Click on the names to jump to the biography of the band members...

Born in Melbourne, Australia, to an English father & South African mother, Justin Stephenson was raised under the influence of a very musical family & began singing and playing piano at the age of 2. Since achieving a Bachelor of Music in Contemporary Music in 2001 (majoring in Jazz Vocal) in Brisbane, Justin has taken his talents to Sydney and Melbourne, notably the Australia Day celebrations at Hyde Park in Sydney in 2001, and at the Melbourne Jazz Festival in 2004. Both of these performances were in collaboration with his two aunts - Trude and Anastasia Aspeling who are accomplished vocalists in Sydney & Melbourne respectively. Justin has also performed with the likes of soul/funk singer/bassist Doug Williams, & master Melbourne jazz pianist Bob Sedergreen, as well as Bob's son, Stephen, also a jazz pianist. Justin has an endless number of vocal & musical influences, including the many talented musicians he has been closely associated with over the years. These influences shine through in his brilliant vocal and band arrangements.

Justin is also an accomplished composer & arranger - his greatest achievement being the collation of a Soul/Funk show, arranged for an 18-piece band (rhythm, horn & string sections) with a 20-piece choir (SATB). Justin not only arranged & scored the entire show, but also fronted the band, vocally & musically. Justin has also been able to use his vocal, composition & arranging talent for the Lords' work, having been brought up a NEW APOSTOLIC christian, arranging for the churches' choirs & orchestras in Australia & the UK. For the past 8 years Justin has been performing/arranging in covers bands in Brisbane, Australia. 

One of his ultimate ambitions is to perform & market his original material in the UK and Europe, hence his relocation to London, England in October 2006! Justin has been performing with the Big Girls Blues Band since November 2006 - & he loves every minute of it!!!! Visit my website http://www.j-funk.biz

Ok, I start...I am the sound engineer for the funky Big Girls Blues Band. I understand the spaghetti of wires ,cables, microphones, weirdboxes with flashing lights, Polish waitresses, and all round funkiness better than anyone on the planet...here is my story...

My name is Matteo di Cugno, I was bornt the 16th of march 1980, wen I bornt I was so so hairy that my parents and relatives got scared!! At the point that noone wantet to hold me. Then they decided to take me to a children's hospital for a day, to check me out, but they forgot to warn my father!!So my father went to the normal hospital and didn't find anyone!! When I was at children school, I was a bit mad (after I got worse): from time to time,I stood up and start running around shouting, "niiiiiiiiiiinooooooooooooniiiiiiiiiinooooooooooooo" apparently with no reason, only after an investigation they found out that I was doing "the ambulance"!!!! The thing had such a success, that my mates, start imitating me, creating an array, or a train of "ambulances" with me like lokomotiv!!! One day even the teachers enjoyed it!!

Anyway, from an ambulance and another came the primary school age... I started shoking because for some reason I was writing in the opposite way! From the right to the left!! Eh eh... one of the people able to do that was Leonardo Da Vinci, but he was a bit more famous... I don't recognize nothing exciting of the teenage but something I have to say about the army year... I was the most punished of the Barracks! I had the bad luck to go to work in the Commander's office and I was so bad...one day like usual he was telling me off in a way that I assumed was friendly and nice at the point that I started smiling friendly to him... well, he didn't like that and I think all the soldier on duty that day recognized that from how much he shouted at me!! From that day I collected 24(twentyfour) day of punishment!! But not in a row, but in tranches,five,three, ten, two, depends, of how stressed he was and how bad I was....every soldier that met me, was like: "hey di Cugno, how many days this time...ahahahahha" yeah... I had good time..

Concerning the sound engineer work, I can say that I have six years of experience, I started in Italy working in a couple of sound rental companies, then I had a sort of mobile studio, and I use to work in another studio, everything on a free lance base In London I've worked for a wile for Music On Air web magazine (http://www.musiconair.biz/). Now I work also for the bands TundayAkintan(http://www.Tundayakintan.com), Shambala (www.myspace.com/illusionsmusic), plus the Mother Bar and www.ilovemusiclive.com. Concerning other aspect of my life, I would say that, yes, is true that I prefer east european womans, but for some reason, they don't prefer me!And I love cycling, and one day I wold love to go in Italy by bycicle! My favourite pizza is, Quattro Formaggi, whyle my favourite pasta, is Pennette al Gorgonzola...

