Andy Selman
Andy was self taught on the drums and guitar, and played in several Sheffield bands in the 70s. These included 18 months with punk band Lenny Lunch and the Sandwich Rappers, and two years with new wave band Bay of Pigs. Though initially self taught, Andy took lessons in his early 30s, from Frank White, a highly respected guitarist in Sheffield. From the late 90s until 2020, Andy played drums for seven years then guitar for 14 years with Redback (a covers band playing R&B, soul, Motown, and vintage pop/rock).
Andy plays a wide range of stringed instruments including 6 and twelve string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, octave mandolin (mandola), bouzouki, and banjo. In his late 50s he started to learn folk fiddle and can be seen at many a session trying to keep up with the more experienced fiddlers as they race through sets of reels and jigs! Taking up the fiddle five years ago stimulated Andys interest in folk music and the repertoire performed by Jamming Codgers.
He started building a home recording studio in the 1990s and produced a CD It was all going swimmingly at the end of this decade. You can hear a few tracks from this album in this section.
Shortly before lockdown he met and formed a good friendship with Sheffield poet Adrian Scott and together they recorded Made in Sheffield a collection of poems and music reflecting on their joint 120 years of living in seeing big changes to the city they are both very fond of. You can get a link to downloads from the album on this website.
Andy has always listened to and been influenced by a wide variety of music. Some people that have made a big impact are early Bob Marley, Talking Heads, 1970s Bowie, Johnny Cash, JJ Cale, Rhiannon Giddings, Martin Simpson, Gillian Welch and Richard Thompson. Locally, a night out watching Frank White (who gave lessons to both Andy and Tony Jack) or the Dizzy Club was always a good one, particularly accompanied by a pint or two of real ale.
Andy’s other creative activities include recording and music composition
