Guitars 'n' artists
Does music run in the family?
It's interesting.......Music runs right though Rhonda's family, father, grandparents, aunties & uncles, the works. Rhonda & her mother are the only ones who AREN'T musical. Tony's family...the opposite. All are NOT musical EXCEPT Tony.......go figure!
Guitars and pianos
(Tony's comments in brackets)
On his 13th birthday Tony recieved a guitar! He'd been harassing his family for one for a year. At the start of the year (Year 7 in High School) Tony had the opporunity to learn clarinet then saxaphone at school but the parents gave a stern "NO" thinking he wouldn't stick with it. English studies were falling behind, so he had to mark off extra english studies off a wall planner to "earn the guitar for his birthday in November. (interesting that my english was falling behind and I ended up being a Radio Announcer for 20 years!)
Big day came. No more playing the "air guitar" or the tennis raquet. Woo Hoo! By that night Tony could play a scratchy but recognisable version of "happy birthday).
Year 8 / Year 9 and he was able to pick up the songs on the radio by ear. His playing was a "hit" with his school mates (and the girls).......pitty puberty hit at the same time and he couldn't sing (I could yodel, perhaps country was my calling!)
Year 11 and 12, and Tony played in a school band with his mates called "Amos Keeto and the Insex". (Basically we just jammed during recess and lunch breaks. Peter Edmonds and Brett Simms played lead and bass respectively. We had a great time, The Angels and Australian Crawl were all the rage so we usually traded those licks as well as ACDC, etc etc.
After school, Tony lost contact with his mates and he got into radio. Peter Edmonds found Tony at 2RE in Taree and used to ring him at night and let him listen to Peter's band practicing. Tony ended up putting the phone to air so everyone could hear! After that Tony lost contact permanently with his school mates.
Tony taught himself piano about the time he turned 21. He only used it for a couple of songs on stage, and guitar remains his main instrument of choice. He owned a Wurlitzer EP 200 for about 15 years and sold it after about 5 years of no use. He's currently got a cheapo Yamaha keyboard (with a million voices or some thing on it), and Tony dabbles with it every now and then.
Tony's only played in a couple of bands. Some garage bands with mates, plenty of jam sessions with heaps of people. The bands he's played in are50/50 band "All Systems Go" in Taree (with Rhonda's father Kevin), Blues band "The Wood-ducks" in Echuca, and a brief stint as a duo with his ex next door neighbour. Main problem playing in bands is time - Tony doesn't have any!
Tony has 4 guitars and gave an Ibanez acoustic to his sister about 15 years ago. He has an 86 Fender Stratocaster, a Yamaha 12 string with a Fishmann bug in it and a Yamaha 6 string with a preamp etc (the 12 and the 6 can be played acoustically on stage through amplifiers). Tony still has the first guitar he owned, and has set it up with nylon stings to clown around with classical/flamenco styles on.
Not needing a "Rack of Doom" (Large amplifiers) since the late 80's, Tony plays through a 35 watt Peavey. He used an array of Boss pedals through the 80's and 90's, and now uses a Zoom 707II multi effect processor programed with about 8 distinct sounds Tony generally uses and switches between.
Tony's influences - Lindsay Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac, (a very clean player) Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel (who isn't inspired by those two), Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton. (Throw Keith Richards in to, love the stones riffs)
More info coming soon......I'll dig up some photos of the guitars etc, the bands, and list some sites worth visiting.
