The Generosity of Professional Musicians
The purpose of this blog entry is to give a special mention to all those generous professional musicians out there who look after us amateur guys.
As I grew up I thought that well-known people in the public eye were in accessible to ordinary folk such as myself. I guess this is one of the reasons that the world has such things as idol worship. I imagine that the media helps build up his image and also helped to foster the inaccessibility of these people.
To my delight, over recent years, I have found out that my earlier thinking couldn't be further from the truth. In every instance that I have contacted anyone famous, well famous to me, they have been more than accommodating and generous with their time and/or guidance. Here is a little of what am talking about.............
Bob Spencer - Bob is one of Australia's premier guitar players and is easily recognisable as the guy with no hair in bands such as the Angels and Skyhooks when those bands were famous. Bob was my music and performance coach during the time that I did Weekend Warriors, the music program that gets mature aged amateur musicians back out playing music in public. Bob was always very generous with his time, was always very encouraging and will always go that extra distance to make sure that the musicians will well prepared. Thanks Bob. You can read more about Bob here http://bobspencer.iansandercoe.com/
Paul Norton - Paul is another well-known Australian musician and you can read more about him here http://www.paulnorton.com.au/bio.htm Paul was another of my Weekend Warrior music coaches is for a Christmas concert back in 2004. A great musician, Paul is a really easy-going guy who I have been privileged to meet.
Richard Hawley - I started listening to Richard Hawley's music around four or five years ago. You can see more about Richard here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hawley I saw a clip of one of his songs on a late-night music television programme and was immediately hooked. One song in particular got me at that time 'The Ocean'. After I heard the song I wanted to learn it but there was no sheet music available at the time so I contacted the web site of an English fan club telling them that I was in Australian musician living in Hong Kong and that I had heard the song and wanted to learn the arrangement but couldn't buy anywhere. To my surprise, very soon after Richard Hawley sent me an e-mail with all the chords, TAB, and arrangement for me to learn the song. How generous is that.
Sam See - Sam See is an Australian music legend having worked with bands such as Sherbet, Flying Circus, John Farnham band, and is currently working with friend Glyn Mason in a duo called the Pardoners. Are few years ago and I saw Sam and Glyn performing together. Glyn did a song that I had heard probably 30 years ago, a song called 'Its Only Love'. I had always remembered that song over the years as one of my favourites although I had never learnt it so I decided to work it out so I could sing it myself. Everything went well and until I was trying to work out the 'middle eight' which is the section of a song in the middle of the tune where the melody veers away from the progression of the song, goes off on a musical tangent, and then comes back again to the main song. Anyway, a friend of mine Peter Jones was going to be playing some music with Sam See and what I learnt of this I asked Peter if he could ask Sam to provide me with the middle eight for 'Its Only Love'. To be honest, I didn't expect much as I thought that either Peter would forget or Sam would decline. To my delight however, the next time I saw Peter he handed me a scrap of white paper on with the middle eight scrawled out on it. It was a little tricky and that's why I couldn't work it out myself. So, my hats off to Sam for his generosity and I also give a nod to Glyn for writing the song in the first place.
Eric Clapton - Eric Clapton needs little introduction. After all, the guy is world-famous. For anybody who's been living under a rock just check out this website http://www.ericclapton.com I have long been aware of Eric's philanthropic and generous nature in the areas of recovery from drugs and alcohol. Early in 2007 and having learned of Eric's world tour, I got this crazy idea in my head to track Eric down and ask him to speak at a 12 step recovery group in Hong Kong. Since most of my brilliant ideas usually appear to me around midnight when everybody else is sleeping and I decided to send out some e-mails to places that might be able to forward my request to Eric, places like 'Where is Eric' as well as his own website and also to Crossroads, the recovery centre he started in Antigua. The following day I decided that although my idea might have been a good one with all best of intentions, it would be highly unlikely that I would ever get a response. To my surprise and absolute delight, about two weeks later and e-mail arrived in my inbox from Nicky Hewitt, Eric's personal assistant, asking me why I was trying to track down Eric. I contacted Nicky and explained my request. There were some subsequent communications and I was to learn that Nicky had spoken with Eric, showing him my request and given him my contact details as Eric was agreeable provided he had the time. What more could I ask. Eric's tool came through China and Hong Kong and I had the pleasure of going to see him perform at Asia World Expo. I was to learn later that the tool was on a very tight schedule going through China and that Eric had the flu at the time and that this was probably the reason why he wasn't able to fulfil my original request. No hard feelings though as I really never expected the reply from Eric or any of his staff in the first place. Am just amazed that they took the time out to consider my request and put it into their schedule spending time commitments.
