 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
MEMBER PROFILE - CHRIS TAYLOR
I put the usual 8 probing questions to Chris – here’s what he had to say………… A.S. FOUNDER MEMBERS PETER J. GLYDE
Totally acoustic/purely amplified music is something that I am a fan of and I admire people who can actually sing and play well; they are few and far between. MIKE UNDERHILL
1967 was a great year for anyone who loved music: the Beatles “Sgt Pepper”, the Rolling Stones “Their Satanic Majesty’s Request”, the Kinks “Waterloo Sunset” and many, many others. As you can imagine this was a fertile period for an aspiring 14yr old. So now it is 2005 and I’m still getting a buzz from the creative process (yes I am 52yrs if you’ve done your maths properly) and I’ve managed to learn to play a guitar. For me the combination of lyric and music is the ultimate art form (mind you I cannot paint for toffee). JAN ROBERTS
We began working together on some of my songs and I found that, with Neil’s input and excellent musicianship, the songs were transformed into something that I am now really proud of. We have been performing together locally for about ten years now and I still tend to write when I have something to get off my chest, though rather less frequently these days. As a songwriter, I would say that the greatest thrill of all is for another musician to choose to cover one of my songs - what a wonderful compliment! NEIL ROBERTS
Some years ago now, Jannie and I got together, which was the best thing that ever happened to me musically, and in many other ways. The stage-fright is largely conquered now, though I still like a pint or two before I go on. It is so much easier to stand alongside another musician, particularly one like Jannie who takes all of the audience’s attention away from me. All of which tells you that I am primarily a musician, but I would love to be able to write songs. My total output since the 60’s is one little song that I consider tolerable enough to inflict on the general public, plus a few guitar and piano riffs that deserve to become songs but never get beyond the embryonic stage, a couple of collaborations with Jannie of which I am very proud, and a lot of stuff that has deservedly gone in the bin. The problem with me is that nothing I write is as good as His Bobness’s stuff, so it just ain’t good enough. Maybe I am an Elton looking for a Bernie. Are there any out there? ADRIAN SMITH
My first real shot at songwriting was a song called ‘Honey Moon’. Partly therapy following a broken relationship, it was rather depressing, but contained a chorus that I’m still very proud of. I continued to write and gradually the songs changed from lost love poems to small vignettes about made-up characters. A dying man, a lottery winner and even a Big Brother housemate have all inhabited various songs, many of which made it into The Chapter - the band I fronted for over 12 years with my friend Ian. Others I recorded solo. I have never really thought of myself as ‘a songwriter’, rather someone who has been fortunate that some people like what I do. I certainly find it hard to write to order - I just have to wait for that germ of an idea to hit me, then work hard at it. Those flashes of inspiration come a little less frequently these days. But the buzz of creating something that is totally my own is something that cannot be bought. I am a very lucky person. PAM UNDERHILL
I love original material. I write, but often tend not to share my work (bashfulness on my part) though having said this I’m a keen contributor to ideas. I want as many people as possible to get involved in our society so that good song writing may be developed and (more importantly) heard. | ||
The spot-light this month is on one of our younger members, Chris Taylor. Chris was born in 1988, one of the last babies to be born at Ashby Hospital. He was educated at Willesley Primary School, Ivanhoe School, Ashby Grammar School and is now at Birmingham University studying for a Masters Degree, having gained a 2.1 last year in Economics with Political Science. He has one sister Alex, who is a teacher. His mum Lorraine is an Administrator at Stephenson’s College and his Dad, Mark has a window/industrial cleaning business. As a child Chris doesn’t remember being into music at all. His sister played the flute, reaching Grade 8, and his dad Mark (also a member of Ashby Songwriters) is a poet and writes great song lyrics, but there were no guitars lying around at home to inspire Chris. His obsession was football and he played in the school team and supported Manchester United. He first pricked up his musical ears aged about 11 when he heard the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and after going to see some friends playing a gig at Packington Village Hall, he was inspired enough to want to learn to play guitar. So he got his first guitar at 15, an electric Aria. He has gone through three teachers to date; the first taught him the rudiments of guitar, the second was a singing teacher and third was our own Pete Glyde. Chris says that Pete substantially raised the standard of his guitar playing and his vocals, and encouraged and enabled Chris to begin performing and writing.
