Music

This could easily end up being a rather long page since music has been a very important part of my life since I first began learning the piano and singing in a Church Choir twenty or so years ago. I've never forgotten some of the music we sang, and the friends I made in that choir, tho a lots happened since. Here's some of what's been going on more recently:

Project X:
Not just a musical event, more a plan to bring together a collection of people already largely well known to one another and each with their different skills and abilities to provide a shared outlet to which each can contribute their own particular way.The performance is intended to include all or some of the following: bands, classical musicians, jazz musicians, DJs, acoustic, comedy, performance art, video, dance, poetry and anything else that seems suitable. Much more from our website including news on our first radio show.

First Solo Album:
It's not far around the corner. I have recently recorded a demo of three songs for solo piano which will be performed in Like Fxck, the first planned event from Project X on July 8th, 2006. I have made these tunes available for your listening and downloading please at my MySpace page - please do check em out.

These pieces form a central part of a series of nine works that I plan to be recording in full to comprise a solo album. Two of these tunes are also planned to appear in Project X orchestrated out more fully and performed in Ensemble with various other musicians including Marc Reck (Ardilez).

Ardilez:
Ardilez is the name adopted by myself and DJ Marc Reck for the music we make together. Having had some useful introducory sessions and each learned a great deal in the mean time, we are now working on Completion, an epic tune, to be performed part live at Project X's Like Fxck and featuring specially recorded samples of the wonderful speaking voice of Howard Marks.

Gidea Park:
In August 2002, I was invited to become the lead singer and keyboard player of the Beach Boys and Four Seasons covers band Gidea Park. The band are a very friendly and talented bunch who play some great gigs (which in the past have included a 48,000 audience at a Dutch pop festival and opening for Status Quo at Carrow Road football stadium) and had three top twenty chart hits in the 80s. The first gig I played in was to over 5,000 people on an outdoors stage overlooking Cowes Marina, and since then other highlights have included several National Trust gigs in the gardens of stately homes and supporting bands as diverse as The Searchers and The Stranglers. I can confirm that singing Beach Boys songs for money is fun!

The Beach Bums:
We were a five piece Beach Boys Covers band and although we didn't gig may times, we were pretty damn good. Sadly the band didn't survive my move to Gidea Park, but lots of happy memories remain.

Maroon:
We were a five piece band with a nice line in melodic grooves backed up by some seriously loud guitars. You can see some pictures on the photo page and shortly I hope to convert some of our demo into downloadable files.

Serene Machine:
My first serious band, a four piece formed in the early 90s. Up until this point I listened pretty much exclusively to classical music and The Beach Boys, but when Suede relesed their first album and the Smashing Pumpkins their second, I was inspired to start the band. You can soon download MP3s of "Dazed" and "Defeated" if you fancy a listen and you can see what we looked like on the photo page.

The Jellymonsters:
We were young, foolish and drank a lot. In between times we somtimes sang a bewildering variety of songs in an a cappella stylee. Although we now tend only to sing at each others weddings, we always have a great time when we get together. Rumours of an imminent twentieth anniversary tour are precisely that, but never say never to a Monster.

Movies/Adverts:
I've written music for various short films and adverts, and I'm keen to do more. I can write in a number of styles, so if you need a score writing, drop me a line.

CBSO:
In my early twenties I sang in the chorus of the CBSO (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) for a while. Whilst I don't have much to show for it now, having lost my copy of the one record we made when i was around (of the music of Anton Bruckner) experiences like singing Beethoven's Ninth under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle will stay with me forever.

The National Youth Choir:
And speaking of memories, I had some wonderful times on residential NYC courses. The fun and cameraderie were amazing as was the quality of the singing (mostly). My first concert with them was the incredible Walton Oratorio "Belshazzar's Feast" performed at The Royal Albert Hall - still to this day probably my finest musical memory.

St Mary's Choir:
Where it all began. Hurrah for Tallis, Byrd, Palestrina and Perrier!

Teaching:
I teach piano and sometimes singing too. If you want lessons, do drop me a line, but only if you live in or near the Moseley/Kings Heath area of Birmingham (the real one, not the one in America).

The Beach Boys:
OK, so plainly I'm not in the Beach Boys (tho if you guys ever need a singer/keyboard player to fill in, don't hesitate to call) but I couldn't finish this page without mentioning the band who's music I listen to about as much as everyone else's put together. If you care about music and don't know what I'm on about, buy copies of "Pet Sounds", "Sunflower" and "Surf's Up" (for a total of £13!) and lock yourself away with your CD player for a week at least.