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Gareth Turner
GT's (Auto) Biography (he's / I'm not famous enough for anybody to write it for me!)
Born at a very early age in South East London July 14th 1971 (although the family quickly wised up and moved to Moulton when I was three years old).
I spent the first four years of my school life outside Barry Care's Office (Headmaster at the time now OBE services to Morris dancing).
I started playing alongside Simon Care for the morris at the age of fourteen and joined my first band at fifteen with Guy Fletcher on drums. The band was called Plastic Cutlery and was run by Ian Carter (Tiger Moth).
At eighteen I moved to Yorkshire to work for Dave Mallinson Music selling and repairing squeeze boxes plus getting to go to all the festivals over the summer.
It was a great time for a year or so playing in sessions and in a memorable street band called King Ligger & The Bathing Boys (Eliza Carthy, Nancy Kerr, Jock Tyldesley, Sam Thomas, Tris Glover, Barnaby Stradling, Judy Wright, Jasper King and Will McKey.
In 1992 I joined the tale end of the electric Albion Band for about a year and then onto The Ashley Hutchings Dance Band with Ken Nichol(Steeleye Span), Paul Burgess (10cc).
I also became a member of the Phil Beer Band that year (1993) which still tours once a year. I recorded the worlds first squeezebox duo album with Simon Care (E2,Tickled Pink).
In 1999 I formed Little Johnny England...........................................
Credits include;
Miranda Sykes, Phil Beer, Show Of Hands, Maggie Reilly ,Emily Slade, Nigel Stonier, Ashley Hutchings
Likes: good food, good drink, good music
Dislikes: squeezeboxes and stupid people
One wife,two kids,one dog and a Landrover!
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Guy Fletcher
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Hugh Bunker
- It Never Did Me Any Harm!
I grew up in Muswell Hill, North London. It was a great place to grow up. My local doctors surgery was on the ground floor of Fairport House (funny that!). I started playing bass when asked to join my brother's school band. I guess I was about 14/15 years old.
Typical story, nobody wanted to play the guitar with two strings missing. Given the level of interest in the band from the girls at school I accepted the challenge and borrowed something. The bands name was Friction and we played a mix of Stones, Bowie and other rock legends.
We weren't bad and I had to learn fast. In the end and after consuming most of the grass in north London the band split and we formed a new band called No Comment, which then became The Edge. There are some clips on You Tube for those with interest.
I soon became interested in playing the bass for money and got some lessons in reading music and technique. This helped a great deal and I found myself getting the gigs that my mentors didn't want. My first real pro gig was a residency in a top Pimlico Night spot called the Elephant on the river. An Italian band, and I was the only one who spoke English. Once I had to sing happy birthday to King Hussein of Jordan.
While at this gig I discovered booze! I was soon earning enough to make a small living and life was good, apart from one little thing. I needed a band again. I applied (auditioned) for hundreds of crap bands doing all kinds of crap when (1989) I got a tip of from Neil Conti (drums, Prefab Sprout) that Fatima Mansions were looking for a bass player. I made a call and did a rehearsal, which must of gone ok because I got the bloody gig! Life then got a whole load more interesting as the band were just about to record and tour the album 'Viva Dead Ponies'.
Being in the Mansions was brilliant and we had a great laugh, did loads of miles in Andy's splitter bus and recorded some great albums along the way. The album did well but was not going to pay the bills. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatima_Mansions
I had to keep up with other work while the mansions were off tour, this made for a bizarre career of crap pub gigs playing Irish standards to playing around the infamous gig circuits around the country. While not on tour or in the studio with the Mansions I did all kinds of gigs. Crap show bands, good show bands, residences in various high-class restaurants and strip clubs. I played for about one year with Rent Party, which I really enjoyed. http://home.clara.net/giaco/rentparty/
Michael then soon came along and I had to start thinking about the future. This took me to Australia - a country that I miss a great deal.
I was soon getting the groove and meeting the right people, recording sessions started arriving and life was very good. I ended up recording a fair few well known TV shows; A Bit of Fry and Laurie, French and Saunders, Alexis Sale, Ab Fab etc. If I could remember the rest I might be able to collect some overdue performance payments.
