The Racket of the Lambs

(Pensions Playpen)

Formed from a varied group of professionals from the four corners of the pensions world, or the Pensions Playpen as they are collectively known, 'The Lambs' are the musical equivalent of The A Team - We have our very own Mr. T, are a phenomenal team that can create something effective from a tin whistle and a comb/paper combo and, ultimately, make a hell of a noise without anybody getting hurt.

Band Members:

Henry "The Ploughman" Tapper - Bez
Talentless Bez, Owner of the Play Pen and impossible to keep out (God knows we’ve tried).

Simon "The Jackal" Kew - Lead Vocals
Shortly after being born at an early age, Simon knew that he wanted to grow up and be in a band. Even after his mother told him that he could only do one or the other, undeterred, he retained this aspiration. Whereas a chiropodist ‘bucks up the feet’, Simon’s lack of rhythm, timing and overall musical ability has prevented him from fulfilling his dream....until now. Working in covenant and restructuring at Jackal Advisory and, formerly, TPR has not prepared him in the slightest, for whatever the hell he has let himself in for....

Dick "Wakeman" Strattan - Keys
Rising from the ashes of 50's social engineering (a council tower block and one of the first ever inner London comprehensive schools) I was really lucky to find myself as a child of the sixties in Cornwall and Worcester with Hendrix, Beatles and Stones as the musical backcloth.

Did a degree in Busking and Poker at Birmingham Uni, saw Pink Floyd 'live' there in ’68,  played in the working men’s pubs and clubs in Kings Heath and Balsall Heath and worse (in between their bingo). The much lamented Ricky Richards trio. My first summer season at age 20 was as resident pianist at the Railway Hotel in Penzance. It was even dingier than it sounds.

I am infamous now for all night piano sessions with fellow pensions inebriates and music lovers (??).  Been thrown off pianos after the 11pm curfew by jobsworth nightporters at Gleneagles, Savoy, Conrad Dublin etc, etc. Always say 'I've been thrown out of better places than this...'.

TC Jefferson - Drums
"A head-hunter in the pension derisking world, known by only his initials, TC exists in the shadows and tracks his prey with relentless stalking before going in for the kill. But enough about his personal life...

Whilst at Exeter University, he played in Rock and Funk bands, and more latterly in a jazz trio. His rhythmic exploits usually take a back seat to his endless networking in the city's coffee shops, but he's picked up his drum sticks again as Plenum's representative at Pensions Rocks."

Ben Mulroney - Lead Guitar
A salesman by day, and a wannabe rockstar by night. Since first picking up a guitar as a child he has been inspired to rock harder and louder than is really necessary. Despite a style that owes more to sheer volume than musical ability Ben is still hopeful of attracting a medley of attractive groupies with his onstage exploits.

Liz - Backing Vox
With roots firmly set in the heavy metal scene, Liz spent many an hour in sticky floored venues hiding in dark corners waiting for her moment to emerge. With a random twist of fate and a hook up with a singing teacher one cold Wednesday morning in 2007, this mild mannered pensions professional appeared from the shadows and took on a path to heavy metal notoriety. Now a lead singer with the operatic symphonic heavy metal band Crimson Tears, Liz is on a musical journey she never dreamt possible. It was on this journey that Liz met Alex (Backing Vox), who then introduced her to The Racket of the Lambs and the rest, as they say, is history!

Alexandra - Backing Vox
Brought up in the communist Slovakia, where religion was very much discouraged, Alexandra's rebellious streak came to light when she started singing in a church choir aged 10.  This lasted until she turned 12 when the communism fell.  Religion suddenly becoming widely accepted she needed to find a new way of rebelling.  Searching high and low, two years later she finally came across Enter Sandman by Metallica and the rest is history.

Alexandra has been involved in a metal scene in Slovakia and in the UK ever since, primarily as a tour manager and a promoter for bands such as King Diamond and Blind Guardian, and on occasions as a publicist for a number of unsigned heavy metal bands. She also experienced a short spell as a keyboardist in a power metal band, finally bringing her childhood classical piano training to good use.

Alexandra remains an avid heavy metal fan to this day, headbanging vigorously at metal gigs and festivals all over Europe. Will her backing vocals performance be angelic singing or heavy metal growling? That remains to be seen.