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David Crayford-Noble was born in Norfolk and was one of four boys. His early love of music started with him singing in the church choir and scout gang shows. His mother and uncle both played piano a bit and David also began taking piano lessons and went on to play the trumpet in his school band.
He got his first guitar at 14 and this soon became his instrument of choice.  When he was 19, he started performing spots at folk clubs and occasionally in pubs and social clubs. He entered a talent contest as David Noble a contemporary folk and blues singer at the Bosa Chios night club in his home town of North Walsham. He beat 47 other acts to win the competition which earned him a place in a special final at the Norwood Rooms, Norwich. By now David knew his future career lay in music and he wanted to become professional musician.
At one of these solo gigs, David met Nigel Chapman and the two of them formed a duo called Buddys in 1976.  Nigel played guitar, banjo and lap-steel guitar while David played guitar, mandolin and accordion; they were both singers.  With such a diverse instrumental repertoire they billed themselves as a multi-instrumental duo.
Initially, Buddys played contemporary folk music working mainly in folk clubs and pubs but once established, they quickly moved towards country music as they both liked this genre, and were inspired by artists like Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and ‘new country’ artists George Strait and Alan Jackson. Most of their work was in East Anglia and at the height of their popularity they were doing up to 300 gigs a year.  Buddys had two tours of Germany in the mid 1980s.
Nigel had a very serious motorcycle accident in 1994 and this eventually led to the demise of Buddys. During their 18 years on the road, Buddys released five cassette albums,  ‘Buddys’, ‘Ten Years On’, ‘Bunch of Thyme’, ‘A Bakers Dozen’ and ‘Country Crossroads’.  David now took a break from regular playing other than depping with one or two local bands, including Zetas Country, when required. He was however on the lookout for a new band to join.
In 1998, a new 4-piece band The Barhoppers was formed by Tony Browne and Rob Davidson. Tony and Rob had played together before.  David knew both of them and was invited to join and Tony found singer Suzy Cattrell who had been working as a soloist. The new band comprised  Suzy Cattrell (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Tony Browne (pedal steel guitar, guitar and banjo), Rob Davidson (bass) and David Crayford-Noble (rhythm guitar, mandolin and accordion).
Rob left at the end of 2000 and the three remaining members carried on as a trio. In 2010 Suzy decided to leave the band to spend more time with her new partner who wasn’t keen on her continually touring.  With Suzy fronting the band, The Barhoppers released three CD albums ‘The Barhoppers’, ‘Images’ and ‘Same Old Faces’. Tony and David both advertised for a new singer online and former cabaret singer Gabbi Worsley was the successful new recruit.
Born in London, Gabbi Indick started singing at a very young age and was performing to audiences at the age of 10. Her parents had aspirations of her being ‘discovered’ and becoming a child star, like Lena Zavaroni and Bonnie Langford.  Her father got her bookings in working men’s clubs and this soon involved travelling all over the country.  As a teenager, Gabrielle, as she was known on stage would often open the show and she supported a number of established acts including Little and Large, Marty Wilde, Ted Rogers, Bob Monkhouse and Frankie Howard.
Her favourite gig during this short juvenile career was performing at Caesars Palace (not the one in Vegas!) in Luton where she was singing with a 15 piece orchestra. She met her future husband John Worsley at this time.  He was a song writer, arranger and record producer and wrote the scores for her.  At Luton she supported artists like Peter Gordeno, Charlie Williams, The Drifters and Roy Orbison.  As a teenager, Gabbi certainly didn’t appreciate the shear gravitas of working with such established artists even now she still finds it difficult to believe what she did.
John had a recording studio in London’s Demark Street called TPA (Tin Pan Alley) studios, where they met when she was making a demo. He and his business partner Dave Meyers (they were famous for writing the Eurovision Song Jack in the Box for Clodagh Rodgers in 1971) asked her to record some of the songs they had written.  All of this was while Gabbi was still at school. TPA eventually  moved premises to Tangerine Studios at Dalston. When Gabbi left school at 16 she worked at the studios as a receptionist and, as she was there, she was often asked to put a few ‘ooos’ and ‘arrs’ onto tracks.  It was there that she met Les Charles who was mixing his first hit single ‘Love really hurts without you’ in 1976.  He changed his name to Billy Ocean and the rest is history.
