COVENTRY Music Matters Curator Pete Chambers writes for the Observer.

Andy Beglin

Andy Beglin has been creating music since 2000.

He fronted bands from 2000 to 2018.

His first band, Four Kings (2000 to 2005), played the Athens Festival, Georgia, USA in 2003.

Next up was DBMA (2005 to 2008) who successfully played Godiva main stage for three years running.

His last band, Dark Actors – whom Andy fronted from 2011 to 2018 – won Godiva Unsigned in 2012 and released their only album Shrine in 2015.

Andy also sang with The Mustard and Blood Band many times from 2011 to 2016 performing sold-out concerts.

Andy decided to teach himself guitar in 2015 and started writing a collection of songs over the next five years.

These created “Memories from the Mantelpiece” – a collection of 14 songs produced and mixed by Michael Gallacher (who also played an integral part on keyboard, guitars and bass).

The album also includes Andrew Shanley (guitar), Nick Jones (drums) and Jade Hartley (backing vocals). The album, recorded between 2016 and 2020, is a mix of west coast Americana and English soft rock and pop.

Andy is looking to launch his debut album ‘Memories from the Mantelpiece’, which is out now, in the coming spring with a few dates (not yet announced).

He is looking to build on this album by releasing his first single. This is a great album with some superb harmonies with great instrumentation.

You can listen to Andy Beglin’s songs on Amazon, ApplePlay, Spotify, YouTube and other online platforms including music updates on his Facebook page

Andy grew up in Coventry, attended Cardinal Wiseman School and has a five-year-old Son. He lives in Finham with his wife and their tuxedo cat.

Expo2020

Last week I mentioned the Coventry connection at Expo2020 – well as I visited The Global Village in Dubai who should I randomly bump into but local legend Broadcaster and Poet Ravkiran Mann.

She was over in the UAE to perform her poetry at Expo2020 on the day the Commonwealth torch arrives (along with Prince William himself).

So we had to be there and wow how resplendent she looked and her poem hit the spot as it promoted Coventry and the West Midlands as well as global citizenship and multi-cuturalism.

Also on stage was Adjei who although representing Birmingham actually works in Coventry – his life-affirming words were also crowd-pleasers.

Great to see Coventry represented and I even took the opportunity to hand out a few museum flyers.