Bio:
Yolanda became interested in music when she started learning the recorder and the clarinet at Primary School.

She continued with clarinet at secondary school and joined the Steel Band. This was her first experience of playing in a band and she loved it, partly because it also gave her the perfect excuse to miss maths lessons!

She attempted to learn the Trumpet and sat through Guitar lessons but didn’t enjoy the preferred method of teaching, eg. bore student to tears.
She would jam along to records at home by picking up bass lines instead of practicing Greensleeves. And so began playing electric bass at 15.
She went to Islington 6th Form Centre (ISFC) and joined her 1st band formed with guys at the youth club called Emphasis (embarrassing band name confession) a lovers’ rock and soul band.
She took a music course and a group of the kids entered in school band competition Rock School. They won the regional finals then entered the televised national final.
Soon after, she went to band sessions at WAC (Weekend Arts College), taught by Ian Carr. He had the musicians there playing Birdland and Elegant People by Weather Report and tunes by Charlie Mingus and Herbie Hancock amongst others. She had a great time doing regular gigs with the London Fusion Jazz Orchestra, a band formed from guys in the advanced class organised by WAC (now known as WAC Performing Arts and Media College).

She spent a lot of time in various bands playing mostly Soul, Funk and Jazz gigging around London, which was a great way to get other gigs. (Along with having a fat groove)

At 19, she was still playing for pizza and a beer. Echoes of her dad’s advice of get a proper job…..then she received a recommendation to play for Jimmy Sommerville who wanted a female bass player to be in the band promoting the single To Love Somebody. They shot a video for that single and did a few T.V appearances such as TOTP and The Word.

To feed her bad habit of gigging for the sheer love of playing, she took jobs working in clothes shops, record stores and teaching at the ISFC part time.

Sacrificing sleep and any kind of non-musical social life, she joined another band with some mates called Raw Stylus rehearsing and gigging whenever they could. A friend from the band told her about an ad seen in a music mag. She went to an audition and got the gig playing in the house band for a Jonathon Ross T.V series Saturday Zoo. The show ran for 13 weeks and there she worked with Suzanne Vega, KD Lang, Ben Elton, Mica Paris and Candy Dulfer.

She then had her first experience of life on the road, 2 weeks on a sleeper bus with Raw Stylus. Over-crowded, very long drives, no sleep and fantastic gigs: the standard set for all tours to come!
After this short spell Yolanda continued gigging with other bands, including Urban Species.

Earlier that year she had met Paul Weller when he was a guest on Saturday Zoo. He later called when he was looking for a new bass player. She went on to tour with him during the Wildwood tour of 1993/4, recorded the single Hung Up and a live album Livewood. She also recorded a few tracks on his Album Stanley Road.

After she left the band Yolanda continued to work on various projects including Gota Yashiki’s (Simply Red) solo album where she met husband Miles Bould. She also went on to play for Roddy Frame’s Aztec Camera and recorded bass on the last album Frestonia.
The drummer with Aztec was Jeremy Stacey who recommended Yolanda to Guy Chambers when he was looking for a bass player for a few Cathy Dennis tracks. She was 25 and had just had her son Tait, he saw a few studios and gigs before your average baby!

Artists worked with around this time include: Marcella Detroit, Howard New, Pops Mohammed, Alison Moyet, Desert Eagle Discs, Gabrielle, Channel 5 T.V series Club Class, starring Richard Blackwood.

In 1997 Yolanda returned to Paul Weller for his Heavy Soul tour, then played bass in Miles’ band Goosebump. The band was signed to Warner Chappell Music Publishing and she had a fantastic time gigging and recording tracks for an album over the next year. She also did a few gigs with Carleen Anderson. (She would work with her much later on her own project MAMAYO.)

Although she had only been in the band for a year, Goosebump had already been going for 5 years and felt they had taken the band as far as it could go, so they split in 1998. The following year Yolanda had her second child Carmen and so spent a lot of time song-writing and laying the foundations for what would come to be an album project years later.

Bands/Projects:
Developed in 2003 her new project is called MAMAYO and the album is entitled The Game. Featuring vocalists: Shaun Escoffery, Carleen Anderson, Mandy Lecointe, Vanessa Freeman, and poet/rapper The Liegeman.

Robbie Williams
Incognito
Bon Garcon
Shaznay Lewis
Spek
Summer
Kate Simmons
BBMak
Shaun Escoffery

Other Instruments:
Guitar, vocals, piano

Recordings:
Mamayo album The Game 2003, BB kIng 80, Alife soundtrack with Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart, Robbie Williams Escapology, Paul Weller Stanley Road.

Basses:
Sei Bass flamboyant model, Fender Jazz 1965 sonic blue, Lakland, Fender Jazz 5 string, Levinson Blade

Amps:
Messa Boogie

Cabinets:
Messa Boogie, Mpulse 600,   Eden, WT800 

Effects:

Strings:

Email:
yolanda@groove4dayz.com

Internetsite:
http://www.groove4dayz.com