Andy Cato

Cato grew up in Badsworth, near Pontefract, and played the trombone in the Grimethorpe Colliery Band,[2] as well as the Doncaster Youth Jazz Orchestra and won the Young Jazz Musician of the Year Award in 1996. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, a private school for boys in Wakefield, followed by Merton College, Oxford, where he read Modern History. At school, he was a prolific musician, frequently performing and leading school shows such as the Carol concert or as a pianist at school assembly. He often wrote his own songs e.g. "Christmas means to me - presents round the tree", from an early age.

After Oxford, he moved to London, where he began acting as a disc jockey at nightclubs such as Fabric where he started in the upstairs bar, and composing music. He set up the label Skinny Malinky, which produced records under various aliases included Big C, Mother's Pride, Vadis, Beat Foundation, Fatback Boogaloo and Qattara (with Alex Whitcombe).[3]

He formed the successful Groove Armada after he met Tom Findlay in 1994 in Cambridge, through a common friend who was his girlfriend (and now his wife), Jo, whom he met at Oxford. In London they had a dance night called Captain Sensual at the Helm of the Groove Armada. In 2003 they started the Lovebox Festival, named after the club night they started in London venue 93 Feet East in 2002.

In 2008, Cato moved with his family to Gascony in France. In 2013, they acquired a 100-hectare farm, where they now grow organic no-till crops and raise livestock in pasture. Cato is now a full-time farmer, but he still finds time to DJ, with occasional gigs in the UK and Ibiza and regular DIY releases.[4]

In 2022 Andy took on the 25 year lease of a National Trust Farm in Oxfordshire, using the techniques and non-intrusive farming skills used in France.

Groove Armada performed a farewell tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2022.

• Groove Armada website
• Making ringtones for O2 in 2005
• Jazz Weekly interview
• Sydney Morning Herald 2003 article