Broderick Smith - Broderick Smith is another Australian music legend. Best known for his time in bands such as Carson and The Dingoes, Broderick is a singer songwriter, harmonica, guitar and banjo player. You can read more about Broderick here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broderick_Smith Anyway, I asked Broderick's help in a roundabout way. Just like with Glyn Mason's song 'Its Only Love' discussed above, back in 1980 I heard a song done and the memorial concert for a young Australian songwriter Andy Durant. Andy was one of Australia's most talented songwriter's and died of cancer. He used to play in a band called Stars with Mick Pealing (see below). The song was 'Ocean Deep' and I was hooked on the song from the start. Maybe its something about songs with the word 'ocean' in them.... who knows. Anyway, I only ever heard the song performed once back in 1980 but in the past 28 years I would often hum it or sing it to myself. I once had the album of that concert in record form but it went missing however the song never did from my brain. I guess my skull is so thick that once music gets in there it keeps bouncing around because it can't find anywhere to escape. Late in 2008 I learnt that the Andrew Durant Memorial Concert had been released on DVD. Of course I knew I would have to buy it even if only for that one song, even though I knew that there were many other brilliant songs on it. So I ordered it from Hong Kong and waited until I was down in Melbourne at Christmas time to watch the video. I was delighted to see this song performed again by Broderick Smith. Coincidentally, a young Glyn Mason also did a sterling performance for that concert. Although I said diligently watching the screen and trying to work out the progression so I could perform that song myself, I wasn't able to understand it all and so was a little bit disappointed. I decided to do what I had learnt through previous experience, that is to ask the people who performed it if they would mind sharing the song with me. So, I sent an e-mail off to Broderick Smith and Mick Pealing asking them if they would mind sharing the song. To my delight, I had a reply from Broderick Smith within five minutes complete with the chords, TAB and the arrangement. Absolutely brilliant. That was two days before my writing of this blog and was the motivation for me to acknowledge the generosity of professional musicians towards us lesser lights. Thanks Broderick, I really appreciate getting that TAB.
Mick Pealing - Mick was a lead singer of the Stars, a well-known Australian rock 'n' roll band and has been a force in Australian music ever since. His web site is http://mickpealing.com.au At the time that I was looking for Andy Durants 'Ocean Deep' I sent a similar e-mail to Mick as I had to Broderick Smith and I did receive a reply from Mick. He was very friendly in his reply but unable to help me as he said that although he knew the lyrics world and sang the song, he didn't have the chord progression is that I needed. My thanks to Mick anyway for his kind reply.
Peter Jones - Peter is my good friend and is the person I blame for giving me back into playing music a few years ago and the reason why I have in excess of 40 guitars these days. You can find out more about Peter here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jones_(drummer) Peter has played with anyone worth playing with including Kate Ceberano, Renée Geyer, Daryl Braithwaite, Crowded House, Ross Hannaford, Lisa Miller, the list goes on........ I met Peter around 11 years ago and we quickly became friends. It was through Peter though I learnt that most musicians are just ordinary people and that most professional musicians are always willing to help amateur musicians make progress and play music. At the time that I met Peter my musical ambitions as well as my playing ability had hit an absolute rock bottom. Thanks to Peter he introduced me to a guy who was to become my music teacher to the next two years. Peter was also a big help in motivating me at the time when I joined the weekend warriors program. I even had the privilege of having Peter play in one of two bands at my birthday party three years ago, so not only have I made a great friend of us played music with him as well. Thanks mate.
So there you have it, some of the people I thought would be totally accessible but who have been not only available but extremely generous with their kindness and talents. My thanks to all of them.
