Music

The Respirators are a three-piece comprised of Simon Cooper guitar/vocals, Mark (Chuck) Hawling guitar/mandolin, and Eddie Patton songwriter/keyboards/guitar/vocals.

The band have been together on and off for about 10 years playing mostly locally including Lawson Folk nights, Love Lawson festival, Winter Magic, Stones Fest and we are playing at the Tom Petty tribute on November 25th at Hotel Gearin.

Eddie explains he was a professional musician in London for 22 years but had to quit because of extreme stage fright.

"I thought I'd never play again but my friends Lindsay Tebbutt, drummer for the Choirboys and Mark Hawling encouraged me to get back to songwriting first, and I won a prize at a songwriters competition and started dabbling again with playing live," he says.

The Folk nights at Lawson have been a great platform for The Respirators to play at and the organisers have invited the band to headline on November 9. "We will be joined on the night by Lindsay Tebbutt on drums and Mark Bradridge (The Winstons) on bass."

"I'm excited because it's my first time after 35 years of playing that I will be performing a one hour set composed completely of my original songs. I owe the lads in the band a great deal and also the lads who run the Lawson folk night, Ian Roger Tanner and David Tobin for giving us the opportunity," Eddie says.

"I have played in big venues overseas, toured and done TV/Radio and recording work but this is the most significant moment of my life musically, because I thought at one point I'd never play live again. We will be giving at least two songs their World premiere."