Musical background

The Classical clarinet gave way to the influence of the great saxophonists such as John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Courtney Pine, David Sanborn, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Fela Kuti and I landed up spending some time at Jazz college. It wasn't long before, soul, blues and Jazz funk started to fill my life and I listened to Al Green, Aretha Franklin, the Groove Hogs, Irma Thomas, Beres Hammond, James Brown, The Jaguars, Maceo parker, Marlena Shaw, Marvin Gaye, The Meters, Olive Morgan, Otis Reading, Prince, Toots & The Maytals, and then playing in Clubs , Pubs, tubs.......

Michele Drees has been working as a drummer and percussionist since the early 1980’s, and from the beginning stood out as a female drummer in what were at those periods almost universally “male genres”. Her musical interests widened during that decade, drawing her into jazz and Latin styles; this in turn led her to study at diploma level at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 1987.

During and after that period, she gigged with a variety of artists who are all now regarded as leading lights of the UK jazz scene: Tim Whitehead, Ian Shaw, Clare Martin, Carol Grimes, Mornington Lockett, Jean Toussaint and many more. By the early 90s Michele  broke into mainstream pop with a tour for Marc Almond and a TV residency on the Jonathan Ross Saturday Zoo show: among those making live appearances that she backed were k.d. Lang, Suzanne Vega, and Candy Dulfer. She has played with such international stars as Seal and Mica Paris.

Her personal career highlight was as a Latin percussionist touring with the late Kirsty McColl’s Tropical Brainstorm album and five years with the tremendous Badmarsh and Shri. In addition to enjoying her job share with Josh Stadien as the drummer for the Big Girls Blues Band Michele also leads her own fabulous quartet featuring one of the UK's greatest Rhythm Tap dancers and has a regular drum teaching clinic.

As well as being funky as hell Michele is also a wonderfully warm person and the Big Girls love her !!! Michele lives in Highgate with her teenage daughter.

The son of an US Air Force officer, Dek Messecar is technically Canadian, but was raised in America, only returning to his native country during Summer holidays. "We lived in Oklahoma, Louisiana and all sorts of places, every year or so we would move to a different place. Finally, they came to England when I was 17, around 1963/64...".

Messecar developed an early interest in music as a child, and was taught to play the ukulele by his grandfather. "Folk music was really the big thing in America in the early Sixties. Peter Paul & Mary, Bob Dylan, that was the popular music at the time. I played banjo and guitar... When I arrived in England, the folk thing hadn't arrived yet, so I ended up playing rock'n'roll".

While studying at the American High School in Bushey, Messecar met Jerry Donahue, another aspiring guitarist, and they formed a band together. "We did covers and some original material. Mostly instrumental stuff, guitar, bass and drums. I used to practise all the time, I spent that whole year playing a lot. It was sort of like the Shadows, a lot of the original stuff by Jerry sounded like the Shadows anyway...". After leaving school, Messecar went on a long trip across Europe with a friend, while Donahue spent a year studying at a university in Germany. In 1965, the duo was active again. "We got a recording contract with Philips, we made a couple of singles under the name of Dek & Jerry. It went on for several years, with various drummers. We used to practise all the time, playing professionally, three or four nights a week, sometimes two gigs in one night. I was doing another job in my spare time".

In April 1969, Jerry Donahue joined Poet & The One-Man Band, sharing guitar duties with Albert Lee, who subsequently recommended him for ex-Fairport Convention singer Sandy Denny's band Fotheringay. He later was in Fairport Convention, from 1972 to 1976. Messecar carried on for a while with a new partner, Mick Stamps, until the possibility of a career move appeared.

