Pete Aves is a lifelong John Martyn fan who first performed John’s songs as a university student in the eighties and for whom John and Danny Thompson’s 2001 gig in Greenwich remains a pivotal moment. Pete’s career has seen him develop into a specialist in the music of the 60s and 70s on which he was raised. In recent years he has worked as guitarist and musical director for the late Lee Hazlewood (writer of Nancy Sinatra’s 1966 number one ‘These Boots Were Made For Walkin’ and producer of Frank and Nancy’s ‘Somethin’ Stupid’) and as a guitarist for the UK’s most successful ever female recording artist Petula Clark. Pete is also a member of Sony and Virgin recording artists the High Llamas, now into their 17th year and still touring internationally, most recently in Japan in February of this year. The group has long associations with Brian Wilson,Van Dyke Parks and the late Arthur Lee among others. Pete was also recruited by Jarvis Cocker to perform with 60s folk artists Bonnie Dosbon, Wendy Flower and Susan Christie as part of Jarvis’s 2006 Meltdown at the South Bank Centre. In 2007 he was a musical consultant to renowned conductor John Wilson and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the city of Liverpool’s (then the European City of Culture) celebration of the work of John Lennon.
Aside from this Pete is a prolific solo artist. Between 2002 and 2007 he wrote, produced and released 5 solo albums which were acclaimed by Q,Uncut and Mojo magazines among others. His work is internationally available through his own labels,Cargo Distribution and Cherry Red Records. Since 2006 he has been a proud father to twins Maddy and Charlie. Amazingly he has found time to bring them up while his wife Sarah Freestone-a professional violinist and guitarist-goes out to work. ‘Been worried about my babies, been worried about my wife…’
