Dean was born in the small town of Drayton, Norfolk County in England and grew up in Norwich and the surrounding area. His parents are Derek, an ex-printer and Brenda, a tap dancing teacher, both from Norwich. His brother Lloyd designs and installs alternative power generators in England.

Dean started work in 1978 as an apprentice mechanic for a VW shop in his hometown where he stayed for 6 years. He has been a motor technician ever since.

His music career began in high school, where he took up the trumpet. After six months, he was told by his music teacher, Mr. Davis, that he didn't have a musical bone in his body. He rebelled by taking up the guitar. Mr. Davis informed him that, due to the fact that it had frets, it wasn't a "real" music instrument. Dean took the comment to heart and gave up the guitar until the depression of the 1980's.

Then, at the age of 21 and finding himself out of work in a depressed economy with no prospects for mechanic work, he again took up the guitar in an effort to earn some food money. As he gained talent on the instrument, his pub-gigging evolved into cabaret work for some of the top agents in the UK. He worked for Norwich Artistes for 15 years under the guidance of Brian Russel and did some very nice shows including summer seasons. Dean played support for some of the greats over the years, including the Drifters, Dr Feelgood, Wilco Johnson, Van Morrison and the Walter Trout Band to mention a few. He has been nearly famous quite a few times.

Dean's songs have been played by various bands and he is very proud of that fact. "I can't think of a better compliment than to have another artist or band cover a song that I wrote", he says. He moved around England and toured with the Dave Davidson Quartet and with The Resistors for 6 years as a professional musician and was quoted as saying "I've never been so broke in my life".

In 1999 Dean met Marci, a wonderfully talented Kansas lady on the internet while surfing a chat room one evening. They became best of friends and chatted every night for nine months. Eventually things took a serious turn and Dean took the plunge and bought plane tickets for the USA, where he visited for two weeks. This became an habitual trip twice a year and also became very expensive. Something had to give and the decision was made: Dean and Marci were married in 2001. Dean moved to Kansas, where he remains to this day.

He has since become an ASE Certified Mechanic on engines, steering, brakes and automatic and manual transmissions. He is a full-time automotive instructor at a technical school in Kansas and trains on average 65 new mechanics a year. His music career continues, and he is a well known and sought after local musician.

In addition to his duties at school, he runs The Attice Recording Studio, a home-based venture. He plays 6 & 12 string guitar, mandolin, bass, banjo and drums and sings lead and harmony. As such, he is a major contributor to the music of the Plum Tuckered Band, as well as recording engineer, songwriter and Token Brit.

As the Korean War was ending, the world breathed a sigh of relief. They should have thought twice before they did that. Doc Nelson came into the world on a cold March evening; born to Big Guido Libido and his "wife", Anna Maria. Devout Catholics; they knew the Priest would never marry them, considering Anna Maria was heavy with child. So Big Guido had his mentor and benefactor, Luigi "The Big Squid" Calamari do the honors. At least the child would have the same Godfather as his Father did.

After six days of parenthood; Guido and Maria were deported to Sicily for various reasons, (not the least of them racial profiling), and "Little Guido" was dropped on the doorstep of an unsuspecting Swedish Land Surveyor, Harold J. Nelson and his Norwegian wife, Lucille. They named him Mark.

Even growing up, the Nelson's took pride in their boy's activities. He organized the other boys in the neighborhood, and formed an informal fraternal organization that administered contests, lotteries, did collections for the other children, and fought battles on the playground against the older children. Once when his son was suspended from Cub Scouts for having his other pack members hold down another Den Mother's son in an alley, and running over him repeatedly with his bike, Harold was quoted as saying; "Boys will be boys!"

Mark served his country proudly. As a medic, he earned the nickname "Doc". He was well known by malingerers and ladies of the evening on several different operational theaters. He could remove a bullet, do a D&C, and administer procaine penicillin at the same time. He was known as "Dr. Drip" in circles of soldiers known to party with the local ladies. He and his friend and associate Nicky "The Knife" Spicone nearly became millionaires reselling class 6 store vino on the local economy.

After being depor...I mean discharged back to the good old USA, Doc decided to be a guitarist, as he was too lazy to work. He was fortunate enough to play in many great bands and with many great musicians, often because his old pal, "The Knife" made them an offer that they could hardly refuse!

Towards the turn of the century, Doc decided to branch out. At the urging of the U.S. Government, he moved to Brazil, where he opened up a Calamari restoranti, Liposuction Clinic, and Country Guitar Instructional Emporium...UNDER ONE ROOF! After a couple years he returned to the U.S. after a minor mis-understanding with the Brazilian Health Department concerning the origins of the cooking oil that he used in his restoranti.

Undaunted, he has continued to play the guitar and organ, and proudly has only been deported once in over 6 years...(and only from Grantville, Ks.!) He is widely sought after for session work, live performances, an occasional fat resection, or penicillin shot. He greatly enjoys his duties with the Plum Tuckered Band, and hopes he can avoid deportation long enough to get in another CD!

Doc's personal website (and "the rest of the story") can be found  here.

I was raised in a musical household with a mother and father who were both very good singers. We had an old cut down player piano in the living room. (There's a piano there still today.) So I grew up tinkling on the piano with my family and started playing along with the rock and roll on the radio when the 50's hit. (Which should give you some idea as to why I'm Plum Tuckered!)

