Musician Profile

Band Info

Ollie Benson – Banjo and Guitar. I wanted a guitar when still at primary school but I got a ukulele banjo which I never learnt to play. By the time I reached secondary, the guitar had become hugely popular due to the skiffle boom. I got my first instrument by the time I was thirteen and it was not long before I had formed my own group with some school friends. By the time I was twenty I had developed an interest in jazz and this led me to playing with some outstanding local musicians including Digby Fairweather, John Mole and Jasper Livesey. Eventually my career and family commitments curtail my musical activities but for most of my life I played in functions bands at weekends. About 2001 I gave up functions bands and joined a band playing swing jazz. I was asked to play banjo in addition to guitar and that it is when I started to play plectrum banjo which led me to play in several traditional bands. Soon after, I developed and interest in traditional Irish music and I now play Irish tenor banjo as well as guitar and mandolin for a skiffle group that likes some traditional folk music in its repertoire. It seems that I have come full circle.