BenMcCretton.com: Official Website

“The Council Gritters originally was a band idea created by my uncle Alan McCretton. It was a band he had been wanting to put together, aiming to play at the local pubs and clubs with some good old fashioned rock n roll with some punk and blues thrown into the mix. He intended to be the singer and guitarist. Alan would talk of conscripting me and my cousin into the band “when we were older” as he said he needed another guitarist but would say one of us would also have to learn the bass guitar, neither of us seemed particularly keen. Lead guitarists were cooler to both of us at the time.

Some of Alan’s favourite songs were ‘Hey Joe’ by Jimi Hendrix, ‘House of The Rising Sun’ by The Animals, ‘Nights in White Satin’ by The Moody Blues and a few blues riffs that he enjoyed playing about with more that the others mentioned.

When I was a teenager I was thankful to be able to play about on Alan’s electric guitar, I remember him being so enthusiastic to show off his beloved white Aria Pro Vanguard with a Marshall amp, the headphones were a requirement to keep my Nana at bay from raising all manner of hell when the gain setting was ramped up.
I used to mess around on that guitar, which in turn helped steer me towards learning the guitar over continuing my learning of the piano, the guitar seemed so much cooler to a teenage lad.

Then we all grown older, when me and and my cousin became adults it felt like The Council Gritters were never meant to be, Alan would often mention the idea here and there (usually more so when he was drunk) and would muse to who the ever-changing lineup of people in the band would be.

Sadly Alan passed away unexpectedly in May 2014, ending the possibility of The Council Gritters ever coming to fruition.

Fast forward to 2025 – I had an idea to do something with some songs I had written and did not want to provide them to my other band (The Jarrovians) because we already had too many songs to play with. I decided to create another music project and play all the instruments myself, programming the drums while physically playing the rest of the instruments (rhythm and lead guitar, bass guitar and keyboards) and outsourced the mixing and mastering duties to a sound engineer based in Argentina (I hate and still continue to hate that part of music production).
After having around seven tracks completed, I decided what better way to honour my uncle than to put it under the band he always wanted to put together? So The Council Gritters was born.

The first single ‘The Angels Call Your Name’ was released on all the major streaming services on 6th March 2026, followed by the first EP release ‘What A Load Of Grit!’ on 20th May 2026, the day of Alan’s memorial of his passing. To some, it could appear tactless but to me I thought it a fitting way to honour my favourite uncle by releasing the band’s first EP on that date. It was my way of telling the world that although Alan has moved on from this world, his cherished band idea was brought to life, I hope wherever he is, he thinks I’ve done him proud.”

– Ben McCretton