Biogs :

Rozenn Chasle | Vocals (Acoustic)(2007 - )

Hmm to find the rock'n'roll fibre in me, you'll have to look closely. But hold on, that may be fitting just fine with the seductively-atmospheric, acoustic set that Simon and Ashley are currently concocting.

My personal story is probably one of an early start and a passion for music that has always been there: born and bred in a little rural village in Brittany, I was apparently the only one listening to the radio (not joking). But my natal France is a country where you pursue Science as far as you can to make it into the world and that's just what I did, although my passion for acting and singing never left me. I have sung for friends as backing vocals and on a couple of released albums and I accompanied them at a number of local gigs. And there you are, my claim to fame. (Well dubbing Annie Lennox in front of my parents' mirror wouldn't really count, would it.) My source of inspiration lies wholly in emotions, in my introspection, and in my life-long curiosity of the world and its people. And that means I'm no short of frustration and anger that might just help me pull off the rock'n'roll! I am a myriad of feelings, complex and simple, of child-like joy, of desperation, of strength, of sensuality, and of humour which I hope to get across in my vocals. I can't identify with our culture of image and as a singer, what I strive to add to the music are essentially emotions, elan and shivers.

And on a lighter note, I've found in Simon and Ashley two great personalities and such musicianship that it makes the whole experience so much fun! I hope you'll enjoy the new twist on their fantastic songs.

Ashley Meggitt | Guitar | Backing Vocals (2006 - )

What the hell are you supposed to write in a biog that doesn’t make you sound like a complete self obsessed loser, if you can’t claim to have played at Hammersmith, had a girl friend who was a supermodel, had to dry out from a Jack Daniels excess, and/or spent 8 months in cold turkey in a cripplingly expensive rehab centre?

Well here is my little bit of self obsessed loser biog ‘cause I can’t claim any of those things:

I spent the first year of my rock star life (quite a few years ago) in a punk band called ‘Fight Back’. I mostly got gobbed at but I did meet Gren Holbrooke with whom I formed a psychedelic rock band called Double-Zero(#1). We spent years playing in squats, hippy dens, and parties until we finally plucked up courage to play to people who weren’t so stoned that they couldn’t remember their own name or whether they were in a small Cotswold village or not (if you ever get curious enough you can ask me about that at a gig). We played the Alma, Boat Race, Burleigh Arms and many other places that I can’t remember – I can, however, remember that it was good fun and occasionally very surreal.

We ended up down at the Crypt in Deptford, London joining in with the general debauchery that was going on there at the time. A friend of ours harangued the manager into offering us a gig and to our surprise he actually called a week or two after the trip and offered us a slot supporting the Magic Mushroom band (who you’ve never heard of right?). It was a good gig and the manager liked us enough to have us support the Ozric Tentacles who were, and still are, great muso’s. We then head lined at the Crypt, got gigs elsewhere including Brighton University, and ended up supporting Hawkwind, along with a load of other bands, at a free festival just outside Oxford. We got the first slot in the evening- big stage, loads of lights, and an audience of 1000's mostly covered in mud - fantastic gig....can't remember the details though. Unfortunately due to, and this very rock and roll, a motorbike accident, Gren was badly injured and spent many months in hospital (he made a fully recovery). The band folded and I eventually joined the ranks of normality were I was until I met Simon and Tom.

So that’s the loser biog. The new DZ – well I’m not going to crap on about how the combination of guitar work laced with the infectious drumming leads you down a road of intricate and soul searching blah blah introspective tosh ……just come and see us and make your own mind up. However, if you don’t have a mind then I’ll help you out – we’re clucking fantastic…..

For those that like to know gear detail I currently play a US Fender Stratocaster HSS and a Yamaha SG1000 through a Marshall AVT 150 Combo. For the acoustic stuff I play a Babicz Spider 6 String.

Simon Hall | Drums | Percussion | Backing Vocals (2006 -)

Well, praise indeed from Ashley there; infectious drumming eh?!! My challenge in this biog is not to come across as a frustrated front man because, lets face it, that's exactly what you'll see if you come to our gigs.