Until next time, don't forget to wipe
Tales of Asia's signing off.
As I grew up I thought that well-known people in the public eye were in accessible to ordinary folk such as myself. I guess this is one of the reasons that the world has such things as idol worship. I imagine that the media helps build up his image and also helped to foster the inaccessibility of these people.
To my delight, over recent years, I have found out that my earlier thinking couldn't be further from the truth. In every instance that I have contacted anyone famous, well famous to me, they have been more than accommodating and generous with their time and/or guidance. Here is a little of what am talking about.............
Bob Spencer - Bob is one of Australia's premier guitar players and is easily recognisable as the guy with no hair in bands such as the Angels and Skyhooks when those bands were famous. Bob was my music and performance coach during the time that I did Weekend Warriors, the music program that gets mature aged amateur musicians back out playing music in public. Bob was always very generous with his time, was always very encouraging and will always go that extra distance to make sure that the musicians will well prepared. Thanks Bob. You can read more about Bob here http://bobspencer.iansandercoe.com/
Paul Norton - Paul is another well-known Australian musician and you can read more about him here http://www.paulnorton.com.au/bio.htm Paul was another of my Weekend Warrior music coaches is for a Christmas concert back in 2004. A great musician, Paul is a really easy-going guy who I have been privileged to meet.
Richard Hawley - I started listening to Richard Hawley's music around four or five years ago. You can see more about Richard here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hawley I saw a clip of one of his songs on a late-night music television programme and was immediately hooked. One song in particular got me at that time 'The Ocean'. After I heard the song I wanted to learn it but there was no sheet music available at the time so I contacted the web site of an English fan club telling them that I was in Australian musician living in Hong Kong and that I had heard the song and wanted to learn the arrangement but couldn't buy anywhere. To my surprise, very soon after Richard Hawley sent me an e-mail with all the chords, TAB, and arrangement for me to learn the song. How generous is that.
Sam See - Sam See is an Australian music legend having worked with bands such as Sherbet, Flying Circus, John Farnham band, and is currently working with friend Glyn Mason in a duo called the Pardoners. Are few years ago and I saw Sam and Glyn performing together. Glyn did a song that I had heard probably 30 years ago, a song called 'Its Only Love'. I had always remembered that song over the years as one of my favourites although I had never learnt it so I decided to work it out so I could sing it myself. Everything went well and until I was trying to work out the 'middle eight' which is the section of a song in the middle of the tune where the melody veers away from the progression of the song, goes off on a musical tangent, and then comes back again to the main song. Anyway, a friend of mine Peter Jones was going to be playing some music with Sam See and what I learnt of this I asked Peter if he could ask Sam to provide me with the middle eight for 'Its Only Love'. To be honest, I didn't expect much as I thought that either Peter would forget or Sam would decline. To my delight however, the next time I saw Peter he handed me a scrap of white paper on with the middle eight scrawled out on it. It was a little tricky and that's why I couldn't work it out myself. So, my hats off to Sam for his generosity and I also give a nod to Glyn for writing the song in the first place.
Eric Clapton - Eric Clapton needs little introduction. After all, the guy is world-famous. For anybody who's been living under a rock just check out this website http://www.ericclapton.com I have long been aware of Eric's philanthropic and generous nature in the areas of recovery from drugs and alcohol. Early in 2007 and having learned of Eric's world tour, I got this crazy idea in my head to track Eric down and ask him to speak at a 12 step recovery group in Hong Kong. Since most of my brilliant ideas usually appear to me around midnight when everybody else is sleeping and I decided to send out some e-mails to places that might be able to forward my request to Eric, places like 'Where is Eric' as well as his own website and also to Crossroads, the recovery centre he started in Antigua. The following day I decided that although my idea might have been a good one with all best of intentions, it would be highly unlikely that I would ever get a response. To my surprise and absolute delight, about two weeks later and e-mail arrived in my inbox from Nicky Hewitt, Eric's personal assistant, asking me why I was trying to track down Eric. I contacted Nicky and explained my request. There were some subsequent communications and I was to learn that Nicky had spoken with Eric, showing him my request and given him my contact details as Eric was agreeable provided he had the time. What more could I ask. Eric's tool came through China and Hong Kong and I had the pleasure of going to see him perform at Asia World Expo. I was to learn later that the tool was on a very tight schedule going through China and that Eric had the flu at the time and that this was probably the reason why he wasn't able to fulfil my original request. No hard feelings though as I really never expected the reply from Eric or any of his staff in the first place. Am just amazed that they took the time out to consider my request and put it into their schedule spending time commitments.
