About The Band

Gunsmoke are a country and western trio hailing from South Yorkshire. The Gunsmoke line up consists of John on lead vocals, Ray on bass guitar and Rich on guitar.

John is the vocalist and 'front man' for the band. Always ready to sing a song, John even ran his own karaoke outfit back in the nineties and still enjoys performing karaoke when he is on holiday and away from the band. John is the 'book man' in the band and is always the first contact for the many entertainment agencies that provide the venues which enable Gunsmoke to reach their public. For relaxation, John likes nothing more than a challenging game of golf, playing off quite a low handicap.

Ray is the bass guitarist. He's seen as the practical one in the band and whenever a problem arises with equipment he can usually be relied upon to come up with a solution. Ray is the one responsible for sorting out the wiring schemes for stage equipment - especially the balancing of the speaker systems. Over the years, Ray has run the full course with bass guitars starting with the standard four string, moving on to five strings for a little more versatility and then even on to monster six string bass for a while. He's now comfortably settled back with his five stringers.

Rich is the guitarist in the trio. He likes nothing more than tinkering with music software on his self built computers and loves working on the side of the band's operation which produces CD's and graphics - always trialing new methods and techniques in pursuit of audio excellence. Rich is the one who works behind the scenes in Gunsmoke's REM Recording Studio which not only produces all the CDs for the band, but also produces the backing tracks which are used for the stage performances. Just like Ray, Rich had played a multitude of different guitars over the years and now owns quite a healthy collection but feels that nothing comes close to his favourite Thinline Telecaster which he always uses on stage. When not working behind the scenes for the band, Rich enjoys solving logic problems and sudoku puzzles.  Like he says, it keeps the brain in tune !