State of Undress - The Band

State of Undress is a rocky rootsy 'fiddlesome' band from Dorset playing a distinctive and exuberant brand of original music.State of Undress are a difficult band to pigeon-hole. Their songs move from the poignant and provocative to the downright shamelessly foot-tapping! With music that’s ‘a blend of roots, rock, country, Celtic flavourings and a full-bodied melodic musical assault’ (R2 Rock n Reel), State of Undress promise you a musical roller-coaster of a gig…oh, and they do have a bit of thing going on with some shaky eggs!

The regular line-up is:

• Charlie Rose: lead vocals, and a bit of percussion and harmonica
• Alan Rose: vocals, acoustic, lead and rhythm guitars and mandolin
• Jerry Bird: fiddle, guitar, mandolin and banjo
• Malcolm Windett: bass and electric upright bass; guitar
• Keith Fletcher - drums, African drum, cajon and percussion

History

Charlie and Alan have been writing and performing as State of Undress, on and off, for longer than they care to remember. However due to family and work commitments it was always more off than on! Then, a few years ago, sitting outside a caravan in Brittany under a starlit sky and with glass of wine in hand, they made the decision to take this whole music thing seriously and so Charlie gave up her day job to work on State of Undress full-time. A couple of years later, Alan jumped off the corporate band-wagon too. Now they spend their days in a State of Undress, broke but happy! As they put it, they didn't want to end up like the character in their song 'Ghosts of Wasted Chances' looking back thinking 'if only ..'! However, it took more than two years to find the right members. Keith Fletcher on drums and percussion joined in December 2004; Samantha Jane started fiddling with us in December 2005; then Malcolm Windett on bass arrived in September 2006. After four and a half years, the lovely Samantha Jane moved to pastures new and we've now been joined by Jerry Bird. We are really enjoying playing together and feel the band is going from strength to strength.

Keith Fletcher

Keith's commitment to the band has been unwavering since his first gig with us. He's a terrific drummer and with good drummers in such short supply we know how lucky we are that he chose to play with us. His African drumming on Mudeford Mood and Morning Glory is always a show stopper; and a much earlier song of ours Until Today has become a real highspot of live gigs with a cracking drum solo in the middle. I defy anyone to remain sitting down! On a newer song 'The Hangman's Daughter' Keith sets down a crackling, ambient Celtic beat which gives the track a fantastic feel. Keith will travel anywhere for a gig and is at his happiest behind the kit. (Unless there are any females out there who know otherwise?...!) Keith keeps us grounded and never gets completely carried away by the moment. When the rest of us are in danger of getting carried away by how great a gig was, there's always a little voice saying something like 'Yeah , it was good but I think the lighting could have been better...!' He also has a bit of a penchant for hats...!

Malcolm Windett

Not only does Malcolm bring his great musicianship to the band, but just as importantly he brings boundless energy and enthusiasm - as well as an idiosyncratic sense of style! Sparkly Jesus and Elvis shirt anyone? Oh and the band van is his too so he HAS to be in the band! Malcolm does some amazing bass lines on songs like our own Ghosts of Wasted Chances and Sweet Stuff, but also he brings something really special to more well-known songs like Linger and Perfect ensuring that even our cover versions are unmistakeably State of Undress. As well as playing bass and electric upright bass, Malcolm is an excellent song-writer. Some of SoU's more unusual songs are composed by Malcolm : the highly eccentric The Love Detective (in which Charlie dons trilby and oversized mac in an effort to look like Lauren Bacall but coming over more like Inspector Clouseau) is one of Malcolm's creations and is on our current 'Livin' it, Lovin' it!' CD. Our claim to fame is that The Love Detective was the only track NOT to be played when 'Livin' it, Lovin' it!' was album of the week on BBC Radio Somerset. Just a little bit too naughty for Auntie!! However, a rather different side of Malcolm shines through on his beautiful love-song 'It All Comes Down to Love' in which, unusually, Keith duets with Charlie. Also, a very sassy latin-feel number 'Rock it!' is now in the set. In fact, we gave the lyrics a bit of a festive feel and started our 2010 Christmas Show with it. Worked fabulously!  Malcolm also owns and runs the G-Spot studio in Parkstone where we do much of our recording.

Jerry Bird

Jerry is the newest member of the band, joining in August 2010,  although he's fitted in like we've known him forever. Jerry is a fantastic musician who plays very fine and distinctive sounding fiddle. He also plays guitar, mandolin and banjo. Thank God he doesn't sing as well or Charlie could be out of a job! Anyone who wears a straw hat on stage bedecked with a floral tie and who has a beer-drinking dog is the ideal band-member. Talk about in at the deep end: Jerry's first three gigs with us were in the Midlands where the band stayed with Charlie's aunt (the best hotel in the area!). We knew he was the right fiddler for us: able to stay up drinking wine and talking books and music til 4 in the morning and still able to play all the notes in all the right places the following day! Jerry is also a fine song-writer. We've just introduced a beautiful song of his into the set The Black Hills of Mendip - about the Somerset mining industry.