Broderick Smith - Broderick Smith is another Australian music legend. Best known for his time in bands such as Carson and The Dingoes, Broderick is a singer songwriter, harmonica, guitar and banjo player. You can read more about Broderick here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broderick_Smith Anyway, I asked Broderick's help in a roundabout way. Just like with Glyn Mason's song 'Its Only Love' discussed above, back in 1980 I heard a song done and the memorial concert for a young Australian songwriter Andy Durant. Andy was one of Australia's most talented songwriter's and died of cancer. He used to play in a band called Stars with Mick Pealing (see below). The song was 'Ocean Deep' and I was hooked on the song from the start. Maybe its something about songs with the word 'ocean' in them.... who knows. Anyway, I only ever heard the song performed once back in 1980 but in the past 28 years I would often hum it or sing it to myself. I once had the album of that concert in record form but it went missing however the song never did from my brain. I guess my skull is so thick that once music gets in there it keeps bouncing around because it can't find anywhere to escape. Late in 2008 I learnt that the Andrew Durant Memorial Concert had been released on DVD. Of course I knew I would have to buy it even if only for that one song, even though I knew that there were many other brilliant songs on it. So I ordered it from Hong Kong and waited until I was down in Melbourne at Christmas time to watch the video. I was delighted to see this song performed again by Broderick Smith. Coincidentally, a young Glyn Mason also did a sterling performance for that concert. Although I said diligently watching the screen and trying to work out the progression so I could perform that song myself, I wasn't able to understand it all and so was a little bit disappointed. I decided to do what I had learnt through previous experience, that is to ask the people who performed it if they would mind sharing the song with me. So, I sent an e-mail off to Broderick Smith and Mick Pealing asking them if they would mind sharing the song. To my delight, I had a reply from Broderick Smith within five minutes complete with the chords, TAB and the arrangement. Absolutely brilliant. That was two days before my writing of this blog and was the motivation for me to acknowledge the generosity of professional musicians towards us lesser lights. Thanks Broderick, I really appreciate getting that TAB.
Mick Pealing - Mick was a lead singer of the Stars, a well-known Australian rock 'n' roll band and has been a force in Australian music ever since. His web site is http://mickpealing.com.au At the time that I was looking for Andy Durants 'Ocean Deep' I sent a similar e-mail to Mick as I had to Broderick Smith and I did receive a reply from Mick. He was very friendly in his reply but unable to help me as he said that although he knew the lyrics world and sang the song, he didn't have the chord progression is that I needed. My thanks to Mick anyway for his kind reply.
Peter Jones - Peter is my good friend and is the person I blame for giving me back into playing music a few years ago and the reason why I have in excess of 40 guitars these days. You can find out more about Peter here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jones_(drummer) Peter has played with anyone worth playing with including Kate Ceberano, Renée Geyer, Daryl Braithwaite, Crowded House, Ross Hannaford, Lisa Miller, the list goes on........ I met Peter around 11 years ago and we quickly became friends. It was through Peter though I learnt that most musicians are just ordinary people and that most professional musicians are always willing to help amateur musicians make progress and play music. At the time that I met Peter my musical ambitions as well as my playing ability had hit an absolute rock bottom. Thanks to Peter he introduced me to a guy who was to become my music teacher to the next two years. Peter was also a big help in motivating me at the time when I joined the weekend warriors program. I even had the privilege of having Peter play in one of two bands at my birthday party three years ago, so not only have I made a great friend of us played music with him as well. Thanks mate.
So there you have it, some of the people I thought would be totally accessible but who have been not only available but extremely generous with their kindness and talents. My thanks to all of them.
Until next time, don't forget to wipe
Tales of Asia's signing off.
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