guitar, voice, & violin

Dr Space Toad.Troubadour from the 7th Dimension : Singer-Songwriter, Spanish guitarist, El Sapo de Espacio /(Pablo Francisco) and Mandolin playing Minstrel , songs original or from many different genres, poet, author, actor, painter and sit down comedian (also standing up for standing Ovations….not guitars). Dr Space Toad the Troubadour from the 7th Dimension also known as Pablo Francisco El Sapo de Espacio, Paul Francis le Troubadour from the 21st Century, Jean Paul Dionysus, and Jean Paul Ruskinson. He was born on Ganemedes a moon of Jupiter, not far from a nearby planet where a band called the Beatles (and other insects) you may have heard of came from.. His wondering nature took him to the Moon where he ate some porridge with Dr Do-little and started his musical career with his band called “Charley Farley and the Electrick Rusks ” then forming a punk band called the “Toads”, who soon built up a big local following but sadly had a short lived carear. He then became a reclusepainting many pictures trying to convey a vision of enlightenment that he had experienced. Then going through a musical evolution forming vatious bands such “The Phsycotics” and “the Ebony Set”, a new romantic/gothic band who also had local success but split as they were beginning to take off. His next band, The Blue Warthogs were a psychedelic rock guitar band who played around Europe and also Dingwalls and other venueus in London, doing a short tour of Holland before splitting up. He then formed the Ruskinsons this deriving their name from his own stage name at the time: Jean Paul Ruskinson. This band was best described as a psychedelic jazz/rock/folk/fusion band. When the Ruskinsons split he played gigs as a solo acoustic singer songwriter under the name of Jean Paul Dionysus where he recorded his Album” The Moon is a Dandy (also called the Fool) which had a great write up in the national Music papers at the time although fame eluded him he was a hair’s breadth away. The CD is stillon more info on the available for mp3 down loads on CD Baby and on the Music CD’s page of this website.

He played around Europe (and Europa..one of the moons of Jupiter) and in London in venues such as The Troubadour, Bungies, The Town and Country Club, The Poodle Lounge at Club Dog etc. The picture at left was taken by Pajet Jones at The Troubadour. After a little time, Jean Paul became known as ‘The Troubadour’. The Troubadour and the other new acoustic venues were a platform for the rich variety of artistes around at the time such as Keziah Jones, Sam Green, Ference Azman, David Ryan, PJ Fahey, John Owen, Miro and Sonja Kristina to name but a few. Jean Paul was a catalyst and became a pivotal figure in this emerging scene.

After London disillusioned with the competitive nature of the scene he spent a spell in the West Country playing mainly in Bristol, in the Bath and Glastonbury, a trip to Cardif and an Irish tour, mainly Dublin and Galway, He then returned to back to the Moon where he formed a new band, ‘The Time Machine’. and played regular solo gigs in local pubs incuding one called the Vine the smallest pub in a local town but with the largest amount of eccentrics. His concerts in the Vine were just as much a spontanious, bizare theatrical comedy as a musiclal event with a lot of audience participation. Hence then back in Naarwich, he also got involved in the Theatre discovering a talent for acting and was soon plunged into the deep end in (of) The Edinburgh Festival(also playing in the Festival club). He spent considerable time in a town called “Evil Town” known by some as Brighton after a spontanious appearance in the Free Festival there where the people fell under the spell of his magicalMandolin playing. In Evil Town after having reinventing himself as ‘Doctor Space Toad’. he started his own club”Club Space Toad”, a club for poets, musicians, singer-songwriters, local exentrics and sad lunatics from the end of time. It was here that his new band, The Doctor Spacetoad Experience, came together organically.

The band toured around the North and South of England, playing in Grimsby, Doncaster, Hull ,York, Nottingham and other Northern venues as well as a string of Southern venues and in London:The Marquee Club, The Astoria, The Kingston Green Fair amongst others. Brighton and all along the South cost including festivals in Cornwall and in Belgium, and making regular appearances at festivals such as Glastonbury(in the Rainbow Dragon field with PA run by bicycle power) and the fabulous Big Green Gathering. This band was described as weird,wonderful and vaudeville with on bass guitar, ‘Monty the Moron’, a psychiatric nurse ( or possibly patient) on keyboards, Captain Barrington-White, (a local Brighton eccentric) on space whisper machine and a succession of insane drummers. When they played a concert they would start by activating the Time Machine and the venue would take of and be trasported into outer space where they would play a song on each planet they visited including Ganimedes a moonof Jupiter before finally coming back down to earth again at the end of the gig. He once played a solo concert with the same theme as the band didnt turn up at a concert in Bath which was suprisingly effective helped by an imaginative sound man. and could easily be reproduced in the right enviroment. The band can lay claim to notoriety, since it was the only Dada-ist band in existence…. Dr Spacetoad and the band brought out an inter-galactic concept album called ‘Time Machine’ which is available on CDBaby for mp3 down loads and on the website page Music CD’s.