He admits that his first secret attempts at songwriting were “bloody awful” but he persevered and honed the art, and in 2009, with the help of Ade Smith and Ashby Songwriters’ own modest recording studio, he produced an album of six songs, of which he is rightly proud. He also has tracks on four out of the five Ashby Songwriters CDs, and is one of our most prolific songwriters. His first public appearances were with a group of friends in a covers band, which lasted for about a year. Currently he is a member of The Shabbs, the ‘super group’ made up of seven members of Ashby Songwriters, playing exclusively self-penned material. As well as guitar and vocals, Chris plays, bass, mandolin, keyboard, and the list is growing. He’s still eager to learn. 
I began playing guitar when I was about 8 years old and started to sing along to that instrument a couple of years later. I played and sang, doing some paid gigs, until I was about 25 then stopped. When I was 39 I began singing and playing again and I haven't stopped since. I have been a professional musician for the last ten years working as a performer, tutor and songwriter.
Whilst languishing in school detention at the age of 14yrs for playing drums on my desk I was supposed to be writing 500 lines about not annoying my teacher. I didn’t write these lines instead I wrote a poem called “the clock”. The teacher supervising detention collected in the lines from the miscreants and simply ripped them up and threw them into the bin. My lines, however, caught the attention of the teacher (Mr Edmonds) and he (with my permission) published my poem along, with many others, in a booklet. This was the starting point; someone had read my work and thought it good enough to read again. Flattered I set about writing poems throughout the remainder of my school days. 
Hi! I’m Jan Roberts. I got my first guitar at the age of thirteen and almost immediately began writing songs of love and angst – the usual stuff for a thirteen year old girl! It was the mid 60s and thanks mainly to a group of my sister’s friends, who would descend on our house regularly with their guitars and their LPs, I was discovering the contemporary folk scene – Bob Dylan, Roy Harper, Al Stewart. I knew I couldn’t play like them, but I wanted to express myself the way that they did. Their lyrics were simple but wonderful. They told stories of real life, and could move you to tears.
I have played piano intermittently since I was 7, and was given my first guitar, a virtually unplayable acoustic, just after I first heard the Everley Brothers and the Shadows, but Hank Marvin became irrelevant when I discovered the likes of Bob Dylan, Bert Jansch, John Martyn and Roy Harper, and by the late 60’s I was regularly annoying the hard-line traddies at the local folk clubs with my crude renditions of venomous protest songs, mostly by Bob and Roy. The public performances ceased when I finally stopped battling against stage-fright; it had got so bad that by the time my turn came, my quest for Dutch courage had made me too drunk to stand up, never mind play anything. 
My name is Adrian (Ade, Ady, whatever..) Smith. When I was about 10 or 11, I decided I was going to make an album. I had no musical or songwriting ability at that point, but I made one anyway. The only instrument I had was a tiny battery-operated Casio keyboard (which doubled as a calculator!), various pots, pans and boxes that made up a drum kit, and a small portable cassette recorder. The resulting mess of beeps and clunks was never going to rival Dark Side of the Moon or Sgt. Pepper, but for me it was that all-important first step.
I’m a late starter, so to speak, as far as live music is concerned. Since moving to the Ashby area a number of years ago I became involved with the promotion of local level live music and in particular “open-mic” sessions. I have always been struck by the level of talent which exists locally; and especially so by the performers who present their own compositions. For me it is the words of a song that grab my attention first. Words are so important; the word together with the way in which it is sung give the sense of meaning which is to be conveyed. Then comes the melody together with subtleties that are cleverly inter-woven into the music; the descending pattern of the Bass, the harmony of voices, the stress of the percussion and the backdrop of the chords. 
