Keeping Good Company

Devon band India Electric Company have had a busy couple of years, as they tell OWEN JONES.

- Owen Jones

TWO friends meet through a love of music, form a band, do some concerts, play support for a famous rock star and get invited to join him on tour as his backing musicians.

Unlikely as it may seem, that’s what has happened to East Devon musicians Cole Stacey and Joseph O’Keefe, who together form India Electric Company and have just spent March performing with Midge Ure in Abu Dhabi, Australia and New Zealand.

In fact for the past couple of years they have been on the road, playing at venues across Europe with Ure, accompanying the singer-songwriter as he performs acoustic versions of hits including Vienna, Fade to Grey and Dancing with Tears in my Eyes.

At the same time they have also been writing and recording their own music and this year will see three new releases, following on from their 2014 album The Girl I Left Behind Me.

Cole and Joe grew up in East Devon – Cole in Awliscombe and Joe a few miles away in Talaton. They went to different schools, but met because of their fathers’ shared interest in music. Cole’s father Terry had a music shop called Approximate Music in Offwell and Joe’s dad Wilf bought a drum kit from him.

Joe says: “My dad used to run a ceilidh band and would coerce as many people to play in it as possible. Cole must have been in his dad’s shop at the right time...”