Birth name Merv Spence Name Mervyn Spence Also known as O'Ryan Role Musician | Instruments Vocals, bass, guitar Albums Initiate, Raw to the Bone Years active 1980s–present | |
 | ||
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, musician, producer Labels Parachute music, Emjo Media Similar People Steve Upton, Laurie Wisefield, Andy Powell, Ted Turner, Andy Pyle | ||
Former rock star Mervyn Spence with a message and a protest song for Nationwide
Merv "Spam" Spence is an Irish musician & Producer, best known for his work with Wishbone Ash and Trapeze.
Contents
- Former rock star Mervyn Spence with a message and a protest song for Nationwide
- Wishbone Ash Cell Of Fame feat Mervyn Spence Live In London 2009
- Musical career
- Trapeze
- Wishbone Ash
- Post Wishbone Ash
- Solo
- with Wishbone Ash
- with Face Face
- with Purple Cross
- with Phenomena
- with Big Daisy
- References
Wishbone Ash - Cell Of Fame (feat. Mervyn Spence - Live In London 2009)
Musical career
Spence moved to Staffordshire from Ireland in the late 1970s, and began playing with bands such as The Jury and Big Daisy.
Trapeze
During Spence's time in local bands, he was spotted by Mel Galley, who promptly offered Spence the bassist and vocalist position in Trapeze, which had been left vacant since Peter Goalby had left to join Uriah Heep. Spence briefly toured with the band, and during his tenure recorded one album's worth of material, which – due to Galley's departure to replace Bernie Marsden in Whitesnake – remains unreleased. Several of the songs from these sessions however (Demos exist in bootleg form), would form a very small part of Tom Galley's Phenomena project.
Spence later went on to buy the rights to the project, cashing in (and dining out) with a 'best of' compilation which featured a very small percentage of his work tagged onto the work of the real members of the project.
Wishbone Ash
Following the break-up of Trapeze, Spence was offered an audition for Wishbone Ash while he was pitching demo material to various outlets. On the strength of his vocal range and enthusiasm, Spence became a member of the band. Spence would perform on one album by the band, 1985's Raw to the Bone.
Post-Wishbone Ash
Spence left Wishbone Ash in 1986 "to pursue family matters". He has since released two solo albums under the name "O'Ryan" (his mother's maiden name), 1993's Something Strong and 1995's Initiate.
Spence secured a job lecturing music industry topics at Walsall College of Arts and Technology in the mid 90's while hitting hard times musically.