John and Gabbi started dating but he didn’t like her doing the club work.  At the time she was doing three shows a night in three West End night clubs, The Embassy, The Aster, and The Blue Angel. With such a heavy workload, Gabbi was getting very disillusioned with the whole thing, so it didn’t take much persuasion to convince her that recording records and possibly getting a hit, would be a better way to advance her career so she stopped gigging.
Gabbi left home and moved in with John at 17 and they married just after her 19th birthday and quickly started a family. John eventually decided to leave the music business as he too had become disillusioned with it. They moved away to Ashford and then to Suffolk. It was a further 10 years before Dave Meyers tracked his former business partner down and persuaded him to get back in to music again, but this time without Gabbi who was busy running the village shop. John and David’s new venture had some success  In 2005/6 they had a number 1 hit in the World Dance Charts that remained in that position for 4 weeks. The song was called ‘Hypnotic Erotic Games’. It was a collaboration between Dave, John, two of Dave’s sons and Gabbi’s son. They called themselves ‘The Soulshakers’ and featured a singer called Lorraine Brown, who Dave had discovered singing at a holiday camp. After suffering from deteriorating health John passed away in 2009.
In time, Gabbi decided to make a tentative return to the music industry. She saw an ad in her local paper asking people to audition for ‘Suffolk’s Got Talent’ at the Leiston Film Theatre. Having heard her singing in the car her son persuaded her to “go for it”.  He downloaded some backing tracks and she went to the audition. This was her first time back on stage for over 20 years. She was amazed she got through the auditions and made it into the actual contest singing LeAnn Rimes’ How Do I Live. Judges comments were mixed. One male judge said “you would make a good wedding singer” but a female judge, Helen McDermott, a presenter at Anglia TV commented ” You have a very nice country voice, and fabulous legs!!” She didn’t win the completion and went back to work in the local cafe the next morning. To her surprise, Helen McDermott came in with Wayne Burns (the Theatre proprietor, and producer of the show). She took hold of both her hands and looked her in the eyes and said “I just wanted to come to tell you that you are very good and not to give up”
This recognition gave Gabbi a real boost and she quickly decided that she was going to be a singer again. She searched on the internet for bands that needed a singer. She found two, one was David Crayford-Noble looking for a lead vocalist, and the other was Tony Browne, looking for a singer. She applied for both and it turned out they were both The Barhoppers
Gabbi auditioned for the band on April 1^st and everything seemed to gel. She was given 40 songs to learn in two months so she would be ready to take over from Suzy who was leaving in June. She practiced hard, but got a call from Tony in May to say that Suzy had walked out, and he asked Gabbi if she could start early? Not wanting to let them down, she said “yes”, but knew she really wasn’t ready, and she knows those first few gigs were really bad.  As Suzy had left with little advance notice it turned out to be a baptism of fire, for Gabbi, to learn a lot of new songs in a very short period in order to honour a long list of advance bookings. Despite a shaky start, Gabbi quickly settled in with her new band.  David and Gabbi got together as a couple in 2012.
In 2014 Tony Browne left the band to spend more time with Sally (his new wife) rather than be travelling around the country every weekend and Gabbi and David carried on as a duo and are still working as such today. A further two CD albums have followed since Gabbi joined the band: ‘Something Old, New, Borrowed and Bluegrass’ and ‘Sounds Like Heaven’. Shortly after joining The Barhoppers,  Gabbi  started writing songs. Two of these are featured on their first CD. ‘Something,Old ,New, Borrowed and Blue/grass’. These are ‘Once Bitten Twice Shy’ and ‘Fast Train’. Their next  CD featured more original songs, the  title track ‘Sounds Like Heaven’ and ‘To Have and to Hold’ The original version, and a bonus track of the version they sang to each other at their wedding. This CD also features a song David wrote called ‘Remember’.
Although they class themselves as semi-pro they are happy to travel anywhere in the UK although they try and arrange mini tours to avoid travelling from one end of the country to the other – it doesn’t always work out! When touring they usually travel from gig to gig in their motor home in an attempt to keep costs down.  In 2020 The Barhoppers released the single ‘Time Of Change’ about the coronavirus pandemic and was written at the beginning of the first lockdown. They are hoping to record a better version which will ne include on their next CD which is in the pipeline.