By the time I got to college, I teamed up with a band and the rest is history. I've been playing with bands off and on ever since, and have sure had a lot of fun doing it. I also play some guitar, harmonica and flute.

I met Dean Fairweather a few years ago when we played in a band together. He asked me to play on some of the music that he and John Mitchell were recording for the Plum Tuckered Project, which I was happy to do and thus became a part of the Plum Tuckered Band. We actually thought about practicing to be able to perform the music live, and after one practice we were just too Plum Tuckered!

Oh, and my name is a professional one that I used as a radio disc jockey for some thirty years. I'd tell you my real name, but then I'd have to move. By the way, Dean and I are back playing in a band together called the Diamond Band. We play every-so-often, but not as often as we used to because we're just Plum Tuckered.

"My fifth guitar lesson and I was good! I knew three chords backward and forward and the missing little E string didn't deter me what-so-ever", so says Howard of his earliest music experience. The all-knowing instructer took one look, proceeded to a back room and returned with a snare drum and a couple of beat up brushes. "Here's your new instrument" he loudly pronounced. "you'll never be worth a s--- on the guitar!"

Little did he know that Howard would go on to learn several more chords which he can still play today. Forty-five years later and he is still playing the "alternate" instrument, which he admits, "I don't know as many chords on it as the guitar. I even added some more pieces to go with the snare."

Playing with high school friends, they formed the first band he was to play with at the age of 14. Gonna be big stars, make lots of money, have lots of girls; somehow those dreams went awry. Missed on all three counts. But still he played on with any band, jam or duo he could. "Funny thing, I never took a lesson, mainly because I didn't want the humiliation of being handed another instrument, and didn't realize what I'd missed until I was 35. Got serious then and proceeded to learn to read (partly because I bought the world's finest Alesis HR-16) and discovered what I had been playing — all those paradiddles, diddles and pumpernickles all those years. Now I knew their names."

Howard grew up in East Texas playing with a lot of different guys and bands who went on to achieve greater success than he, but he had to move on, thanks to Uncle Sam. After a short military career with paid vacations to exotic European and Southeast Asian wonderlands, he resumed playing, this time in Kansas where the music scene wasn't quite the same as in Texas.

"I really enjoyed the sessions with Plum Tuckered even though my sessions were just Dean and I and a Yamaha keyboard. I have played with all the guys except John at one time or another in other venues so I knew what I was getting into. THEY'RE ALL CRAZY!!! Forty-five years and still going", he says. "God I love it! If you want to cure what ails you or the world around you, PLAY MUSIC until you can't play anymore!

John was born in a small South-central Kansas town and grew up in the Wichita area, listening to the likes of Peter, Paul & Mary, The Kingston Trio and Bob Dylan. He purchased his first guitar from a Wichita pawnshop at the age of 15 - a real beauty of a blue and cream Silvertone archtop - and learned to play it.

After graduating high school he found himself high on the draft list. Being very naive, politically speaking, he joined the Marine Corps, burned his draft card (moot gesture though it was at that point) and promptly volunteered for Viet Nam, where he served nearly two tours before being called home to participate in the burial of his Grandfather.

Immediately upon being honorably discharged from the military he returned to Wichita, grew his hair back (also a moot gesture, as it turns out), replaced the Silvertone with a fine Martin guitar and entered the music scene under the pseudonym "Little Johnny Sedgwick", playing guitar and singing with various bands of the time.

Responding eventually to a dwindling number of requests for his expertise on the guitar and for his questionable vocal talents, he parked his Harley, packed away his instruments and married. Over time, the family grew to include four lovely, but nonetheless very hungry daughters, leaving little time to pursue a career in music.

He found work as a carpenter off-and-on and, for a time during the early 1970's, worked for Stuart Mossman at the Mossman Guitar factory in Winfield, Kansas, where he built the various parts for the Mossman guitars. The job allowed him to get in a little guitar playing at the weekly jam sessions at the factory and provided the opportunity to rub shoulders, if only on a superficial basis, with some of the bluegrass legends of the time. Noteworthy among those were Doc and Merle Watson and Dan Crary.

Finally, in an effort to keep up with the grocery bills, he learned to fly (airplanes, that is) and took up crop dusting. In due course, he settled in North Dakota where he spent his summers attempting to survive his shortcomings as a pilot while still doing an adequate job of murdering bugs and weeds in the various agricultural crops of the area. He spent the long, harsh winters shoveling snow, chopping firewood to keep the family warm and teaching himself to write computer software.

As his children matured and left the nest, time once again became available for more leisurely pursuits. The music was always there, if only lingering in the background. John dusted off his guitars and set out in an attempt to revive his neglected music career. A few more bands, a bit more developing talent, and eventually he found what has turned out to be his true passion: writing and recording his own music. To that end, he has accumulated recording equipment necessary to produce an acceptable level of sound quality and now bills his setup as "Houseboy Studios".

In a very real sense, John's life has come full circle: now divorced and retired, he's back home in Kansas and resides with his beautiful high school sweetheart (ah, first love!). He splits his time between his houseboy duties and his music. He authored the songs for the "Ain't Gettin Lucky" CD, and they are, for the most part, pieces of his real life experiences. His favorite times now are spent with a cold glass of Scotch, a hand-rolled smoke, his old Mossman acoustic guitar, good friends and some laid-back, down home music.

Click here to contact Jonn.