"I got a job with a band in a one of the Mecca ballrooms around Piccadilly Circus. They were a chain of clubs, of dancehalls. They used to be played by rock bands, but basically they played records, except when the band was on. Awful places, really, but this place was paying me more than my pub, my dayjob and everything all together. We used to do radio recordings as well. It really was destroying, I hated it. People didn't tend to stay long... I stuck there for two years (1970-72), but it seemed like twenty! It was good for me though, because actually playing five nights a week for three or four hours improves your fingers. You end up being able to play, play and play and not get tired".

While a member of that band, Messecar occasionally did auditions, answering ads in the Melody Maker. One of them was for Supertramp. "One day, Darryl Way came in the club, heard me. He was trying to form a band, I was the first person he found. Then he and I auditioned lots of guitarists, and we came up with John Etheridge, who was amazing. And then we spent a long time looking for a drummer, and found Ian Mosley". Darryl Way's Wolf came into being in December 1972, and was the meeting point of various musical directions. "Darryl was mostly classically trained, he couldn't improvise... He used to try, but because he'd been taught to reading. I'm exactly the opposite, I can only improvise, I found it impossible to switch off the improvising... John was a complete jazz musician. All together, it really did turn into something, it was very interesting".

During the course of its 1 1/2 years of existence, Wolf worked extremely hard, recording three albums for Deram and touring Europe and the UK extensively. "We were quite busy. When the albums came out, we'd do a tour of major concert halls in Britain, the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, the Hammersmith Odeon, all of those, with record company money and backing. And then the rest of the year, we'd play universities. Bands like ours used to stay alive by playing universities, until the people there realised they could make more money from disco and rock disappeared... And then there were tours of Europe, based on clubs and smaller towns".

Wolf's music was largely instrumental, with Messecar handling the rare vocals on the first two albums, Canis Lupus (1973) and Saturation Point (1974). Subsequently, John W. Hodkinson was recruited on lead vocals for the third and final album, Night Music (1974). "After a while it became frustrating and worrying. We ran out as a steam. It hadn't become a commercial success, it didn't feel we were going anywhere. I don't think we had enough in common to carry on under these circumstances. So it folded up, and actually I think everyone was quite glad to stop". Messecar remained out of the public eye for more than two years. "Shortly after Wolf split up, I auditioned for Stomu Yamash'ta, the Japanese percussionist. I saw an ad, and rang them up, convinced that was a very good gig. They were very nice, they said they'd let me know, but I didn't hear anything from them. Eventually, I rang them up, being quite pushy... They finally said look, we don't know how to say this, but we were really hoping that the musicians we got would be Japanese... Obviously they couldn't say that in the ad. I think in the end they didn't manage it, but they did try to get together musicians who at least looked Japanese!".

In subsequent months, Messecar didn't do much musically. "Just being around, really. I got my house in 1976 and spent a lot of time remodelling it. I remember going across to see Ian Mosley a couple of times, he was living in Holland playing with that Dutch band, Trace. I also auditioned for Peter Gabriel. He'd heard a Wolf record. His idea, which I didn't like, was to get a band together in England, rehearse it, go to Toronto to record an album, release it and then tour with that band. But then he didn't want to tour all the time, so the band would have to be able to tour on its own. I thought that was a very naive idea, the idea that this band would draw audiences, it didn't make any sense to me at all. Then his managers worked out the cost of it, and there was no way they were going to be able to do that...". Messecar joined Caravan in February 1977, being recommended by John Etheridge, by that time guitarist with the Soft Machine. "I'd been put in touch with them, I don't really remember how. The bass player they had [Mike Wedgwood] was going to the States. I was given a few albums to listen to, to see what it was like. Then I went down and had a play with them in Canterbury, I remember that well. They rang up the next day. I became a commuter, travelling from London to Canterbury... But I really enjoyed it, I missed playing. The first thing we did was a festival in Germany. It's always better to take the new songs on the road then come back to record them, rather than record them first". At that time, Caravan had recently signed with Arista Records and were moving to a more commercial direction, away from the progressive rock of the early days. "I didn't mind that at all. I'd got tired of the thirteen minute album tracks anyway, I wasn't devoted to one form or another. I don't find shorter songs that less of a challenge. Personally, I thought the recording of Better By Far went very well. I was new, so I was just going along with what was going on...".