I guess some of the highlights of my career (apart from playing with and meeting some great musicians and roadies) were;
Fatima Mansions (every little bit of it) and in particular the Zoo TV tour, Rent Party, Ronnie And the Rex, The Fabulous Singlettes (especially in Aus' some of the most plush gigs you could imagine), Sean Duffy (crap Irish pub singer, some of the worst gigs you can imagine), The Ab Fab theme tune (wheels on Fire with the legend Marian Faithful). I got to play 2-4 -6-8 with Tom Robinson at a show at Saddlers Wells, Oh yeh!, there was the Raw Sex Big Band with Roland Rivron and the gang, that was a real scream!
I got involved with The Bill Kenright Theatre scene and started doing the dead rock star shows, for example, Good Rockin Tonight (Jack Good), Elvis the Musical (West End and Tours with PJ Proby as nearly dead Elvis, what a plonker he was).
It was this that got me on Blue Peter show, doing tricks with double basses. We then moved onto the Four Steps To Heaven Tour (a great band with Darrel Higham on guitar http://www.darrelhigham.co.uk/).
Around this time things were a little weird and the inevitable divorce and complete wipe of my long-term memory bank occurred. The only good to come out of that period was meeting and playing with Stewart Tosh (10CC and the rest).
In 1997 I moved to Moulton Village and did a little bit of studying at the local College and University. While doing this I did two weeks in Hamburg on a crap Roy Orbison show. Best part was getting together with my wife Michelle, we had a great weekend. I then recorded for and played gigs with the Guild Of Thieves. http://www.guildband.com/flash/index.asp
We did this silly Elvis Show in Finland for three weeks with Lamar Fike as tour manager. He is a real bad man who has little respect for life as we know it! I enjoyed watching him trip on the main power cable, fall off stage while putting the whole show in darkness.
http://www.elvispresleynews.com/LamarFike.html
While drinking in my local pub The Telegraph I soon cottoned on that Moulton was brimming with local talent, I started turning up at jam sessions. One warm summer eve the barman introduced me to Mark Stevens. We chatted for about 5 minutes and realised that we had been on the same gigs, new the same people and we got on like a house on fire!
I was soon going round to his studio to make strange noises with my Wild 5 string. Again, while drinking in the Telegraph I met the new publican Gareth Turner and his lovely family. Again we got on like a house on fire and were soon chatting away like old friends.
Well, that's about it as far as I remember. Message to young players, practice, be nice to people and be prepared to play any old rubbish if you have to.
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MARK STEVENS
....... A.K.A. MARCUS PARKINSON, PARKY...
ONE WIFE, ONE DAUGHTER, ONE BROTHER, FOUR CATS , THREE CHICKENS, A LABRADOR, TWO KITS AND SEVEN SNARE DRUMS.
LIKES: ALL OF THE ABOVE, PLUS; GOOD FOOD, NEW ENGLAND , NEW YORK, JAMES TAYLOR AND THE BEATLES.
DISLIKES: BAD PEOPLE, BAD MUSIC AND BAD PUBS.
BORN INTO A MUSICAL FAMILY ( GRANDFATHER, AN ORGAN BUILDER AND
CHOIR MASTER, FATHER A JAZZ DRUMMER AND MUSIC TEACHER ), SO IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE I STARTED ON MY FIRST INSTRUMENT, THE TRUMPET.
FROM AGE SEVEN TO FIFTEEN IT WAS A WORLD OF BRASS BANDS, THEN I STOLE MY DADS DRUMS, AND EVERY THING CHANGED. MY FIRST PRO JOB WAS WHEN I WAS EIGHTEEN, A THREE MONTH PANTO AT THE DUKES PLAY HOUSE IN LANCASTER. THAT WAS FOLLOWED BY THEATRE WORK IN CHESTER , SKEGNESS,
AND BIRMINGHAM, WHERE I DECIDED TO SETTLE.
BY THE TIME I WAS TWENTY THREE, I STOPPED THE THEATRE WORK AND DISCOVERED ROCK AND ROLL AND SESSION WORK, THE SESSION WORK FINANCING THE ROCK AND ROLL.
MY FIRST PROPER POP GIG WAS WITH A BAND CALLED "HOLLYWOOD BEYOND". WE DID "THE TUBE", THE BAND GOT SIGNED AND HAD A TOP FIVE HIT WITH A SONG CALLED "WHAT'S THE COLOUR OF MONEY? ". JUST AS I LEFT, SO I HAD TO WAIT ANOTHER TWENTY YEARS BEFORE I GOT TO BE ON TOP OF THE POPS.
