Ian Westbury, founding member and lead singer of Fierce Blue Ascot.

Ian is from Scrapcroft, but went to high school in Leicester. That’s where he met his bandmates: two fashion-forward, big-belt loving aspiring musicians, Susie Cheltenham and Pauline Wallis. They were friends of his girlfriend at the time. He broke up with her, but the girls stuck with him. They instantly clicked with a shared love of all things synthpop, and formed a trio. They toyed with several names for the band during the first few months. Finally a list of suggestions was brought to rehearsal one day and the words 'fierce' and 'blue' turned up on each of them. As for 'ascot': Ian was wearing one. It looked as good on him as it sounded in the band name, but had it been a less windy day, they could easily have been "Fierce Blue Fedora".

After a few years of gigging in all the clubs from Camden to Copenhagen to Amsterdam they could get booked into, FBA had a top ten single with Under the Moon. Unfortunately, the later singles didn’t receive the appreciation or attention they deserved; obviously a major lapse in good judgment at the time.

The band basically fell apart after that. They were arguing over lyrics and eventually it became obvious that they weren’t creating the same top quality songwriting and sounds that launched their career initially. It was during that period that Ian married and divorced, twice. It was during this time that the band split up.

Pauline went solo and experienced a modest level of success. Susie Cheltenham enrolled in Loughborough University. Ian decided to escape the naysayers and move to America. With such a knowledge of the music industry, Ian eventually opened his LA-based record shop, where he am to this day.