Wintergreen Manchester Band – Duggystone Radio Introduces
Written by kirk on May 8, 2021
So Who are WINTERGREEN – another artist Submission to Duggystoneradio – the place for emerging artist and presenters
Formed in Manchester in late 2013
WinterGreen spent their first 12-months writing & rehearsing before venturing out to play venues around their native city such as Night & Day, The Castle, Gullivers, The Salford Arms, and a jazz club in leafy Cheshire!
The Wintergreen line up is:
Michael Knowles – Guitar, piano + lead vocals
Grant Cuddy – Drums, percussion
Peter B. McGrath – Bass guitar + other vocals
Mike and Pete (also known as “Muggsy”) have known each other since they were kids. Mike was previously the frontman for The Catchmen and was a member of Grifter along with Pete in the mid-late 90’s; Muggsy spent nine years in covers band The Fraudsters, while Grant drummed for The Underclass and Candour.
As Wintergreen, they posted a couple of tracks on Soundcloud in early 2015 but waited until they were 100% happy with their material to launch their first album “Gliders” which was released in December 2015.
Keen on getting their music heard via unusual methods, the final track on their debut “Hell and Heaven” appears in the soundtrack of the movie “The Messenger” which stars Robert Sheehan and Joely Richardson. “Gliders” was recorded at Martin Coogan’s Vibe Studios in Manchester with Dean Glover at the controls. David Quantick wrote about “Gliders” thus:
“It’s a collection of fresh songs, where traditional guitar, bass and drums meet brilliant melodies and sharp, focussed lyrics. It’s as lively as a handful of eels and with variety to spare, from the melancholy of “Whole” to the razor-witty “Come In Number Ten” (the first Jeremy Corbyn song?)
The follow up “Accidents & Designs” arrived in 2017. Recorded by the band themselves at rehearsals over several months, they completed the job with Dean Glover again at Vibe, and with Jake Dalby at Cadman Studios in Stoke-on-Trent. “Accidents & Designs” has more of a punky DIY feel to it, beginning with a rockier live version of “Hell & Heaven” from the previous album, and ending with a charming little acoustic number called “Getting Older” that features the guitar being packed away after its conclusion, and the bag being zipped up!
Describing themselves as “songwriters first & foremost…. we simply feel energetic about writing songs and performing them – be that gig, studio or rehearsal”. That energy transfers itself into the records, and Wintergreen weren’t lying when they talked about their productivity – their third album was completed in 2019, released the following January, and entitled “The Future Is A Way of Life” (the acronym of which, hilariously, and completely unplanned according to the band, is “TFI AWOL”).
This 10-song collection saw the band working again with Dean Glover at Vibe Studios and branching out a little more in terms of using other instruments, intriguing sounds, and studio trickery.
Wintergreen’s fourth album “Framed” is set for release on March 29th 2021. Recorded in Lockdown with Peter EJ Lee (Love to Infinity amongst many others) at the controls, the band have had to play all their parts separately and rely on the skill of their Producer to pull together an album which is another artistic step forward. There’s a distinct synth sound running through the 12-song LP, but the beautiful acoustic songs and the energetic rock-out tracks are also in there. There is another film soundtrack number – “Sad Strings” – which will appear in the forthcoming contemporary Mod movie “The Pebble And The Boy” which features amongst its cast the bass guitar legend known as Mani!
When Wintergreen are not being Wintergreen, Mike makes movies and TV programs (he’s been nominated for a BAFTA); Grant says he graphically designs things and his claim to fame is missing out on the GB Olympic sprint squad when he mistakenly dived into the shallow end of a swimming pool…. Ouch! Muggsy meanwhile neither confirms nor denies his part in a group that had a No.1 hit in the 1980s but will confirm that he “once took control of an airplane while it was flying” – presumably saving hundreds of lives, or at least with the pilot’s permission.
“Life’s all about finding someone, then watching them change,” they say, enigmatically. Their band T-shirts should say COOL AS WINTER.
Follow them on Twitter @Wintergreenband
You can listen with no sign-ups here: W I N T E R G R E E N | Free Listening on SoundCloud
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzm5bxhA5cSVdkv_uE8xW_g
Press, booking and general enquiries to wintergreen73@gmail.com
