Pete Bowman

Guitars

Pete has been playing guitar since the 70's, strange that he isn't more fatigued. Fronted his own Birmingham-based indie band under the whimsical banner "My Favourite Shirt" in the 90's & most recently arranging songs for, & playing with, Soul Outfit "The Shamlas".
Pete joined Breathe in March 2007 and, aside from his experience and skill with guitars, has added considerable Basso Profundo to the snore-chorus during the wee small hours of our nights away from home and an almost irritating degree of joie de vivre during the days that follow; well, I suppose that's because Pete generally gets, at least some, sleep!

Curriculum Vitae

Name

Pete Bowman

 

Age

49

 

Role in Breathe

Second guitar

 

Living in…

Cottingham, Leics

 

Personal

  • Trained as a photographer.
  • Moved into graphic design for 15 years.
  • Self employed as a copywriter/scriptwriter for nearly 10 years.
  • Currently co-running PR, marketing and design company with partner Jane.

 

Musical highlights

  • Started playing guitar at 12.
  • Formed ‘Yellow Froth’ in 1973 (never quite made it out of the front room).
  • Formed ‘F-Stops’ in 1978 (never quite made it out of the college refectory).
  • Joined ‘Mooksie Hoot and the Cocktail Party’ in Manchester in 1979 (world domination beckoned when Factory Records showed an interest but dark events unfortunately conspired against us).
  • Mucked about doing acoustic stuff for a few years.
  • Bought a synth and formed ‘Visitor Visitor’ at the end of the 80s (never quite made it past the logo, but big in my bedsit).
  • Formed ‘My Favourite Shirt’ in 1992 with the rhythm section from local band ‘Close Rivals’, featuring the Rt Hon Mick Howell on drums. Released the seminal ‘More Songs About Sex and Disappointment’ cassette ‘album’ which sold, ooh, nearly a hundred copies. I know this because I’ve still got about 200 left.
  • More acoustic duo stuff for a while.
  • Picked up a ‘Highly Commended’ in the 2004 UK Songwriting Contest for ‘Blue Christmas’ (we do a ‘Christmas single’ every year and send it out to family and friends instead of a card. Despite this we still have our friends, and most of our family are still talking to us).
  • Co-formed ‘The Shamlas’, a Motown/Atlantic tribute band, in 2004.
  • Exchanged a couple of emails with Dave Gee in February 2006 in response to an ad I’d placed looking to join a Floyd-type band. Dave scratched his chin for a bit, then, almost a year to the day later, he leapt to the phone to call me for an audition.
  • Something went strangely right after that and I played my first gig with ‘Breathe’ back end of April this year. Nervous? Moi?

 

Musical ambitions

Hmmm. Difficult one this. I suppose quite simply it’s to play the best I can. It’s amazing how much you can up your game when you play with other people - and the better the other people, the better your playing gets. It’s also important to encourage other players, so if they’ve taken the time to come up and ask your advice (or just want to natter about their particular instrument), just pay them the courtesy of listening and chatting back.

 

Claims to fame

  • I was one of the early male contestants on the first series of ‘Ready, Steady, Cook’. Jane later appeared (with me as her stooge) on ‘Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook’. You get the picture how our house is structured…
  • In 1995 we were also interviewed and lined up for a new, up and coming series called ‘Changing Rooms’. We declined.
  • I accidentally blanked Peter Purves at a press launch we were arranging. He was very good about it.