Howard was in band called Cracking Up. It was named after after a Nick Lowe song that they did. They played rock and blues covers. Howard played guitar and harmonica, Mike Rowbottom also played guitar, Tony Travis was on bass and Peat Gregory was on drums. They all sang.

Howard knows Tony as he lives down the street. He's an actor, director, playwright and set builder in his spare time mostly for the Progress Theatre in Reading. That's how he met Mike. Mike and Peat used to work together, Mike was a reporter and Peat still is an occasional cameraman. They've played together in various bands over the years. Mike does lots of music collaborations, writes plays and even a couple of books. Peat's also in another local band called Faker and he also plays sax but we haven't got into that yet. Tony was in a band called Fay Ray who actually made an album.