One of my favourite childhood memories is Thursday mornings, Mum working from home in the kitchen and me, age four, setting every pot, pan, tub and cushion in the house out around the sofa and setting about playing the biggest drum kit ever conceived by man with a pair of wooden spoons. Then when I was nine I was bought my first kit; lessons started straight away too. With help from my teacher I got involved in several local orchestras, culminating in appearances in The Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra. On one occasion I was given a solo to play in front of a sold out Corn Exchange which I fully admit (now) I couldn't play.... It was a very long solo (for all involved I should imagine) and possibly got rather funky as I got lost.

Finally my Dad unleashed his vinyl collection upon me and along with influence from friends at school, rock music became my passion. Of course, I was involved in school boy metal bands (great times boys, if you're reading this) and drunken get together with guys down the pub but, ironically the first proper gigging band I was involved in wasn't rock....yet. A very successful local folk band called 'Hedgepig' approached me. Several fantastic years playing with them at practically every venue in Cambridge and more besides, one thing they taught a very green little me very quickly was to play a little quieter sometimes. "Light and shade, Simon, light and shade", oh yes and "Keep your powder dry!"

At the same time and at some point, I agreed to jam with a band called Money Shot - very heavy, great fun, no gigs - with Dan Waldman and Chris Cutting. It was Chris who invited me to see his other band Nice Planet WTI. Only a few weeks later he contacted me, inviting me to try out for Nice Planet, as the drummer, Dave (a friend of mine from both the pub and work) was leaving so as to concentrate on his other band My Friend Irma (fronted by Tom). My time with Hedgepig set me in good stead for Nice Planet with regard to style. This was good radio-friendly catchy stuff which we gave an edge and we weren't afraid to play rockier riffs or even heavier energetic songs in the set. This new line-up included Jamie Powell on bass and Nice Planet veteran James Lord playing lead. Doing reasonably well in Cambridge with slots at The Boat Race and gigging occasionally in London, we were funded to go to Nottingham to record and produce a CD. Not wanting the same thing from the band as the rest of us, James handed in his notice. A two date CD launch accomplished and James left the band. Unable to replace him we fizzled out....eventually.

End of rugby season '05 and I overhear the team manager call one of the coaches 'Rock God'. "What's that all about, Ash?" say I....

The great thing about playing with these guys is that (shock horror) they are letting me have an equal say in writing and arranging the tracks. This means that you're going to get big, heavy rhythms with influences from rock, metal, hip-hop and dance with riffs, breaks and beats that make impact after impact after impact. I'm enjoying this. I hope you do too.

Richard Tofts | Bass (2008 - )

I count myself fortunate that my premature “retirement” from music making at the age of 23 wasn’t permanent! I had played in Cambridge bands as a younger chap, notably with Spiritwalk, the band a few people might know as being “Ezio’s old band”. Indeed I was lucky enough to play with two superb musicians in Ezio and drummer Richard Beasley, and also to share the stage and compose with Ian Docherty, who was, and remains, a great vocalist. After winning the Cambridge rock competition in 1987 and reaching the dizzy heights of supporting such bands as Erasure at the Corn exchange, it all fell apart, with me jumping ship first. I didn’t think I would return to music again.

Fast forward 14 years, via getting married, having two children and a fun and unusual career as a “house-husband”, and I was coaxed along by an acquaintance to a local pub jam night, which eventually led to me playing for four years with three friends pretty regularly, with the odd village fete or fund raiser, and doing various classic rock covers, but more recently writing our own material, which was a lot of fun and very rewarding.

Sadly, commitments meant that the other guys needed to shift their concentration to more pressing matters, and we decided to call it a day. After taking stock and talking it over with my better half, I decided it was time to get myself back “out there” and into a gigging band, and I began searching the ‘net for local bands needing bassists. That’s how I came across Double Zero. As soon as I heard the four songs on the myspace page I was hooked. Clearly somebody else wrote and enjoyed playing melodic, intelligent, technical songs that had depth and an edgy grittiness of subject matter, seemingly at odds with the haunting and soulful vocals, but combining for the perfect bitter/sweet experience. This was something I really wanted to be a part of. Trying to follow on from a double bass player was never going to be easy – I find those things strangely sinister for some reason - but as my influences range from Pentangle to Pantera, I decided to draw from my more melodic past and leave the metal alone for a while!

