Snooker legend Steve Davis to play synth gig at cathedral

Back when there were fewer UK television channels than non-red balls on a snooker table, Steve Davis was king of the green baize.

He was the player many loved to hate, with his emotionless, robotic style making him a household name who won six world titles during the 80s.

That same “uninteresting” persona was even lampooned by notorious ITV puppet show Spitting Image – a dubious honour usually reserved for heads of state, top ranking politicians and Hollywood celebrities.

Who then would have foreseen Davis eventually rebrand as one of the country’s top DJs, performing everywhere from the Glastonbury Festival to supporting Britpop giants Blur at Wembley Stadium?

Not only that, the 66-year-old Londoner will also be appearing at the 40th Brecon Jazz Festival this weekend.

There he will be joined by long-time musical collaborator Gaz Williams, the duo promising an “utterly unique” immersive sound and light experience at the town’s cathedral on Saturday, 10 August.

But rather than a set of turntables, both will be playing a modular synthesizer – to the uninitiated, a baffling box of switches, dials, sliders and wires – to create hypnotic soundscapes of loops, samples drones and textures.

“What we do isn’t jazz as such, but we are improvising and that’s very jazz-like,” said Davis, who now lives just the other side of the Severn Bridge.

“I also used to improvise whenever I played snooker because I never knew what the next shot was going to be.

“So I’m still doing exactly what I’ve done all my life really.”

But, as Davis freely admitted, that still doesn’t make the image of him playing gigs rather than potting balls any less incongruous.

“When I retired from the snooker world I started hanging out more and more with my musician friends, after which I started DJing,” he said.

“I’d play classic dance bangers mostly, a bit of techno and some stuff from the good end of rock.”

But then he saw someone playing a modular synth at a club in Soho and “began disappearing down that particular rabbit hole”.

“I remember thinking, ‘that thing doesn’t even have a keyboard, so where are the sounds coming from?’,” Davis added.

“I decided to investigate further and got totally hooked.”

Hailing from near Wrexham, Gaz Williams first met the snooker icon via a mutual acquaintance at the 2016 Greenman festival in Powys.

He described playing a modular synth – get ready, here comes the science bit – as “sending random voltage through different modules, which clamp and shape it”.

“We’re channelling vibrations to sculpt something musical, and at Brecon we’ll be performing three 20 minute pieces on the festival’s new Mindset stage,” he said.

“Each of those pieces is a rough sketch which we’ll play about with and expand upon – essentially we’re asking the audience to come with us on a journey and see what happens.”

Davis added: “There are easier ways to play music, but therein lies the challenge.

“I love the fact that we’re not totally in control and that much of what comes out is a happy accident.”

It is certainly light years away from Snooker Loopy, the 1986 Chas ‘n’ Dave hit upon which Davis featured, alongside such other great players as Dennis Taylor and Terry Griffiths.

“I’m sure there are some who’ll see me doing all this and think I’ve lost the plot,” he said of his latest offbeat venture.

“But if that curiosity factor attracts to our shows the sort of people who might not have come otherwise, then that’s great.

“I don’t have the ego to demand anyone take me seriously as a musician.

“I’m perfectly happy being a bit of a novelty.”