Budge Magraw
Formerly the bassist with the ironically named London band “Gretschen Hofner” and now dark art-house band “The Cesarians”
Budge Magraw was born and raised in Poole in Dorset, England, and has been based in London for around 25 years now, scratching together a living playing bass sessions for various artists before meeting Justine Armitage of Gretschen Hofner and joining as their bassist, before she left and formed The Cesarians a few years later with her husband Charlie Finke from the band “Penthouse”.
Johnny Dark wrote: “The spirit of rock & roll has hauled himself out of bed. He's called up his demons, put on his best black suit, and returned to the city's dark places. His new playmates are The Cesarians.
Not since The Birthday Party crashed and burned in Berlin, have the twisted sounds of old-style decadence been pumped so intensely through distorted amplifiers. London scenesters looking for a scene free of recycled rock, have found expression in The Cesarians cabaret world.
Had rock and roll been born in 1930's urban Europe, and not 1930's rural America, it would have been like this; part Kurt Weil, part Jacques Brel, part Ernst Kirchner, part Klezma. Looking like a band formed in the mind of George Grosz, The Cesarians capture the urban zeitgeist via the junk shop instruments of old Europe. In their hands, a clarinet, trombone, piano, and drums beaten in waltz time, make raw and raucous rock and roll.
Over this beautiful chaos, Charlie Finke preaches his own intense message. "I wanna be a woman" he screams on his knees, the grease in his Weimar haircut forming a quiff. The Cesarians are playing the city's night clubs. Rock and roll's demons are loose.”