You could believe the origin story on the Helpers website or this one:

I decided in 2010 I wanted to play live more, and give the songs a power they could never have with just an acoustic guitar or two. I’d been impressed with Darren Thornberry’s band when we’d shared a gig at The Lot and spoke to Jim Whyte, who’d played bass with him.  Jim was keen to join in, and it didn’t take me long to recruit Sam Barber on drums and – I’d be lost without her – Mary Robbs on violin.  I wanted to introduce an experimental edge to it so I invited Alasdair Clarke on the Warr Guitar – a multi string touch guitar favoured by Crimsophiles.

The Warr didn’t quite work out and, after a few enjoyable gigs,  we parted company from Alasdair in 2011 and brought in John Griffiths on bass. The rest is, well not history, it’s … the present (as at December 2011).