Music
 
 
I learned to play piano as a child, and was given an acoustic guitar when I was thirteen.

I got my first electric guitar soon afterwards (the mid-60s), and later played rhythm in several groups. Lots of Beatles and Beach Boys music, and the rest. Those were the days!

I left all that behind when I went to college, but there I discovered Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. I did solo work with lots of their early songs, and played lead in a small folk group at charity events. The early work of Carlos Santana joined our repertoire!

Then college ended and the real world took over. I stopped making music for some years.
 
But in the 80s I went back to the piano, and then to keyboards, and finally began to do justice to the songs of Carole King, Elton John and Janis Ian. 

I later toyed with my favourite instrument, the tenor sax, for several months, but I was out of shape and it gave me severe backache, so I stopped. One day I'll get fit and take it up again, with proper lessons!

I saw out the millenium in style at Knebworth, in a real Big Band!
On keyboards with the
LITS Band, Knebworth 1999
 

With Janis Ian, Kath, and The Rudies, Indianapolis 2004
Now I concentrate on the piano, and the work of Janis Ian continues to be my greatest inspiration. But at her 'Janismania' event in the summer of 2004, as well as having a great time on piano, I picked up a guitar again -- overshadowed, of course, by many other superb players!
 
And I now have another heroine: the hugely talented British writer, singer and musician Corinne Bailey Rae!

My next aim is to join or form a local Bossa Nova band, to celebrate the subtleties of the music of Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto and friends! Anyone else interested?  Call me!
 
 
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