Post by bri on Nov 8, 2006 18:13:15 GMT
Hi everybody out there in Cybercountry. I've been a member for a bit now, so I thought it would only be polite to pop in and tell you a bit about me.
I was born at a very young age (I'm now nearly 60) and from the age of six was sent to piano lessons, which I hated. However, when the Shadows first made an appearance I loved their music and got my first guitar - an acoustic with two of the machine heads missing, which I had to tune using a pair of pliers; it cost 30 bob in the local junk shop. I still remember my fingers looking like a drunken spider as I tried to find the notes of chords. After I'd proved to my mum and dad that I was serious about learning to play the guitar, I progressed to a Guyatone solid and then a Fender Stratocaster. Funny thing, after several years of playing guitar, I suddenly discovered an urge to learn the piano again. I always say I never learned anything first time around, but I could play things before I came back to the piano that I've never been able to get my fingers round since the second time.
Anyway, at the age of 21 I went pro and continued until I was 55, some 34 years. High spots...being in Barry Ryan's backing band (Candy Choir - NOT The Majority) and appearing on TOTP playing and singing on "Eloise" as well as other songs. In 1978 I was working with my (then) band in the middle east and Matt Monro came over and we were required to back him. No-one bothered to ask if we could read music, but luckily we all did, seeing as it was how we had earned our livng for years, and so we ended up backing the great Matt Monro for a brief spell in Bahrain. His music was the simplest and most effective I have ever come across - showing that you don't have to have almost unplayable music that everyone struggles with to make yourself look good (and the band a set of idiots - a pet hate of mine, but don't get me started there).
I gradually came down from working in a group, to a trio, to a duo, to working on my own...more money, less enjoyment. I finally retired myself after a bout of ill health and disenchantment with the way the music scene was progressing, but I have to admit I do miss it and am thinking more and more about starting up again, thanks to the encouragement of a certain Shyam. The trouble is, I've sold my gear, but having said that, I acquired a PSR-K1 which is the biz, so who knows. Maybe I'll see you apound your way sometime.
Cheers all
Bri
I was born at a very young age (I'm now nearly 60) and from the age of six was sent to piano lessons, which I hated. However, when the Shadows first made an appearance I loved their music and got my first guitar - an acoustic with two of the machine heads missing, which I had to tune using a pair of pliers; it cost 30 bob in the local junk shop. I still remember my fingers looking like a drunken spider as I tried to find the notes of chords. After I'd proved to my mum and dad that I was serious about learning to play the guitar, I progressed to a Guyatone solid and then a Fender Stratocaster. Funny thing, after several years of playing guitar, I suddenly discovered an urge to learn the piano again. I always say I never learned anything first time around, but I could play things before I came back to the piano that I've never been able to get my fingers round since the second time.
Anyway, at the age of 21 I went pro and continued until I was 55, some 34 years. High spots...being in Barry Ryan's backing band (Candy Choir - NOT The Majority) and appearing on TOTP playing and singing on "Eloise" as well as other songs. In 1978 I was working with my (then) band in the middle east and Matt Monro came over and we were required to back him. No-one bothered to ask if we could read music, but luckily we all did, seeing as it was how we had earned our livng for years, and so we ended up backing the great Matt Monro for a brief spell in Bahrain. His music was the simplest and most effective I have ever come across - showing that you don't have to have almost unplayable music that everyone struggles with to make yourself look good (and the band a set of idiots - a pet hate of mine, but don't get me started there).
I gradually came down from working in a group, to a trio, to a duo, to working on my own...more money, less enjoyment. I finally retired myself after a bout of ill health and disenchantment with the way the music scene was progressing, but I have to admit I do miss it and am thinking more and more about starting up again, thanks to the encouragement of a certain Shyam. The trouble is, I've sold my gear, but having said that, I acquired a PSR-K1 which is the biz, so who knows. Maybe I'll see you apound your way sometime.
Cheers all
Bri
left yet before the big six oh. Feels like I'm already there though, I think. I still remember going on a gig and whilst I was unloading the gear, some kid, full of himself, came up and said, "And what do you do, old man?" I think that was getting on for the final straw.
