Busted Fender Blues Band really began in 1986. Started by ex-
Busted Fender very quickly became a force to be reckoned with on the local music
circuit and started to gain recognition on the southern blues circuit. Very soon
they were commissioned to play support for many of the professional bands, such as
The Climax Blues Band and Dr Feelgood. During this time they produced two cassette
tape albums: Busted Fender -
Strangely enough, Mick had been showing an interest in the Blues and when he was asked to audition for the band, he jumped at the chance. Mick passed the test and was immediately thrown right in the deep end. His first gig was a support slot for The Steve Gibbons Band.
Fortunately the band went from strength to strength. They released their third cassette tape album in 1992 called Nothin’ But Trouble and were asked to perform many supports and festivals up and down the country, including the Birmingham Blues Summit of 1993 and the Portsmouth Blues Festival of the same year. They played at the Seventh Maltings Blues Festival in Farnham and played support at both the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth and The Boars Head Country and Blues Club at Boarhunt near Wickham. Many highlights of these days included playing support to Blues ‘n’ Trouble, Otis Grand, Nine Below Zero, Paul Lamb and The Kingsnakes, and from the US, The Phillip Walker Band, The Doug MacLeod Band, Anson Funderberg with Sam Myers (Sam died recently and The Times paid a wonderful tribute to him) and the inimitable John Campbell, to name but a few. Not to mention Canned Heat some time later. In 1994 Fender recorded their first album in CD format, From Under The Covers. It received great reviews from Blues In The South magazine and was very well received by their many fans and followers. However, trouble was looming and shortly after the release of the CD, Tim Dunn departed in a less than amicable fashion. Due to personality clashes, and the legendary “musical differences”,Tim Sadly left the band,something he was never happy about.