The band toured extensively in support of Better By Far, and the setlist obviously included songs from Caravan's extensive back catalogue. "I once suggested to maybe do a medley of three or four of the longer tracks, the ones that everybody who came to see them would want to hear. And to my surprise they actually did it, but decided after a few times that it didn't work very well, that it didn't do justice to the individual tracks... So they used to just pick the ones they would do on this tour, then slightly different ones on the next tour, that sort of thing".

After being dropped by Arista early in 1978, Caravan ground to a halt, only to reform a year and a half later. "They went back with Terry King, he basically got it going again. But it wasn't permanent anymore, it was really just the active part, which was make the record and do a tour". In July 1980, Caravan was back in the studio to record a new album. "We rehearsed in Canterbury for three weeks, then went on tour in Europe... 28 gigs in 28 days, basically. Then we came back and went to Farmyard Studios to record the album, and finished it in a week. Later on we reformed to do a small tour and did a few more gigs. Then I began doing something else, and one day Pye rang and said, guess what, you're playing next week. And I couldn't, without letting someone down rather badly. I was designing a refrigerator or something, and it had to be done by a certain time, so I turned it down, I missed that one. Richard Sinclair did it, and I never played with Caravan again. Pye never rang again".

A little later, Messecar started his own woodwork business, which has been going ever since [as of 1997, anyway]. "That was a career change, definitely, a very different sort of job. Music is still important to me, but in a very personal way. At the moment I play with this amateur band, on Monday nights. We play the Mean Fiddler and a couple of things like that, nothing serious but it's fun to play. I don't miss any of the rest of it. I don't miss having no money and waiting around. Touring can become disheartening if you don't think you're getting somewhere. There comes a point at which you wonder what it will be like if you're still doing this in ten years... I think it didn't do me any good, all this waiting around, just killing time. I probably would have continued in music if I could have written songs that I had a lot of faith in. No matter what, I'd be starving to death or whatever. But that wasn't the case, so... I'd love it if there was a pub you could go and play in, on a Thursday night, and just play with whoever shows up. Cause it's the playing part which is fun. Or it becomes work, and it's different...". Dek is a founder member of the Big Girls and is funkier than ever. Interesting fact - Dek made his own electric bass and when puzzled bass geeks come and ask him at gigs where he got the bass from - he tells them all about it. Rock on Dek - the Big Girls love you !

I am a London based musician, composer and producer. I am first and foremost a drummer and currently play in a number of originals and covers groups based in and around London and Brighton. I have had the pleasure of being involved in a wide array of musical environments and so have a lot experience playing in a number of contrasting styles. As well as playing the drums, I also play piano and saxophone and am currently learning to play the guitar! I have had the pleasure of performing at a number of amazing venues and events, most notably Glastonbury 2009.

My musical influences have grown and developed over the last few years. Initially I listened to nothing but big band jazz and bebop, slowly giving way to a bit of fusion and funk in my late teens. In the last 3 years or so I have had my eyes and ears opened to the joys of rock and electronic music, mainly due to discovering the genius of Radiohead. My love for all things jazz and blues remains strong and an integral part of my musicality.

Singing Radio Gaga back to my dad from my high chair, I knew it was love and from then on they couldn't shut me up! I have been singing for as long as I can remember and having been sent off to stage school at the age of 5, I went there once a week for the next 12 years.

When I finished school, I studied Dance in Colaiste Stiofian Naofe Cork and quickly decided that it wasn't for me. Singing was still my first love and I started working with bands in Ireland, my first gig was with a 15 piece Big Band, The Riverside and some time after that I discovered the joys of Funk and Motown with the Funk Junkies. I also got involved in the dance scene, writing and performing with dance producers.

Moving to London in 2007 I have been working as a session singer, while writing and recording original music. Having just finished recording a debut album with hip-hop/ electronic act Electric Friends, I am also releasing my second EP which will be available online in early 2012.