So just who are YAK anyway?

YAK were formed following the collapse of cult band Acid Fantasy who toured in and around, but mostly in, Toot Hill Village Hall in Essex between '78 & '81. Although ‘the Fantasy’ never made it big, never in fact gigging at all, it is interesting to note that following the demolition of the said village hall, a themed housing estate has now been constructed on the site - albeit on a different theme.

The Drummer, John Wynn was determined to move on, and soon got together with old school chum and ex-Blohm und Voss guitarist Robin Hodder. The keyboard player from the Fantasy was contacted and together with bassist Simon Snell from Theydon Bois, the four piece took shape.

Playing was initially at the River Way Rehearsal Studios in Loughton. However, after John's mother's neighbours complained, operations were moved to a detached property on York Hill - on the proviso that Robin's parents were out. A few recordings exist of the early rehearsals at York Hill, and these have been carefully archived away for quality reasons. These early recordings are now available to the specialist YAK connoisseur reasonably priced from Ruskin Studios, Northampton although a medical certificate will be required before these can be purchased :-).

The music was initially a mix of Rolling Stones covers, well one anyway, the first few bars of several Santana tracks and ruthless jamming mainly in the key of A and occasionally D minor. Then the YAK ideas and riffs started to emerge. These were a radical departure from the till then standard time signatures, as musical ideas in 7/8, 5/4 & 3/4 time emerged. The bands followers, mainly Nigel Astell and Andy Nettleton were enthralled by the new sounds - so much so that they were later moved to relocate respectively to America and Arabia!

Rehearsals were regular, occurring every few weeks in Loughton and even on two occasions in a remote cottage in the depths of the Suffolk countryside - incidentally the cottage has since been re-developed into a housing estate.

Finally in 1984 after about four or five YAK ideas had been practised to some degree the band split after a bitter row over whether it really was necessary - let alone practical - to play in 37/8 time. In protest, Robin retreated to his college town of Northampton where he lives now. Sy Snell moved to Walthamstow and John disappeared from my contact for many years. Thanks however to the internet and the investigative IT excellence of Mr Snell, John has been re-discovered living on Mars.

More recent history

Following the release of the first album in February 2004, we decided to get back together and have a ‘jam’. Sadly, Sy Snell was unable to join us, so we drafted in the services of Max Johnson on bass. We spent a weekend in Nottingham playing at a rehearsal studio and the session was recorded in Lo-Fi - the highlights of which were released in 2005 as the live album ‘Does Your Yak Bite?’

The following year we had another Jam at a remote cottage in Rutland with the same line up. A second live album was released being the highlights of the weekend’s recording. This one was called "The Rutland Chronicles".

Even more recent history

I had planned to record another studio album - the same way as I had recorded the first album with me doing all the music, and whilst doing this I streamed the new pieces on the newly created YAK Myspace page. In the latter half of 2007 I was contacted by a drummer called Dave Speight who had heard the material and wanted to work with me. Dave was already playing in a number of bands - namely ‘Harmony in Diversity’ which is Peter Banks' band. Peter was the original guitarist with YES. Dave was also playing for ‘Whimwise’, the band of Nick May - Nick was the guitarist with ‘The Enid’ for several of their albums. Additionally, Dave was also working with 'Yesterdays' the Hungarian Progressive Rock Band.

So, together with Gary Bennett on Bass (Dave and Gary have worked together for years) we started to record the new album as a three piece.

The 'Journey of the Yak' album was recorded between April and October 2008 and mixed and mastered in October. The album was released on 14th November 2008 - at about half past eleven.

Fairly up to date history

​’Quest for the Stones’ was based on an idea I had initially had in my youth, but it was not until 2005 that I started to work on some of the melodies and themes that would later become the music for the album released in 2015.

Recorded between 2012 and 2014 the album again features Dave Speight on drums and Gary Bennett on bass together with an array of vintage & some not so vintage keyboards and synthesisers.

Latest Developments

Since I retired from work in 2016 I find that I have even less time available than I had whilst in full time work - which makes absolutely no sense, but hey - I hear people say this all the time & previously thought wtaf? but guess what its true !

Although I imagine most people dont have 400 rescued animals & 4 locations to travel to each day to see to their needs.

This being said, I am working on new material and already have a couple of tracks more or less finished.

I have moved over to the “dark side” and am experimenting with recording on a computer! shock horror etc - My initial incursion into this arena was with a PC - a powerful one - but netherless a PC & frankly I gave up after issue after issue prevented me from actually doing any music - blue screen of death, freezes & continual failure to recognise the controllers for 20 minutes on start up almost drove me to give up completely, however I started again in 2023 & this time with a Mac Studio - Why oh Why didn’t I move over to Mac earlier???

I’m using Reason 13 now - only scratching the surface - but - bloody hell - wow

All 3 of the YAK studio albums are now available online at a plethora of streaming services - Journey of the Yak has been on there a long time, but I finally got round to uploading Dark Side of the Duck and Quest for the Stones at the beginning of 2025

Please be aware that only Journey of the Yak and Quest for the Stones were mass produced and available (whilst stocks last) shrunk wrap on CD.

Dark Side of the Duck exists only as ONE master copy - orders are burnt from this copy onto a CDR and artwork printed and prepared Blue Peter style.

Does your Yak Bite and The Rutland Chronicles are again only in existence as master copies and will be burned to CDRs on request - these two albums are literally jam sessions recorded in Lo-Fi.

Best to listen to the sample below before you buy. The suggested donation per album is £10, but if you want to donate more you can. All funds donated go towards the feed costs of the 400 rescued animals - nothing goes on ‘expenses’ or ‘salaries’ as we have no paid staff - it’s just Fiona Oakes and me who look after the rescues.

If you are outside the UK, please add a few pounds to cover the impact of the postage as the postage costs have escalated ludicrously in the past year or so - at least £6 for Europe and USA alike.

If you would rather send a cheque (drawn on a UK bank) that’s fine too - Payee is Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary, Address - Tower Hill Stables, Asheldham, Essex, CM0 7DZ