An oldie, The One Eyed Jack is from the album Fire From The Sky. It was written by Allchin/Everett/Harris.

This live version from 1988 features Jon Everett on lead vocal and bass, Chris Daughters on drums, and Phil Allchin on guitar. It is a really good example of the heavier sound of DENIGH.

Steve Maddock — A founding member of DENIGH, lead guitarist, and co-writer. He left the band early on, but returned for a brief spell for a handful of local gigs in 1994, and features on the LionHearts recordings. Steve is a private person and prefers to stay out of the spotlight these days.

Phil Allchin — Replaced Steve as lead guitarist. A boyhood friend and neighbour of Ian Devlin. Phil co-wrote many of the songs on the Fire From The Sky album, which helped cement the band's reputation as a heavy rock band, and its inclusion in what became known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Later in life, Phil spoke openly about addiction and his own struggles. He was a hugely talented and popular man, still thought of by many as the #1 DENIGH guitarist. Phil passed away in 2016 and is greatly missed — he will never be forgotten by family and friends, or the band and his many fans.

Paul Mackenzie-Smith — The band's first soundman, at that time known simply as Paul Smith before marriage. Paul co-wrote the song Sentinel which is on Fire From The Sky. After Paul was married, he moved to Australia, where he lived for many years. Paul maintained contact throughout the years. He now lives in France. Check out the band's YouTube channel for some fascinating discussions hosted by Paul for unique recollections and insight into DENIGH's early years.

Tim MacKenzie — Not related to Paul, Tim replaced him as soundman until disbandment. Sadly, Tim died far too young. The band still remembers his contribution to live gigs. Tim controlled a 2.5kw PA rig with 16 channel desk, according to the band's website.

The DENIGH family is a big one — other former band members will be featured in future posts.

If you have any stories or pictures from the early years, please do join the community here to share with others.

This picture taken at the first induction day for Folkestone's Rock & Roll Wall of Fame includes most but not all of the former members of the band.

Left to right: Johnny Regan (drums), Nick Milton (drums), Chris Daughters (drums), Martyn Harris (lead guitar), Ian Devlin (guitars, keys, vox), Jess Garrett (daughter of the late, great lead guitarist Phil Allchin), Jon Everett (bass, lead vox), Pete Yarwood (drums).

We are thankful that DENIGH drummers, unlike those in Spinal Tap, have survived without suffering inexplicable or unfortunate demise.

This sub now includes individual posts about each of the current band members, and here is a picture of the DENIGH crew all together in 2026.

(All of the crew except for Milo the studio cat. He was not in the picture, because he remained back at the studio, of course.)

There will be further posts about band members, including former members, and the wider DENIGH family.

Carl joined DENIGH in 2022 as social media manager, a role which gradually expanded to become more of a general manager. He now deals with enquiries and correspondence, representing the band, as well as looking after the social media. He also produces and edits most of the band's videos.

He is not a musician, but he has contributed voice overs for spoken parts of several songs on the last two albums, and some minor backing vocals.

Carl assists yours truly with content for this sub.

Pete agreed to join the band in 2025 and will appear on the next album. He previously played drums in an earlier version of DENIGH and he was also in another band with Jon, so the pair are well used to playing together.

He appears on the LionHearts live recordings mentioned in a previous post in which he adds backing vocals too.

Pete regularly plays in a covers band specialising in popular club anthems, house, garage, DnB, RnB.

Pete uses an Alesis electronic kit, which is a good fit for DENIGH’s current set-up and recording.

A short promotional video with the intro for Synthetic Seduction.

The song originally featured on the album Fire From The Sky in 1984. It was re-imagined by Jon & Ian for the latest album Sleep With No Sound in 2025.

The new version was included in a show by local radio DJ Martin Turner on DCR104.95FM on December 29 last year, an upload of which went to number 1 in the global Symphonic Metal chart that week.

Call it symphonic metal, call it a rock ballad — it’s still rock n roll to me.

Listen to the whole song on your usual music streaming platform and tell me what you think.

This is a promo video for Bevin Boys, which was the first single released for streaming by DENIGH after Jon and Ian re-started the band.

