Page 15
<<< Prev Page |
My newly acquired technical skills enabled me in my spare time to entertain local primary schools at Christmas time.
Calling the project The Electric Carol Show I recruited a friend Paul Athoe (non-muso but general good egg and have a go at doing anything), and performed a Christmas Show like no other! Christmas Carols were arranged as fully blown pop-songs of the day's style and performed using backing tracks, lights, special effects and even the odd custard pie!
This all started back in 1987 where I had just taken an acoustic guitar into Spurcroft Primary School in Thatcham, but by Christmas 1994 we did a Quantel-backed tour of 17 shows in front of 22 schools in 10 days to approximately 6,500 children. The Electric Carol show had become very popular and one of the final shows was filmed by Meridian TV and presented by TV presenter
Nick Knowles.
|
Also around this time I recorded and produced 2 CD albums for Country singer Kevin Hockley, which proved to me that I was good enough to work in this field.
In 1999 I submitted an orchestral entry to Newbury Variety 2000 as the overture to their Year 2000 variety show due to be held in July 2000. This was the first time that I had arranged music for a 64 piece orchestra and still is by far my most difficult piece to date. Using all the IT at my disposal to produce the piece I was delighted to hear that it had won! The prize was to be to listen to the piece played by the orchestra, but it never got played because sadly the orchestra was just not up to it!
Towards the end of 1999 I received the news that my job had been made redundant at Quantel. I had to find a new way of making a living so I turned to Web Design drawing upon and enhancing my IT skills.
Eventually I got the job of Webmaster at Newbury College which allowed me to hone my IT skills and improve my web design abilities.
Combining web design with music I produced a single and album for a young girl singer Chrissy Ryan.
|
Listen to some
Kevin Hockley Tracks
Let It Be Me
A Matter Of Time
Always On My Mind
Listen to
Chrissy Ryan's single
In my Dream With You
Next Page >>>
|