Habilis

(c’73-’74) John Butcher (keyboards/sax), Peter Coker (guitar), John Brown (bass) and Gordon Wellard (drums), and Sue Round (violin).

Comprised of University of Surrey, Guildford students, this Habalis band performed at the Surrey Free Arts Festival in ’74. Mark Rudman played in the band for a gig or two, and Ian Gibson was also briefly involved as was Dion Barker, who took a spin on keyboards. Habalis covered the likes of Frank Zappa’s ‘King Kong’ in addition to playing their own original material.

Butcher, who was studying physics at Surrey went on to a Ph.D in Theoretical Physics at Imperial College in ’77, with “Spin Effects in the Production and Weak Decay of Heavy Quarks” published in ’82. While at Imperial he joined Burn’s Jazz Ensemble, winning the 1980 “BBC Big Band” competition, and toured with London Contemporary Dance Theatre, New Arts Consort, and Extemporary Dance. He is now famous in the free improvised jazz scene. Wellard now runs his own Jazz Messengers band and led The G.S. Wellard Septet, as well as running the ‘Jazz in Schools Project’ c’99. Barker was also in Moonmouse, and along with Wellard, Gibson and Rob Kelly formed The Brains Trust.

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