The Tale Of Long Earth
Long Earth came together by a series of fortunate but unexpected coincidences. Born from an agenda of no agenda, the principal from the outset was to create a musical adventure with no preconceived plan of the final destination.
Mike Baxter (Keyboards) came from an exemplary background of having been at the forefront of the Glasgow music scene, playing notably with Shoot The Moon, Glaas Claas, Identity Crisis amongst many others. It was during Mike's tenure with Identity Crisis that, despite moving in converging circles, Mike played with Gordon.
Gordon Mackie (Bass) has a background in music spanning more than 40 years. During the '80's he provided the bottom end and drive for Cry Wolf and seminal Glasgow prog rock band Abel Ganz. Moving into the '90's, and a move east, saw Gordon hooking up with Mike in Identity Crisis.
Ken Weir (Drums & Percussion) was the foundation not only musical but also in terms of timeline of Abel Ganz. During his time with the mighty Ganzers, Ken was there from the early days of Milgavie Town Hall through to and beyond the Gullible's Travels days - featuring a line up changed to Paul Kelly, Hew Montgomery, Gordon Mackie and himself. To further build on this, Ken's wee sister Connie has made a massive contribution from the kick off and indeed produced all our artwork! A Weir cottage industry no less!
Neil Mackie (Vocals & Guitar) is, surprisingly enough, Gordon's brother. Due to Gordon's influence, Neil learned bass and performed with a number of Central Scotland covers bands from the '80's onwards. His notable claim to fame was supporting Nazareth in 2002. In 2004, Neil moved to guitar & lead vocals as a new challenge when he formed The Shine. As side projects, Neil has written a catalogue of original material which he felt was unsuitable for The Shine and needed a vehicle of its own. In 2014, for the first time ever playing together, Neil invited Gordon to join The Shine.
Renaldo McKim (Lead Guitar) joins Long Earth at the latter stages of the recording of the base tracks of our debut album "The Source" - just in time to weave his special brand of magic through the material and in plenty of time to start planning our next stage in the journey. Renaldo has an enviable reputation both as a recording and performance artist, latterly with Suicide Underground during which time he played with Bruce Levick of Comedy Of Errors and Grand Tour. The circle is complete!
The final cog in the wheel is Hew Montgomery, Abel Ganz / Comedy Of Errors / Grand Tour who acts as a motivating factor in Long Earth. A semi silent partner almost...
The circle complete, Long Earth are busy working on new material which draws on all the influences of the respective members.