Alan Rose

Alan is the musical director of the band and the glue that sticks us all together musically. He knows what he wants from a song and makes sure that's what we deliver! He's a confident singer and performer and a versatile guitarist moving effortlessly between acoustic and electric guitars. His guitar collection is gradually taking over most of the available living space in their home: every time he needs new strings, he seems to buy a set with a guitar attached! Alan's a great vocalist bringing a gutsy power and emotion to songs like 'Sweet Stuff'; 'Ghosts of Wasted Chances'; and the traditional 'When Will We Be Married Molly?' - a great gig favourite. More recently, he has started playing mandolin using a beautiful 1890's Neopolitan mandolin that belonged to his grand-father . At the moment, he only uses it on two songs : the jaunty 'At The Fair Tonight' and our new song 'The Hangman's Daughter'. When Alan's mandolin comes in about two thirds of the way through, picking up and driving the dramatic riff, it's a real hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck moment.

Charlie Rose

Charlie is the lyricist and lead vocalist for State of Undress. Her high energy performance along with her shaky eggs is a feature of the band. She is a total musical tart and with her cordless microphone, no-one in the audience is safe. In fact, if you are of a nervous or shy disposition, you may wish to stand at the back! Charlie loves performing, loves the band, and loves all the amazing people who come to see them and support them. There's a line in our song 'One More Shot (of you boy)' '....I'm a bottle about to burst...' Charlie spends her life feeling just like that!

Song Writing

Up to this point, most of the song-writing had been done by Alan and Charlie (see Undressed, Ghosts of Wasted Chances and Caught in The Act! albums). However, Malcolm is a great and prolific song-writer whose songs The Love Detective, The Birthday Song,  It All Comes Down to Love  and Rock it! are making a terrific contribution to the band. He's also working on a song that will feature Charlie on 'washboard' which they hope to get into the set very soon. (Charlie's busy collecting thimbles and working out how she's going to play with her false nails!).We've also been working on a series of Dorset-themed songs. Malcolm's written a beautiful track composed of lines from Thomas Hardy's love poems. Malcolm read 360 of them. Only he would do this! This is either immense devotion and artistic commitment to the band or he has a serious problem which he may want to get checked out! Jerry, on fiddle, is also an excellent song-writer and has extensive knowledge of traditional English music. He brings us a traditional track and we put a State of Undress twist to it! Jerry's been caught up in the Dorset theme too and we're currently working on his 'Rude Man of Dorset' about the Cerne Abbas Giant. In the past Alan and Charlie have collaborated with friend and musician Phil di Battista. Phil co-wrote Ghosts of Wasted Chances and Fantasy (both on Caught in the Act!) - but they got hooked on this whole writing and performing thing through their friendship with Peter 'Foz' Foster. He co-wrote their first 'proper' song (by which they mean the first song they weren't embarassed to play in public!) Frightened of the Dark (on the Undressed album). One of Foz's songs 'Take Me to the Leader' is a highlight of our annual Festive Show and also features on our Christmas EP - Christmas Round Ours. Before he died, Foz had started work on a beautiful new song 'Sweet Stuff'. We finished it for him and it is on our live album Caught in the Act! 'She Rides So Graceful Through The Night' which we also finished for him just before he died , has just gone into the set and will be on our next album which we will be recording this year.

Huge, special thanks go to the following for all they've done for State of Undress:

Ian Hatch - our steadfast and dedicated sound engineer. He humps masses of gear around, is always looking for new and interesting bits of equipment, never gets flustered, and seems to enjoy every moment twiddling the knobs. In the process, he actually manages to make us sound pretty damned good!

Liz Windett - who has worked tirelessly to put this spanking new website together for us. We love it ...and her!

Samantha Jane for her fiddling and all the fun over the past few years and to her partner Skipper. Sam was with State of Undress for four and a half years and made an amazing contribution to the band.

Richie Brown - friend and fab photographer who always manages to find our good side - even though most people would say we haven't got one!

Grant Showbiz - Billy Bragg's long-time producer who has given his time and experience to work with us and produced some great tracks for us. Hear his work on 'One More Shot (of you boy)' and 'Red Waters'. We're really looking forward to working with him again later this year.

Our family, friends and followers - the Undressers! Over the last few years, we have met so many wonderful people through our music - many of them have become friends. Thank you to all of you for your enthusiasm, love and support.