Born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, 25 September 1955, son of a steelworker and a waitress. Steve got his first guitar at Christmas 1963 as the Beatles took over the world. Started learning to play it but then preferred football. Played rugby for Yorkshire and an England trial, but was injured. Left school at 15 after a fight with the headmaster. After becoming an apprentice electrician in 1970, Steve earns enough money to buy a Fender Stratocaster. He practices 8 hours a day and subsequently becomes resident musician at the Crucible theatre in Sheffield. He then sends a tape of his band to Polydor in 1974 and gets signed to the Afro Jazz band Zzebra. The band tours Europe, then disbands when punk takes over the music scene. Steve plays on the London punk scene, and plays with Sonja Kristina after Curved Air.
Recording at Ian Gillan studios as a session player, Steve joins his band Gillan for one studio and one live album in 1978/1979.

Steve auditioned for Kim’s first live tour in 1982 and stayed on ever since. He was doing promotion and tours with Kim, while also touring and recording with the Buggles, Kids from Fame, Billy Ocean, Samantha Fox, Frankie goes to Hollywood and many more. In 1986, he co-wrote Another Step (Closer to You), Kim’s first self-penned single hit. He also wrote Hey Mister Heartache, Missing, The Thrill of It, Too Late with Kim and Light of the Moon (Belongs to Me) with Kim and Ricki in following years.
Steve and Kim also wrote Ces Moments La together for singer Muriel Dacq.

With ex-Culture Club drummer Jon Moss he formed Heartbeat UK, who release one single called ‘Jump to It’. The album isn’t released after falling out with record company Virgin.
Steve went on to write and record with Kim Appleby, Martha (from Martha & the Muffins), Jay Aston (ex-Bucks Fizz) and Lena Fiagbe.
Steve then returned to Kim and continued to write and tour with her until the Hits Tour in 1994.
After this, he started making a name for himself, composing and recording film and TV music for Zomba. He also played with the bands The Mods and 4 Bills and a Ben, playing to a loyal crowd on the UK club scene. He appeared in a Steve Marriott Memorial live DVD.
He was the MD of the Byrdsongs record label. In 2014 he formed “Steve Byrds Ethnic Soup” along with drummer Dave Layton and singer Rosanna J Eastman.

Until 2005, Steve was married to (another) Kim, the couple had one daughter (Mel) and one son (Adam). He then had a relationship with Kathryn and they had a daughter named Georgina, born in January 2006.

Steve passed away on 2 October 2016 in Munich (Germany) after suffering a heart attack.

Born Peter Richard Blanshard in Orsett (UK) on 6 August 1954. Richard Blanshard joined Kim’s band in 1983 as a saxophone and flute player and toured with the band for years all over Europe. When he played with Kim, Richard was also taking photos professionally on movies and he did shoot photographs of Kim, some of which were actually used for promotional purposes.

Richard also played with Dan Hartman and Elkie Brooks. He still plays live with the Indies, a band that is put together from people in the Film industry, raising money for charity. They made an album and have opened the Cannes Film Festival twice. They also played at the House of Blues and the Avalon in Los Angeles.

In 1995 he directed and photographed a documentary series going from London to New York Overland crossing Siberia at the coldest time of the year. He is now producing and directing documentaries and TV shows. One of the feature documentaries directed by Richard is ‘New York City Ballet Workout’, a rock and roll movie about the New York City Ballet, going on the road to dance at the Kirov in St Petersburg.
Some of his other film work includes: The Krays, Judge Dredd, Mission Impossible, Equlibrium and Below. Richard still occasionally writes and records music for his film projects.

[With thanks to Richard Blanshard and Pierre Mathis.]

