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Joe Gillingham
1946-2050
I was born and raised in Bournemouth by my parents Harry and Joan (not Derby), and started my playing career at about 15 Years old playing Bass Guitar with a local band formed in the music shop.
At 16 I duly left home for Minden in Germany. We arrived at the German/Belgium border and were told that our passports were invalid, so we worked our way back to England playing gigs in a couple of Belgium towns.
Once home we obtained new passports and set off for Minden again. This time we stayed there for two months playing one night stands in around that area. Being that young it was a very exiting experience!
I now have a toothache coming on so I will pause here to take a pain-killing tablet.
On returning from Germany I played in several local bands eventually ending up in Spencer Mac. The band moved to London, backed various artistes and toured home and abroad until meeting two American musicians. We then decided to Join forces and became Mojo Hannah, a country rock outfit. After two years of writing, recording and touring the band split and the original nucleus became the House band at Southern Music.
Other session work followed and a publishing deal was made with April Music (The publishing wing of Sony Music formerly C.B.S.). At that time it was very difficult to get Studio time for demo's, so when asked by Colin Thurston if I would like to be a Recording engineer in the Studio I dived in. Because I knew from Collins experience, during down time he had the Studio all to himself. This was too good to miss!
In the Music shop next to the Studio there was a double-neck guitar for sale belonging to one Rick Westwood. (I now know why it was hanging there, but that's another story).
Writing Library Music and Jingles followed and a chance to write songs and record them. One idea was to re-record NaNaNaNa and we asked Dave Munden to sing the vocal. It was during this period that lots of associations were made with other musicians, one being Alan Blakley. At that time The Tremeloes were not working so we spent time together writing songs and recording them on a Porta studio in a friends house. Eventually the Trems reformed and were asked to play a session for Radio 1. I filled in on piano for these sessions and soon after became a Trem myself.
to be continued.....
Created by: jimmy@oldiemusic.de, last changed on 2000-01-30