Chas has been playing guitar for 32 years and hopes others think he is quite good (others actually do seem to think so but what do they know!). He also sings, plays bass (quite well) and mandolin (a bit) and can make a musical noise on most instruments with strings (he doesn't do reeds or brass but considers this a virtue). He can also, he claims, get what he calls a tune out of a flute, tin whistle and harmonica, hit a drum kit with some semblance of rhythm (though others may not agree) and knows where all the notes are on a piano (aren't they the black and white things under the lid?). He is presently teaching himself to play fiddle and banjo and is hoping to get better on (or, at least, get the better of) the other instruments he owns (see above). He's pretty good (but a bit out of date) with music technology (which means not only can he can spell "midi" but also knows what it means). He has much experience playing guitar and bass and singing with numerous folk, rock, blues and cabaret bands and has played for several amateur musicals and two Bee Gee's conventions. His latest project is local rock band "Ready by Seven", in which he shares the lead guitar role and sings b-vox. He also leads popular pub rock/blues trio "The Time Trousers" and runs "The Time Machine" Recording Studio. In his spare time he has a real job (he's a driving instructor, but doesn't like to talk about it).

Chris is the guy whose musical career goes back the longest, which is just a polite way of saying he's the one with the greyest hair! He took up the guitar at the age of ten, wanting to be another Hank Marvin. Along the way, he composed some horrendous instrumentals that were long ago assigned to the "Early Horrors" folder! After taking up the piano a few years later, and going through the same phase of writing disastrous "classical" piano pieces (don’t even ask… same story, same file!), he finally got into his singer/songwriter phase. A couple of decades further on, he had 140 songs to his credit, which actually amounts to about three dozen that he considers worth keeping and the rest, well, you know where they are! If you want to hear them, get him drunk, or he IS always open to blatant bribery! During the 70s and early 80s, as the musical director of Genesis Theatre, he produced (amongst many others) Tommy, Hair, Demolition Man, and two home–spun rock musicals "Stag" and "Marilyn" for the amateur stage, several at the prestigious Royal Exchange Theatre. Chris now writes almost exclusively for the Classical Guitar, and has had about 15 books of his compositions published and has seen many professional performances of them, not only in the UK but also most of Europe, USA and Australia too. He is a professional private teacher of acoustic and classical guitar and in between times is on the review panel of the Classical Guitar magazine, regularly reviewing guitar and lute concerts, CDs, and music publications for them. Finally (phew! thank God for that!), he is a founder member of the crossover band Acoustic Moods, who have been playing mostly their own very unique brand of instrumental music now for over a decade.

Dan, we ought to confess, is the imposter among us. He may not be the only "classical" musician among us, but at least Chris is a guitarist, whereas Dan's qualifications relate to his French Horn playing. His saving grace is his outstanding ability to pluck bass guitar strings (although, when it comes to plucking them in the right order... actually, we'll just not go there!). This ability was discovered and harnessed by the Chas Coghill "Breed Your Own Bassist" Scheme in 1993, and Dan soon became the bass player for Chas's band, at the time, "Working for the Taxman". The combination of french horn and bass guitar is not, perhaps, as bizarre as you might imagine. It has been done before, after all, the late John Entwhistle of "The Who" also played french horn (and his playing of it featured on the album "Tommy"). Dan also plays bass in another 2 bands, "The Time Trousers" (Chas' current rock band, where he sings a bit of backing vocals) and "Acoustic Moods" (where he aids Chris in the complete bafflement of Tony (the rhythm guitarist) when writing new music for the band).