Keeping his hand in by regular busking in London, , Paris, Amsterdam, Venice and even Marrakesh etc. Continueing in the Minstrel Tradition spreeding light and enchantment. Here is a picture of The Troubadour playing outside Windsor Castle. The wonderful image of the castle in the background, helps make this image especially magical considering his timeless minstrel persona. In the last few years, he has played extensively throughout Europe: ), Italy (Florence, Venice, Rome, Taranto), Spain ( Andalucia, Granada, Seville, Xavia, Torremolinos, Fuengirola, Iznalloz, etc), Portugal (Porto, Faro, Albufeira),Greace (Crete, Patmos, Paros, Athens), Switzerlan(Berne),France ( Grenoble, Lyon, Marsailles, Ales, Nice, Montpelier, Nantes, Renne, Brest, Lesneven, Lorion, Bordeaux, Beziers, La Salvatat, Rouen, Aix en Provence, Limoges, Paris etc), and Holland (Amsterdam, Rotterdam,)Cheque Republique (Pilsn),Hungary (Bhudapest), Malta, Sweden (Gothenburg, Karlstad, Stockholm etc) and Norway. Van Goghand Rembrant are two of Space Toad’s favourite artists and In Amsterdam he also performed in the French Boutique “Agnes b” and in various Spanish restaurants and Irish bars there including the infamous Blarney Stone and of course some Dutch Bars too for good measure. He has made quit a number of appearances in Spain, for example in the “Carbonaria” in Seville where apparently the Late, Great, Paco de Lucia played near the beginning of his incredible career (sadly missed). Space (Pablo) loves Spanish guitar and Flamenco and now for a number of years, he has been studying the techniques of this incredible music including a number of classical pieces from the sixteenth century. More about his adventures traveling whilst playing music can be seen in his Books notably “The Trials and Tribulations of a twenty Firsty Century Troubadour in Paris” avalable on Amazon . Also look under the heading “Books”(a use full tip). These two pictures are from the gig that Space did supporting SonjaKristina (making her accoustic come back) at the Concorde in Brighton. On a few of his songs, he was joined by two other musicians: violinist Ashar and Monty on percussion.

Space has spent some time traveling and playing around Europe. His wondering, vagabond, roving spirit has guided him through many different Cities, places and phases.. He is an international Artist/Troubadour (he once went to Scarborough but did not find his true love at the Fair as she could not make him a Cambric shirt without any seams or needlework so he is searching elsewhere to find such a woman in the hope that she exists). He is busy playing, sometimes doing live radio appearances paying live tracks from his new CD, composing and recording for his next albums and forthcoming concerts and writing his new books. His new Album “The Route to the Heavens” has recently been released and can be obtained on the Music CD’s page of this site. Like many creative people, Space draws his inspiration from many diverse artistes and the wonderful, European capitals he has visited. One such artiste, Jaques Brel, the Belgian songwriter has had a profound influence on Space who covers some ofBrel’s songs i.e. The Port of Amsterdam and Ne’me quite pas in his own inimitable style. Another artiste who has moved him, is Mike Scott of the Water Boys who like Space expresses his music with a deep passion. David Bowie has also influenced Space with his Chameleon like qualities and inventiveness. Last but certainly not least, Space has also has an affinity for the meta-physical lyrics and music of the late, great Jim Morrison

Space aka Dr Space Toad or Paul is a True Troubadour who has written over two hundred songs, the lyrics range from romantic to the mystical, environmental, surreal and anything in between. Space’s lyrics are very poetic and indeed he is a poet as well as a painter, writer, actor and composer. Paul’s favourite poets and authors, are Baudelaire, Lorca, Byron, William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Flan O Brian, Picasso (yes he was a poet too),Hermann Hesse and Guru Mc Coypu. He is currently working on his forthcoming book’s “The life and Times of Dr Space Toad” ,”The death of Dionysus” and compiling a book of his lyrics and poetry which will hopefully be available soon along with his book “The Trials and Tribulations of a Twenty-First Century Troubadour in Paris” which is available on AMAZON! See Book page for more details! He has to date produced more than 16 CDS of music most of which are available on the Music CDs page or .