First Light

Thanks to Geoff Dunn

When Geoff isn't playing with the Earth Band, he is playing with his own band First Light.  To find out more, read on...

First Light came out of an early meeting of myself and guitarist Ronnie Johnson in 1979 when I was around 18 years old. I was playing a gig at The Cricketers Oval and Ronnie sat in. We hit it off musically straight away and dominated the rest of the gig, I was so busy enjoying myself that I didn't see the P45 fluttering down!

Being without a gig it was decided that we should have our own band and play what and how we liked, (some of my influences include:- Mahavishnu Orchestra, Herbie Hancock,Return to Forever, Keith Jarret, Steelly Dan, Pat Metheny Group, Frank Zappa. Some of Ronnies inflences:- Ravel, Mitchell, Zappa, Elgar, Coltrane, Davis, Beatles, Bacharach, Webb, etc) and so the band was born in one of its early guises (Geoffdunn/Ronniejohnson Group). We were not officially called First Light until about 1984. (Through the 80's members included:-Keyboards- Earl Appleton and Paul Honey, on Bass- Rob Rawlinson, Rob Burns, Greg Harewood (who was on "How the Land Lies" and toured the US & Canada). Also on the US tour we were joined on vocals by Paul Williams (Tempest, Allan Holdsworth, Juicy Lucy))
Later on Roy Shipston joined, known amongst Earth Band fans from his association with Chris Slade and Colin Pattenden in the group Terra Nova . Roy also worked in the Chris Thompson Band.

The first album "How the land lies" was recorded at Scorpio sound (1985), engineered by Ray Hendrickson (Marc Bolan, Supertramp, Streetwalkers, Mick Ronson, Fripp & Eno, Jack Bruce, Steve Harley, Carl Palmer, Pete Sinfield, Ginger Baker, Neil Diamond), and Produced by Mike Paxman (Judie Tzuke, Status Quo).

When released it began to get some rave reviews and we were invited to play in the US and Canada, and were received very well by both radio and press (see below).

Throughout the nineties other commitments meant that myself and Ronnie were too busy to give the band enough time to keep the ball rolling, both of us doing long stints with Van Morrison, but the need was obviously there to resurrect FL because towards the end of the 90's we started doing some gigs again and writing new material.  I suppose we had matured a great deal with the amount of experience and musical exposure during extensive tours and recordings playing with all sorts of Leg-ends. And so the new project "Field Day" took shape, recorded over the last 3-4 years.

During this period we toured extensively with other artists and it transpired that both Ronnie and I had been round the world twice during the making of the record. We gathered various soundbites and anecdotes from our travels. This the starting point for the concept of 'the day'.

When you get the chance produce your own record, you are afforded certain luxuries that a commercial company would not necessarily grant you. We had been long time fans of Jan Erik Kongshaug's work for the ECM label, so when the opportunity came for him to mix the recordings in Oslo, we grabbed it with both hands. We feel the results are for all to hear.

Some Quotes from the Press
The award winning instrumental quartet — formed by Ronnie Johnson (guitar), Geoff Dunn (drums) and keyboard player Roy Shipston — reformed in 1999 when their debut album How The Land Lies was re-released in America. It originally won the Critics' Choice Prize in US magazine Guitar as one of the best 10 albums of the year.

Guitar Player International described How The Land Lies as "one of the best progressive-fusion albums in a long time". And Cymbiosis Magazine (USA) said it was "High quality music that doesn't give in to the urges of the commercial beast". The album was also voted critics choice in 'Guitar Magazine'.

FiRST LiGHT have toured the States and Canada, including appearances at the Montreal Jazz Festival and Vancouver Mountain Fest. In London, they have performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Capital Jazz Festival and several times at Ronnie Scott's Club.

The wide range of influences in FiRST LiGHT's material gives their music an almost 'cinematic' identity, which is punctuated by their tremendous sense of dynamics.  Their new album "Field Day" is optimism to behold!

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