The Missing Persians were formed during a soaking wet January in 2013, when drummer Nick Clack decided that what Oxford really needed was another (Really? – Ed) band to banish the winter blues.
Having previously played with electric guitarist John Keston-Hole and acoustic guitarist Chris Cox he invited them to become the core of the band – completed a few months later by bass player Chas Maguire. ::
Although the original plan had been to play some classy rock and Americana covers, Chris brought with him a folder of his own unrecorded songs – these quickly formed the backbone of the Missing Persians set.
Over the next eight years the Persians have developed a unique and eclectic sound. Explains Chris “I’d mostly worked with acoustic / vocal outfits before, but many of my songs really needed a tougher treatment. With the Persians there is a lot of experience to draw on – which is a lot of fun and very satisfying. John is a very versatile guitarist and can turn his hand to almost any style – Chas, being a session bass player can soak up anything you throw at him – seems to know immediately what is needed (a towel perhaps? Ed) And he’s a great harmony singer – we love doing harmonies! Nick is very experienced and has been around forever – playing barn dances to Zappa bands and all points in between!”
Which is just as well. The new songs touch on many different musical genres, Country Blues, Rock, Jazz, Soul, Funk & Reggae along the way but each is developing a unique Missing Persians style. (John claims to be influenced by Norwegian Death Metal but whether this influence is positive or negative is unclear at the time of writing). A Missing Persians setlist will cover many and varied topics: Animal Welfare, Climate Change, Alley Cats, Bullfights, Seafood (!), the NHS as well as some gorgeous love songs and comments on the mid-life crisis! All are musically satisfying and lyrically articulate – and live the Missing Persians are fun and can get you up and dancing too.
The first eponymous album, self-released in summer of 2014 featured 12 original songs and led to many local club and festival performances. During one of these, a promoter from The Netherlands heard the band and liked the music so much he invited the Missing Persians to tour there in May 2015. This was so successful, an equally successful repeat tour took place in October 2016.
Meanwhile, the songs in the set have steadily built up. We now have more than 30 originals, and we always have some new ones on the go. Our second CD “Hot Cats” has just been finished. We learned a lot from doing the first one, the second is even better recorded and we brought in Nick Moorbath at Evolution Studios to help with the mixing. It’s made a big difference to the sound.
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UPDATE. The hiatus that was the Covid outbreak in 2020 put an instant halt to gigging as the live music scene collapsed overnight. Chas moved to The Netherlands in disgust and the band went into hibernation. However, just before Covid we started work on a third album, and completed backing tracks for another 18 songs. As the national music scene slowly recovers, venues are gingerly opening up again (though sadly many have also fallen by the wayside in the meantime). Stepping out blinking into the summer sunshine, the band are playing again at the White Hart in Wolvercote on June 3rd, with new Bass player Steve Minguel, playing his first gig with us, dusting off those cobwebs. Hopefully there will soon be more!