User:Dar McWheeler

Jeffrey Alexander Clinton Knight (born October 14, 1959 in Lindsay, Ontario) is a Canadian guitarist and composer. He was the guitarist and songwritter for such bands Remote Control and Big Generator before going on to lead a career as solo artist. He currently operates a recording studio, The Temple of Digital Gratification, and performs with his electronic solo act Last Man Standing.

= Musical Life =

The following is paraphrased from the website www.allknightmusic.com.

the 70's
Knight joined his first band, Kilowatt, in 1974 with guitarist Keith Kirkpatrick and drummer Brian Ferguson. After garnering some local attention Knight and Kirkpatrick were recruted by Pelucidar, a band produced and organized by Wayne and Maryanne Harrison for their sons, Dwayne and Kevin. This band enjoyed a great deal of success on the local music scene.

Wanting to begin experimenting with songwritting and composition Knight formed a new band, Remote Control, in 1977, with drummer Lyle Fraser and bassist Brian King. A progressive rock/punk act, Remote Control garnered a solid local following and an honourable mention from the 1978 Homegrown Music Contest sponsored by radio station Q-107. King took a job that required him to quit the band. He was replaced by bassist Jimi Baldwin. Also added to the group was singer Kevin Parker. With this lineup in place the band played countless shows. Remote Control called it quits in 1980 due to family pressures.

the 80's
Durring the 1980's Knight's musical experiments attracted many valuable, local musicians. Still performing under the Remote Control banner, guitarist Alan Watt and drummer Danny Truax came onboard. Danny eventually was replaced by Steve Jackett from the uber-punk band The Lindsay Huns. The outfit preformed from 1982 to 1985 when they added former bassist Jimi Baldwin and singer Janice Wileman. This incarnation existed until 1987.

While Remote Control continued to rehearse Knight, needing a paying gig, joined country rock act Clyde "Buzz" Woodcock & Bitter Whiskey in 1985. He played lead guitar for Woodcock until 1989. Bitter Whiskey was the "house band" at the Manion House in Sutton, Ontario in 86-87 and the "house band" at Rocky's Roadhouse in 88. Knight took over the gig at Rocky's, after Woodcock left, creating a new combo called The New Dimensions featuring the Bitter Whiskey band including Janice Wileman and sax player Cameron Brien.

Besides playing in regular bands Knight was pursuing his interest in one-man-band style shows with backing music. Knight and Wileman created quite a buzz localy by finishing second place in a Battle of the Bands competition with their act, Spy School. This was vocals, guitar and bass/drum backtracks Knight created in his flegdling studio.

Always ambitious to perform his material, Knight started a side project called Big Generator (1988 - 1991). After many changes of musicians the project disbanded.

The 80's also saw the start of Knight's recording career. In 1985 Knight recorded his first cassette release entittled, Surfboard Found on Moon! which featured Alan Watt and Danny Truax on several tracks. Between 1985 and 1989 Knight recorded 90 tracks, releasing 8 cassettes and a best-of compilation.

In 1987 and 88 he also wrote and recorded the music and sound design for two travelogues, Sea World - Florida and Southern California, for a Toronto film maker. The unique thing about these scores was the use of an early Korg guitar synthisizer.

the 90's
By 1990 Knight's recording skills had attracted many bands and songwriters. Using portable recording equipment he did on-location recording sessions for most of Lindsay's finest bands. It was in the fall 1991 that he decided to stop recording other bands and concentrate his efforts on new material.

1991 also saw the demise of the Big Generator project after coming in 2nd at a local Battle of the Bands and getting the songs Only One and his hit instrumental Anthem, placed on a cassette release of local talent sponsored by radion station CKLY.

Knight saw this as his cue to focus his efforts on musical study and recording. From 1991 to 1997 he released 7 more cassette releases, 2 of which were double albums. Durring this period Knight composed several hundred pieced of music, many that had no guitar in them.

Durring the 90's Knight continued his foray into one-man-band style shows, playing a number of outdoor gigs and events.

In 1997 Knight, after doing a successful cassette release for songwriter Dave Martin, Knight, on bass, and Martin, on acoustic guitar, began a bi-weekly show at the Grand Hotel in Lindsay. This act was incredibly popular for it's ability to generate deeply rhythmic music with out the aid of a drummer. They played until 2001.

the 21st Century
2001 was the year that Knight built his now famous Temple of Digital Gratification studio in his new home in Valentia, Ontario and began recording his first CD release, A Pleasant Fiction. This CD, according to Knight's website, has received fantastic acclaim from his fans.

Currently Jef Knight is working on his next release, a double CD entittled, Reality Takes a Vacation, scheduled for a spring 2009 release.

Family
Jef Knight grew up in an entreprenurial locksmithing family and is himself a professional locksmith by trade. Jef and his wife Nina Sohmer have been happily married for 17 years. Nina's family, also in business for themselves, manufactured Sohmer Pianos. They have no children.