Dennis Homes

Dennis’s musical career began in the mid-sixties when he played bass guitar in a number of pop groups, performing mainly in pubs

 in and around the east end of London. 

 In 1968 he switched from playing bass to acoustic guitar and vibraphone

and formed the psychedelic folk band Synanthesia.

This band featured Leslie Cook on guitar, mandolin, violin and bongos and Jim Fraser on concert flute,

alto flute, nose flute,

 soprano and alto sax and oboe.

Dennis Homes, Jim Fraser and Leslie Cook (Synanthesia) in 1969

 Although the band were only together

 for a mere eighteen months

they played at some of the country’s premier venues,

such as The Marquee in London,

The Lyceum and Mothers in Birmingham.

They also played alongside some of the big names of the late sixties such as Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, King Crimson, Steel Eye Span and Bonzo Dog.

 They also did quite a few gigs with the late John Peel. In 1968 they recorded an album for RCA,

 which despite some favourable reviews

 in the music press,

 did not sell particularly well.

Radio stations just ignored it and John Peel and Tommy Vance were the only DJs ever to play tracks from it.

They also recorded one further track called Shifting Sands which was originally intended as a single but the band split up in early 1970 before it’s due release.  This track, which had an orchestral string

backing arranged

 by Jethro Tull’s keyboard player David Palmer,

eventually was released on

a compilation folk album in the summer of 1970.

A couple of years ago interest in Synanthesia began to re-emerge as a new generation,

(most of whom weren’t even born

 when the album first appeared),

started taking a keen interest in the semi-psychedelic folk acts of the late sixties such as The Incredible String Band, Forest and Donovan.

This style of music had now been

re-named as Acid Folk.

Old vinyl copies of the Synanthesia  album began selling like hot cakes on e-bay for huge amounts of money.

(We have documented details of twelve transactions, the lowest went for £120 and highest for £355 !).

In December 2005 Sunbeam Records did an official re-release of the album in CD format, which also included a bonus track of Shifting Sands.

The CD also featured extensive liner notes by Dennis Homes and some rare photographs.

The CD is now on it’s second run and is soon to be reissued once again in vinyl format.

One track from the album has also been included on the highly acclaimed and big selling 4 CD boxed set Anthem in Eden (An Anthology of British Folk Music). This was released in January 2006 on Sanctuary Records and also includes tracks by Nick Drake, Donovan, Ewan McColl, Fairport Convention, Martin Carthy, Lindisfarne, Steel Eye Span, Gerry Rafferty, Ralph McTell, The Dubliners and Bert Jansch.

For further info please check out www.sunbeamrecords.com

After Synanthesia split up

Dennis began playing solo at folk clubs.

Then in the early seventies became quite interested in the theatre. 

 He joined several theatre groups and wrote the music for a number of revues and small-scale musicals.

 Throughout the 1980’s Dennis did not perform at all, he continued to play guitar purely as a hobby.  However, in the 90’s he once again returned to the folk club scene with a repertoire of mainly original material, both serious story type songs and also comedy material.