History
Moneyrunner began in the twilight months of 2008, when Long-time friends and musical collaborators, Jamie Stapleton and Steve Wildish decided to put an end to almost fours years of musical respite. Finding like minded musicians in their home town had delivered mixed results, but upon hearing that local bass player par excellence, Martin DiRuzza had recently been made bandless, they knew the phone had to be picked up. The calls were made and rehearsal spaces were booked, just to see what would happen. When Martin turned up to the first session with a force to be reckoned with in the form of Hector James, already the first roots of what would become Moneyrunner were beginning to take hold.
Within the first few weeks, many of the live set standard pieces were beginning to take shape, but even in their embryonic state, the four knew that there were elements missing. Heads were scratched and more calls were made. All however, proved fruitless. The four carried on regardless, and tried to re-shape and adapt their style to suit a more rock oriented instrument line up. Then, out of the blue one day, just for a change, the phone rang them! On the end of the line was a trombone player that had heard there was a new funk band on the scene in need of a horn section, and as it happened, he knew of a sax player who also wanted in! The following week, Josh Jones and Phil Williams were added to the line up, bringing with them those elusive ‘missing elements’.
With the instrument line up forged, all they needed was a voice. In Sammie Scanlan they found the Icing on the cake they were looking for.
Moneyrunner have been a live favourite on the gig scene ever since, and plan to release their first album in the latter half of 2010.