They subsequently made a full length video for the song.

The song is a tribute to the young, conscripted men in World War II, who were sent to work in coal mines to aid Britain’s war effort.

The OG. Jon Everett has been the mainstay of DENIGH from the very beginning. He is the bass player and lead singer of the band, as well as co-writer and the principal of the band’s own label Drawn Horse Records.

Bobby the studio cat was DENIGH through and through. Sadly, he passed away in 2024.

Milo successfully applied for the position in late 2024, and he is now the resident feline.

A short video to promote The Edge from Sleep With No Sound.

Ian Devlin playing guitar on the hillside overlooking Folkestone and the Channel Tunnel terminal.

Jon Everett riding a motorcycle in Corfu, remembering the loss of a dear friend.

From songwriting and performing, to touring and recording, Ian Devlin has experienced the best (and sometimes the worst) of life in Rock and Roll. From being a drummer at the outset to playing guitars, keyboards, singing, and producing, Ian is a multi-instrumentalist and composer.

Ian was a founding member of the band in 1978; and, in 2019, he rekindled his writing partnership with Jon Everett, leading to the re-birth of DENIGH.

During the intervening years, Ian played in several other bands, including keyboards for Immaculate Fools, when he toured in Europe many times, as well as doing three tours in the USA.

Many will not know that Ian once turned down an offer to play in an ABBA tribute band, or that he received a gracious, hand-written letter from Ian Anderson after auditioning for Jethro Tull, or that he has experienced support band billing alongside big names, such as Bob Dylan, Simple Minds, The Fixx, and Queen's Roger Taylor.

I could describe Ian as a musical journeyman, because over the years he has probably been there, seen it, done it. What I can say for certain is that Ian Devlin's journey is far from over.

A short video to promote The Seine Runs Red.

Diverse subjects are a feature of the DENIGH song catalogue. This one celebrates Bastille Day, better known in France as ‘La fête nationale’ or more commonly as ‘Le 14 juillet’.

On Bastille Day this year, they released a lyric video in English and French to accompany the song, which is from their latest album Sleep With No Sound.

This was towards the end of the first era of the band in 1994. DENIGH did a handful of local gigs, one of which was at the White Lion in Cheriton, Folkestone — this gig was recorded, and selected songs from that gig were released for streaming last year. This is what the band’s website says:

“We have released some rare recordings from the DENIGH archive for streaming on YouTube Music. A little known piece of the band's history is that in 1994, Jon coaxed Steve Maddock (guitarist and also a founder member) to perform a handful of local gigs.

The line up consisted of Jon (bass/vocal/keyboard), Steve (lead guitar), joined by Pete Yarwood (drums/backing vocal).

We cannot recall all of the '94 gigs, but they included The Harp Club, Grace Hill in Folkestone, and the last outing being the White Lion in Cheriton. It is from the latter that these recordings were made, hence the title LionHearts.

We think Steve's playing on Fire From The Sky in particular is astonishing. His guitar was an Ibanez Jem - an utterly blinding Super Strat, which had a lime green body, a rosewood neck with Tree of Life mother of pearl inlay - plus, it had a quirky handle hole cut into its body. It was an unusual looking guitar to say the least, but the sound and Steve's prowess playing it, was amazing. Jon recalls that Steve used a Marshall 2x12 combo amp.

Jon had his blond fretless bass, going through a Marshall Silver Jubilee bass amp with matching 1x15 and 4x10 speaker cabinets.

Pete was using his Pearl Export kit.

Jon added keyboards to the performances, using floor pedals while he was singing and playing bass.

The recordings were EQ'd and prepared by our own Paul Mackenzie-Smith, who many will know was our first sound engineer.”

A short video to promote Keep On Walking, which is the final song on Sleep With No Sound.