I JOINED THE LEGENDARY " ZOOT AND THE ROOTS " AND SPENT ABOUT SIX VERY HAPPY YEARS TOURING ALL OVER EUROPE AND THE UK, RECORDS,TV ETC..... GREAT.
AFTER "ZOOTS", SESSIONS BECAME MORE ABOUT DRUM PROGRAMMING RATHER THAN DRUM PLAYING, SO I BOUGHT MYSELF A DRUM MACHINE AND
STARTED WORKING AS A PROGRAMMER , BEFORE LONG I WAS PROGRAMMING KEYBOARDS AND SEQUENCES AS WELL AS WORKING THE MIXING DESK. SO I
STARTED TO TURN DOWN GIGS IN FAVOUR OF STUDIO WORK.
YOU ONLY HAVE TO SAY NO A COUPLE OF TIMES , AND NO ONE ASKS YOU TO DO GIGS AGAIN, SO IN THE EARLY NINETIES I GOT MY OWN RECORDING STUDIO IN LONDON AND STARTED PRODUCING AND WRITING.
I GOT LUCKY EARLY ON AND CO-WROTE THE SECOND TRACK ON GABRIELL'S DEBUT ALBUM, I THINK IT SOLD ABOUT ONE AND A HALF MILLION, SO I GOT TO WORK WITH LOTS OF GREAT ARTISTS AND WRITERS AND SIGNED A PUBLISHING DEAL WITH B.M.G.
FULL ON POP MUSIC FOLLOWED , WRITING AND PRODUCING FOR THE LIKES OF... THE WEE PAPPA GIRL RAPPERS, BUSTED, BANANARAMA, RUBY TURNER, JIMMY RUFFIN, OXIDE AND NEUTRINO, KRISTIAN LEOTIU, FAME ACADEMY, PLUS LOTS OF DANCE MUSIC AND REMIX WORK, INCLUDING JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE .
BUT POP MUSIC BECAME LESS AND LESS CREATIVE AND MORE AND MORE CORPORATE , SO I MOVED TO NORTHAMPTON AND BUILT A STUDIO AT HOME AND STARTED MAKING LIBRARY MUSIC AND WRITING MUSIC FOR TV PROGRAMMES INCLUDING, SEND IN THE DOGS, DOCTORS AND NURSES IN THE WAR ZONE, ROAD RAGE, STABBED, DA ALI G SHOW, PETER KAY'S BRITAIN'S GOT THE POP FACTOR AND BRIT COPS. THEN ONE DAY I MET GARETH TURNER IN THE PUB AND NOW I'M IN A BAND AND GIGGING AGAIN ........ FUNNY OLD WORLD, ISN'T IT?
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PJ Wright
PJ was born in Leicester:
His musical roots range from the blues, rock, country and R&B to English traditional folk music, and his professional career began in the 1970s backing American touring acts such as Bobby Vee, Del Shannon and The Coasters, followed by the short-lived (but magnificent) Entire Population of China.
Throughout the 1980s and 90s, after some time in California with singer/songwriter Ali Thomson, PJ recorded and toured as lead guitarist with the legendary Steve Gibbons Band.
Since 1999, he has been the singer and electric guitarist with the five-piece folk-rock band, Little Johnny England, appearing at many concert venues and festivals throughout the UK, continental Europe and the USA.
PJ is also a founder member of The Dylan Project, featuring Steve Gibbons, Phil Bond, Gerry Conway and Dave Pegg, and in May 2007 joined Ashley Hutchings' Morris On Band.
Session credits include recordings with Christine Collister, Julie Felix, Anna Ryder, Chris While and Julie Matthews, Pete Scrowther, David Hughes and Ashley Hutchings - PJ says he is especially delighted to have smuggled dobro and pedal steel on 'The Mother of all Morris' album.
His mostly self-written debut solo CD, 'Hedge of Sound' was released in 2006, when PJ opened up for Fairport Convention on their UK Winter Tour and he worked later that year with Dave Pegg - 'A Night off with Peggy & PJ' - which has since continued touring, recording their CD, 'Galileo's Apology' in 2007.
This summer PJ is touring with US blues maestro Brooks Williams. |
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© 2011 Little Johnny England
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