Born in Winslow, Buckinghamshire, England on 15 December 1961 . At 17, his mother passed away. Left behind with only his younger sister, he dropped out of art school and started working as a trash collector while simultaneously working in music with his first band. With Steve Askew (guitar), Stuart Neale (keyboards), Jez Strode (drums) and himself on bass, his band released a single, ‘Fear Machine’ in a private pressing of 1000 copies. A year later, Christopher Hamill, a.k.a. Limahl was asked to join the band, renaming it to Kajagoogoo. They were spotted during a live concert in London, and signed to EMI Records. A series of hits including ‘Too Shy’ and ‘Ooh to be Aah’ seems to lead to nothing when Limahl leaves the group within the year over musical disagreements. However, Nick Beggs takes over lead vocals, and the band scores another series of hits with a.o. ‘Big Apple’ and ‘Turn Your Back on Me’.

The band finally dissolves, and Beggs goes on to write material for other artists until he forms Ellis, Beggs and Howard in 1987, with Simon Ellis and Austin Howard. This trio scores a hit with ‘Big Bubbles, No Troubles’, releases one album and tours alongside a.o. Roachford and T’pau. A second album was recorded, but not released.

Nick went on writing material with artists such as Gary Numan and Cliff Richard and records material with Steve Howe and Sally Oldfield in the following years, until he joined Phonogram Records in 1993 as an A&R manager. The A&R department was made redundant in 1994, after which Nick worked with Alphaville, Belinda Carlisle and the Japanese artist Cozi in the following years.

In 1998, Nick was involved in the recording of Kim Wilde’s unreleased album.

He appears live as a member of Kim’s band during a concert at Tivoli in Copenhagen, Denmark, on May 16, 2003. After that, he works with Kim regularly, playing bass live on stage during her concerts in festivals and 80’s concerts in the UK and Europe. He is also a member of the band during the two legs of the Perfect Girl tour in 2007. He also played a support programme during the second half of the shows in November 2007, when support band Stereoblonde had to quit midway through the tour. He continued to be in Kim’s band until 2015, but he also started touring with Steve Wilson.

In 2016, his new band Mute Gods released their debut album, ‘Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me’, featuring Ricky Wilde on the track ‘Father Daughter’ (which also features vocals of Nick’s daughter Lula). In 2017 the second album from Mute Gods, ‘Tardigrades Will Inherit the Earth’, followed, and in 2019 the album ‘Atheists and Believers’.

Meanwhile, the solo album ‘Words Fail Me’ was also released in 2019, bringing together an album’s worth of new instrumental tracks with two previously released solo albums: ‘Stick Insect’ (2002) and ‘The Maverick Helmsman’ (2004).

Nick turned out to be a prolific artist, touring with Howard Jones and recording albums with Trifecta and Fish on Friday in recent years, as well as supporting his daughters, who perform live as The Beggs Sisters in the UK.

Born in 1959 in Dover (UK), Gary Barnacle is a saxophonist and brass instrument arranger primarily noted for his session work during the 1980s. While he was working with Kim Wilde in the early eighties, he was also her boyfriend. He’s played on the following Kim Wilde recordings: 2 6 5 8 0, Action City, Child Come Away, Dancing in the Dark and Love Blonde. Also, he was part of Kim’s band during the first tour in 1982.
During his association with Kim Wilde, he also formed the duo Leisure Process with ex-Positive Noise singer Ross Middleton.

His longest association however was with Level 42. He’s played on many of their albums. The horn section he formed with British trumpet and fluegelhorn player, John Thirkell, for Level 42 is known as the Henpecked Horns. Barnacle and Thirkell have also backed Swing Out Sister. Barnacle also recorded ‘A Way You’ll Never Be’ with Mark King and Phil Gould.

Other acts for whom Barnacle has contributed session work have included Big Fun, Paul Hardcastle, Visage, The Beautiful South, Rick Astley, Public Image Ltd., Pet Shop Boys, Jamiroquai, Elvis Costello, David Bowie, Tim Finn, Björk, Tina Turner, Carlene Carter, The Ruts, Phil Collins, ABC, Guru and Billie Ray Martin. He worked frequently with Stock Aitken Waterman as a session musician in their PWL studios. Barnacle is frequently credited as an arranger of woodwinds and brass on his session work.