About Us

Ziggurat image We have been "Ziggurat" since the early 1970s. The years since then have seen various bursts of activity, but we set-to in earnest again in the 21st Century. We are still knocked-out by the same music and with the same enthusiasm for making music as we did when we met in 1970 at school in Devon. As a writing and recording unit we continue to write songs and music both individually and collectively. We both have eclectic tastes, a love of westcountry england and play a large array of instruments. The two of us worked together extensively throughout the 70s - at one time part of the seminal US band "Daddy Longlegs".

Meet Ziggurat

Steve Verge

Steve Verge

Steve has worked consistently as a performing musician in folk, jazz, pop, ceilidh, dinner/dance and rock settings whether in bands, duos or solo situations. He has performed on TV, radio and film. His website is www.steveverge.co.uk

Dave Styles

Dave Styles

Dave has a similarly diverse pedigree, studying Astronomy at University before surviving the 1970s as a professional musician, then becoming an IT developer, company director and currently supports the commercial team of a multi-national minerals company. Still writing and recording he can sometimes be seen playing live in Devon.

Former Members

Former Members

We are honoured to have worked with these other, great musicians over the years:

  • Ted Verge - Ted was Steve's father and a wonderful jazz and folk violinist.
  • John Wills - our guitars and sound equipment guy, there from the beginning.
  • Dave Smaldon - our great friend from school Dave played a mean dulcimer!
  • Greg King - a great guitar and bass player from Devon Greg, also known as Gregory Johnsson-King, was also a founder member of the Swedish band Stenblomma.
  • Mandy Paley - our second fiddle player, and now known as Amanda Paley-Menzies, Mandy is the Principal Lecturer in Music at the University of Hertfordshire.
  • Cliff Carrison - the drummer with Daddy Longlegs, we joined forces together in 1974.
Dave Styles

Audio Sampler

To get a flavour of Ziggurat's music we have prepared a sampler of one-minute extracts from eight of our favourite songs.

Featured Videos

Wish Hounds

From the 1974 album "Ziggurat" this video includes the original spoken introduction to the song "Wish Hounds" about the Dartmoor legend of the Devil's Hounds. When played live we turned the lights down and asked the audience to close their eyes and imagine the pictures that came to their minds. Turn down the lights, close your eyes and enjoy!

A Summer Story

is a 1988 film directed by Piers Haggard and starring Susannah York, Imogen Stubbs and James Wilby. Based on a story by John Galsworthy the film was shot in Devon and you can see Steve playing for the village party scene starting here at 29:50. Steve is playing the fiddle and the squeeze box is played by our friend Sam Richards . The film is available on DVD from Amazon here .

Evenstar YouTube Short

The audio of this video is Dave's instrumental track Evenstar, from the Driftwood Days album. The visuals were AI created using the Runway app, based on some initial pictograms drawn by Dave and created and merged by the AI.