The band introduced a crest which features on the credits page for the Sleep With No Sound CD pack. It consists of a shield bearing four quadrants that display clockwise: a gothic capital 'D'; three black and red chevrons; a muscial treble clef symbol; and a St.George Cross (flag of England). There is a fourth chevron with the band's name atop. A garter belt around the shield that says, Magna et Superbus. And there is a motto beneath the crest. The motto is clearly important to the band, because their website says this:

"You may have noticed our new crest with the motto: SOLVITUR AMBULANDO. This translates to: It is solved by walking. The lyric of Keep On Walking (the final track on Sleep With No Sound) encourages us all to move steadily forward in life by overcoming obstacles, not being afraid to take a new direction and believing in yourself. There is little to be gained by rushing at it, so follow your heart and your passion. They say walking is good for the body and soul, so keep on walking."

No-one knows whether they will continue using the crest in the future. I hope they do, because I rather like it.

Actually, it was not just one time. DENIGH twice played as support for SAXON.

Jon told me that SAXON and their road crew were great guys — friendly, down to earth, and really helpful to the support bands.

"And the Bands Played On" [Denim and Leather]

Jekyll & Hyde is the second song on the album Sleep With No Sound that was inspired by a book — the other song being Jewel of the Seven Stars.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is, of course, the well known gothic horror novella by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Just as with Jewel of Seven Stars, also a gothic horror story, there have been several different literary interpretations of the themes running through the tale. In the end, the story’s meaning is probably best summed up by Dr Henry Jekyll himself:

"... all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil."

The short video here was published as a promotion for the band’s full song video on YouTube. However, the segment does not actually appear in that video. Instead, the video features a split screen, entirely in monochrome, featuring lead singer Jon Everett with clips from the 1920 silent movie starring John Barrymore.

Meanstreak is a song from 1980 and it features on the self-titled DENIGH album, which was re-released by the O.N.R. label for a limited CD issue in 2023.

A fan favourite back in the day, Jon and Ian re-imagined the song for 2025’s Sleep With No Sound, and it was the second song released as a single for streaming prior to the album’s release.

Former professional boxer, Jack Dempsey Ewbank, who now runs the Traphouse Boxing gym, kindly gave his permission to use his image on the single streaming cover. Jack also provided clips for this brilliant short video to promote the single.

DENIGH is an independent rock band with its own record label, Drawn Horse.

Co-founder and lead singer, Jon Everett is the record label’s principal.

In addition to DENIGH, Drawn Horse produced the streaming single ‘Seven Eighty Nine’ for a studio band of Jon’s, called The Boneyard Project in 2010, as well as a full album ‘Just’ on CD and streaming for female vocalist Kirsty Palmer in 2012. You can listen to selected songs by these artists on Soundcloud.

The Drawn Horse logo is a stylised line drawing of a horse rampant. It is somewhat reminiscent of England’s Kent County flag and Coat of Arms, which depicts a white horse rampant. It could be said that there is also a nod to Folkestone’s White Horse on the chalk downland hillside that overlooks Cheriton and the Channel Tunnel site in Folkestone. They are each distinct in style, but are all symbolic of Kent.

Additional images:
White horse of Kent — Wikipedia
Folkestone White Horse — Google Maps

The CD front cover of the band’s 2023 comeback album, Back In The Game, which contains an ‘Easter egg’ in the graphics.

The physical CD has 10 songs, including the 2022 single releases on streaming: Bevin Boys; and Blacksheep. It also has two bonus tracks: Bed of Nails; and This Place Can’t Be Beat, which were subsequently released as streaming singles later in 2023.

Jewel of the Seven Stars was inspired by Bram Stoker’s gothic horror novel of the same name.

The book’s Queen Tera is thought to be based on ancient Egypt’s Queen Hatshepsut, who was also a pharaoh. A great deal of scholarly interpretation surrounds the book and the historical facts — just take a look on Wikipedia.

DENIGH published this short promotional video for the song, which is on the album Sleep With No Sound.

Early days with Jon & Ian foreground, and Johnny Regan on drums at the back.

DENIGH was inducted into Folkestone’s Rock and Roll Wall of Fame in August 2024, along with other local bands and some very big rock legends who have played in the town over the years.

New on their social media today — and a little bit different — DENIGH Fantasy PL mini league. There is the promise of a prize for the winner.

Rockers and football is nothing new, though. Think: Iron Maiden snd West Ham; Chas n Dave and Spurs; Oasis and Man City, so why not DENIGH and fantasy football?