As with the first listen on the website, my first jam/try-out felt “right” straight away. I was pleased to learn that the songs were being prepared for a more rocky performance – and they really do rock - but equally pleased that the acoustic set is still there to be pulled out of the hat. Whether it’s going to be in a quiet corner of a bar, or blasting from a larger stage somewhere, I’m really looking forward to being part of Double Zero and I will be proud to share in bringing these songs to you.

Diccon Copper | Double Bass | Last seen cycling down the backs (2007)

When Diccon was seven he was given a non-speaking role in a modern opera and got to tour the country. At the time he really wanted to play the flute because he thought the flute player in the orchestra was fabulous. After three years of attempting to make a sound and concluding he had the wrong lips, he decided he wanted to be a rock star so he grew his hair long and badgered his parents to buy him a guitar. A couple of years after this, his parents finally got so bored of the relentless nagging and bugging and bought him a guitar but his hair was really quite long by this point and sometimes got tangled up in the strings. He remembers the first morning with his guitar quite clearly: in half an hour he learnt an E chord and an A chord and concluded he had written a song and went to school. He later discovered many people seem to have written songs just like that. After a while he acquired a bass guitar and started his first band. They played in the drummer's conservatory which they could only just squeeze into and which got unbearably hot in summer. His mother would tend to come and scream at them, but they really didn't know any nice songs. All he ever really wanted to do was play the bass like John-Paul Jones, but this proved more difficult than it at first seemed. An egocentric guitarist and an idiot drummer completed the group. This began as a blues outfit and in just two months they were playing death metal. Unsurprisingly it broke up soon after because of such stylistic differences. The guitarist is now an accountant in USA; what a sell-out! Diccon then took up the double bass, not out of any deliberate and rational choice, but because there happened to be one at that school. Around this time he heard his first 'I bet you wished you played the flute' joke. He never actually wishes he played the flute, having concluded it a silly instrument. He made good progress mostly because he was so mortified by having to work through "My Big Blue Bass Book" for ages 4-7, that he was desperate to get on to more adult material.

After cutting his hair to see if his face was still there underneath, Diccon left the west coast of Wales and went to a westcountry all-boys school and was introduced to jazz by his wild and unpredictable bass teacher. He then went to Cambridge where he read history, played bass and thought lots of deep and inspiring thoughts about, you know, like the universe, and stuff. After getting lots more gigs for bass than anything else his jazz double bass playing eclipsed his previous musical careers in baroque harpsichord, church organ, and slide guitar playing. He was so busy playing the bass that he forgot to get a real job, a real life and those things called 'careers' one reads so much about, and is hanging on in Cambridge as a Ph.D student, living out his childhood dream to go to bed and get up when he wants to. His hair continues to grow.

Tom Kendon | Vocals and Guitar | Taking Time Out (2006-2007)

I’m really excited about Double Zero not only has it turned out that I get to play with some really good and highly experienced musicians but we are also producing music and most importantly songs I’m really into. I’ve played in a number of bands, got to play hundreds of gigs and boy, seen my fair share of live music and I’m pretty sure Double Zero is going to offer something to it all, along with a good steamin’ slice of Rock n’ Roll. For me, expression and feeling are the most important part of vocals. The three essentials of good vocals: 1. Play the part and convey the feeling 2. Stay in tune 3. Get the words right. Music and song is about conveying things that words and music simply just can’t do on their own. I just hope that comes across in what I do.

It’s really hard for me to put my finger on who my influences are and even harder to see who the influences of the band might be. One day (probably soon) we’ll be asked that question, so I suppose we should come up with some... starters for me would range from Jim Morrison to Robert Plant, Fish to Dave Grohl and even to Sandy Denny and Nick Drake. But essentially I take good inspirational vocals and performances where I can find them, you never stop learning after all.

A quick potted history, for those interested: I’ve been lucky enough to play seriously with three great bands in the past. The Haven, My Friend Irma and most recently The dEAD eCHOES as well as playing many one spot sessions here and there. The bands produced three albums and a couple of EPs (you may even still be able to find them out there if you hunt hard enough). I wrote a number of the tracks on them and collaborated musically on all of them, even trying my hand at record producing once or twice. Double Zero will be no different. I hope you enjoy us.