playing with them at the Reading Festival. For the next three years Charley was part of the Salad family, playing numerous gigs here, there and everywhere.

In 1998 Charley joined glam rock band GayDad as lead guitarist, where she enjoyed a top ten hit, a top twenty album, Top of the Pops and a world tour. For about 18 months our diminutive heroine was in just about every music magazine that you picked up at the newsagents whilst purchasing your cigs and newspaper on the way to work.

Now...Charley has joined Spy51 of course, playing guitar and vocals. No longer Pam Ayres, the Helena-Bonham Carter of Rock Charley Stone likes champagne, Budvar, white and red wine, Guiness and the occassional ciggie. She pounds the running machine at her local gym, reads Henry Miller, watches 'Wings of Desire' and is basically an all round top bird.

Charley's quote: "Never put drinks on amps!"

Lea Andrews - Vocals and Bass

Bass player, singer and landscape gardener Lea Andrews formed Spy51 some years ago along with drummer Toby Sinden, the original line up did indeed make some records and you can learn all about them at the official Spy51 website at www.spy51.co.uk

Guiness loving Lea enjoys stand up comic style banter with the crowd and with her fellow band members, as much as singing and playing the songs we love.

She is also a DJ, and has her own club night 'Lower the Tone'. 'Lower the Tone' takes place on the last Friday of every month at the Oak Bar, Green Lanes, Stoke Newington, London. It's a lovely retro kind of an evening, with all your Radio 2 favourites such as the Buzzcocks, Tom Robinson Band and Blondie being played, sometimes scratched, by the lovely Lea and her two fellow DJs. Apparently the idea of the whole thing is to create a club for people who don't like clubs. There is also a great pool table available to mis-spend your night on. To find out more about the Oak Bar go to www.gingerbeer.co.uk

With more hair-styles than you can shake a stick at, it is possibly fair to say Lea is the captain of the good ship Spy51, and a darling to us all.

Lea's quote: "Trust me, I will f**k it up!"

Toby Sinden - Drums

Toby helped form Spy51 with Lea Andrews all those years ago.

A golf instuctor, Toby plays along to a click track courtesy of a little electronic box thingy he has by his side on stage. Originally we thought it may have been a sandwich toaster, put there just in case he got peckish during a gig. We also thought his headphones may have been for Toby to be able to listen to the match while Charley and Lea were rockin' away.

Apparently Toby is responsible for recruiting Charley into the fold, luring her in by his ability to pull funny faces.

All said and done, Toby is a top bloke and not a bad drummer either.

Toby's quote: "It's f**king freezing!"