Chris was a founder member of New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) band Shiva in 1980 which also featured our very own A&R director, Chris Logan, in a later format.The band at that time was a 4-piece outfit, with the classic 'twin guitar' sound, not the 3-piece that later made waves with the album 'Firedance'.
In the late '80s - early '90s Chris played in the blues / rock band Harbouring Monsters (later to become Mean Blue Monsters). Playing prestige blues gigs around the country supporting such luminaries as John Mayall, Jethro Tull, Jools Holland, Dr. Feelgood and Walter Trout, Chris enjoyed a growing reputation as one of the foremost exponents of hard-hitting, Hendrix / Stevie Ray Vaughan - inspired psychedelic / rock / blues guitar on the circuit, as well as both singing and writing for the band.
After forming a semi-acoustic duo 'Act of Kindness' with Teri Bramah, there followed some informal jamming with Steve Payne which gave rise to the infamous 'occasional party band' the Woolly Bullies. Chris was to re-unite later with Steve Payne in a new version of Steve's band Candy Run.
More recently, Chris has been providing guitar backing for nu-folk sensation Katey Brooks, an up and coming Bristol singer/songwriter, performing on her 'Proof of Life' LP, and 'Live Now' EP.
He is also one half of an acoustic World/Blues/Afro/Celtic duo with Monsters' drummer Jack Carver on percussion, called Dada Shango (Jack also being a founder member of Shiva).
Somehow, he also finds time to edit videos, especially for Digitdoc, and compose psychedelic rock albums.
Chris's Interview
We had heard that Digitdoc’s guitar monster Chris D’Avoine was something of a recluse, popping up unexpectedly from time to time in a blaze of Hendrix-inspired stringbendiness and then vanishing once again into the mists. So we sent our intrepid reporter out in search of some kind of explanation. After considerable detective work we eventually tracked him down to a makeshift tent fashioned from old mattresses and aluminium foil, with a sign on the door proclaiming ‘In an Infinite Universe Nothing is True’. After some considerable time persuading him that we weren’t anything to do with Payment Protection Insurance he eventually let us in for a short and rather confusing interview:
We hear that you’ve been, er, thinking quite a lot recently. Have you anything erudite to tell us? Good stuff erudite, sticks anything. No, I mean, something about music. It’s all about music. From the tiny fuzzy improbable things that stick together to make matter, to gravity, stars and planets and black holes to the thoughts and dreams of every living soul, it all works on sympathetic vibration, so everything’s about music really. Apart from the X-Factor, of course. You don’t like the X-Factor? I’ve never seen it. In fact I can definitely say that it’s the worst program I’ve never seen. How can you be so sure? It all works on probability. When celebrity and money become the goal rather than an accidental result of the love of music then you’re probably in big trouble. So we’re all in big trouble then? Well, Southampton got promoted again, so not everything’s a disaster, but there does seem to be something nasty in the woodshed. The woodshed? (looking around somewhat nervously) Did I say woodshed? I meant the socio-political and economic systems. Ah. (increasingly confused) Is that someone at the door? I didn’t hear anything.
Strangely, there was a loud knock on the door at this point. At Chris’s request our intrepid reporter intrepidly answered the door.
It’s someone about Payment Protection Insurance. Ah, good, could you let them in on your way out? Cheers.
None the wiser, our reporter returned to base, telling us that he thinks Chris exists, but can’t be completely sure, before retiring to a darkened room with a cup of cocoa and a week’s supply of aspirin.
Chris's Press
Chris's Album Reviews
Chris's Links
You might like to explore some of the other sites featuring Chris:
