General News

Cropredy Festival August 8th 2024

Sue Lilley and I attended on the Thursday. It’s always a joy attending this festival, not only for the music but the chance to bump into old friends and fellow musicians. Whilst there I had a chance to catch up with my old fiddle playing pal and long-time member of Fairport, Ric Sanders who kindly arranged tickets...thanks Ric. Also lovely to have his backstage tent to shelter in from time to time!

It was great chatting with Ray Jackson a fellow JHS endorsee and founder member of Lindisfarne. Ray is also a brilliant artist. Also backstage were compere Richard Digance and the legendary Tony Christie. I showed Tony a photograph of he and I taken a few years back when he was in Lichfield outside his favourite pub. Bless him, I don't think he remembered but no matter.

He did a great performance on the evening closing with THAT song that got us all singing along.

It was great to see my old pal Rick Wakeman very briefly before his concert with The English Rock Ensemble performing ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’.

One of the great highlights for me was Feast of Fiddles who were breathtaking. Apart from the weather it was just wonderful.

On the Sunday in glorious sunshine my friend Carrie Martin appeared at the Brasenose Fringe festival which follows on from the main festival. I joined her on stage for two songs, ‘Time after Time’ and ‘What If’. She did a flawless performance, and the crowd adored her.

It was a delight to see my old friend the brilliant guitarist and singer Kev Dempsey singing and playing as brilliantly as ever in the closing performance of the day. The fine fiddle player Tom Leary joined him on a couple of tunes. Tom is also in Feast of Fiddles. Very briefly in the mid-nineties Kevin and I did a handful of dates as a duo. He is truly one of the most underrated guitarists on the planet. It was a privilege to have worked with him. We also did some recording together and you can hear him on ‘Crossing the Border’ from one of my early CDs.

Also on the bill were Iota featuring Sally Barker, Anna Ryder and Marian Fleetwood who is also in Feast of Fiddles. They are a cracking trio and performed a very fine and entertaining set.

Another great encounter was bumping into my old friend that superb drummer and founder member of Jethro Tull Clive Bunker. I was privileged to have him in the Gordon Giltrap Band for a while.

I’m including a few pics from the festival, one with Carrie and I (above, photo by Bill Sandalls) and one with Clive (left) plus an old photo of myself with Tubular Bells producer Tom Newman (below right) taken years ago at a JHS (John Hornby Skewes) event in a similar pose.

A personal highlight of the day was having members of Sue's family join us, son Richard, his wife Kate and lovely daughter Flo who looked amazing in her Carrie Martin T shirt. Carrie of course was thrilled. It was also lovely to see Louise Cope (as she was then) there with husband Adam. It had been many years since we last met. It was her late father Neil Cope that started a little guitar shop Giltrap and Cope back in the day. Louise is a gifted musician and worked dutifully alongside her Dad in the shop. We miss him dreadfully.

All in all a very special day indeed and one that will hopefully stay in the memory for a long time to come.

Here’s to next year's festival!

Julia Fordham

On Saturday August 3rd I drove to Penistone north of Sheffield to a local hotel in time for an early start on Sunday to film with the wonderful Julia Fordham for our jointly written song 'Chair on the Porch' featured on her forthcoming album.

Many of you may remember the news item from last year where we recorded the track together. The track is a mixture of pieces. A piece I wrote years ago entitled 'One for Billie' and first featured on the Ravens and Lullabies album with Oliver Wakeman. I then rerecorded it for the Scattered Chapters album with an additional 12 string opening and closing section plus a sublime string arrangement.

That 12 string intro captured the imagination of the wonderful Julia who then developed it into the song it has become today with a section from my piece 'Sharing Days' added as a middle instrumental section.

So, there you go, a right hotch-potch of ingredients making up a VERY special and moving song indeed.

A bandstand was chosen as the location for filming and apart from the fact that it was blooming cold we think it went well. Of course, the whole thing was mimed which isn't as easy as it sounds. I spent a lot of time making sure I remembered the piece to make it look as though the whole thing was live. I have become quite good at mining to tracks over the years having appeared on Top of the Pops all those years ago!

The important thing is that the great lady was pleased with the outcome of which we have to yet to have sight of!

You can tell by the enclosed photograph that it was a tad windy. I’m very touched that this outstanding artist thinks so highly of the piece. She is touring in October, and one never knows I may be joining her on stage to perform the piece but as yet nothing has been arranged but if it does happen it would be a privilege.

The guitar photographed is the 1973 12 string built by Roger Bucknall in his garage prior to the formation of Fylde Instruments later to become Fylde Guitars. This guitar was kindly returned to me after being rebuilt by Roger for its previous owner. This guitar was featured on my 'Giltrap' album for Phonogram in 1973.

Private booking

Also on the lunchtime 3rd of August I had the great pleasure of entertaining 20 delightful people at The Fleece Bretforton, a venue I know incredibly well because for many years it was the lovely old barn that I performed in to raise funds for the Tracey Sollis Leukaemia Trust. This time though it was to celebrate a golden wedding anniversary for Don and Tina a delightful couple.

The last time I played there my Hilary was with me so it was a bitter sweet affair but it lifted my spirits to know that in my own small way I had brought pleasure to the day and hopefully created a lasting memory for this delightful couple and judging by Don's letter of appreciation I wasn't wrong.

Thankyou Don and Tina for making it so easy for me.

Don sent this lovely message to Sue Holton who handled all the arrangements for me:

Dear Sue,

Thought you'd like to know we had a fantastic day at The Fleece, Bretforton due to good food, convivial company and ample drink. But mostly because of Gordon, who was friendly, chatty and charming and who performed brilliantly and energetically for our small gathering. His music was as fabulous as ever and his little anecdotes added to the entertainment. He stayed and played for much longer than arranged; our guests were beguiled, and he made a special effort to congratulate my wife on her fifty year marathon. Unfortunately, she became ill toward the end of the recital and had to leave early but Gordon played her out to her favourite tune, 'Heartsong'.

Gordon made it a wonderful, memorable day. Please pass on our thanks and admiration.

Thanks for all your efforts over the past twelve months. I look forward to speaking with you again soon.

Regards, Don

Nick Camplings 70th birthday

Many if you may not know the name of Nick Campling but if you are a guitarist, you will be familiar with his world famous G7 capo range. Nick and his team reinvented the guitar capo in its many and various forms and now leads the world with his innovative designs for all stringed instruments.

I have known Nick for many years and when he invited myself and Carrie Martin to play at his 70th birthday how could we refuse.

The garden in his beautiful Peterborough home was the location and the weather was perfect. Carrie performed a faultless set and I joined her for 'Time after Time' and 'What If' and I followed her with my set.

The proceedings started off with Nick's daughter singing a very amusing song written for her Dad followed by that fine guitar player Tommy Loose.

All in all a lovely day and a lovely memory for the great man himself.

A special young musician

Very recently my friend Carrie Martin was doing a concert and had four young musicians opening for her. One was an astonishing young lady named Saffron Charlesworth.

This young girl was brought to the attention of Carrie by the organiser who knew that Carrie and I were close friends and informed her that Saffron would be performing a grade 8 piece of mine entitled ‘This Father's Love’.

Armed with this information Carrie spoke with Saffron before the show and asked her what she would be performing that evening. Saffron replied that it was a piece she had been studying for the past few months for her grade 8 London College of Music exam and told her that it was the aforementioned GG piece. Carrie then told her of our friendship.

Unbeknown to Saffron, Carrie rang me and told me all about Saffron and her chosen piece to perform that evening and would I like to speak with her. I of course was delighted to do so. She then handed over the phone to a very surprised Saffron and we had a brief chat, and I told her how deeply moved I was that she had chosen one of MY favourite compositions to perform that evening.

Carrie filmed her performance, and it was very good indeed bearing in mind that the piece was written in a dropped open C tuning and Saffron was performing it on a classical guitar which really wasn't designed for open tunings. All that aside she did brilliantly well.

As a footnote to this.. Over the years it has been my pleasure to gift guitars from my collection to players who I think are deserving of a nice instrument and in so doing would help them move forward with their playing. The act of gifting instruments I look on as a privilege and in so doing truly brings to mind that lovely quote that "it is more blessed to give than to receive."

I had recently bought a nice Canadian all solid wood Norman guitar. When Saffron was brought to my attention by Carrie my immediate thought was that Saff (as she is affectionately known) truly deserved and would benefit from a nice steel string guitar more suited to open tunings than her present classical guitar as nice as it is.

Anyway, contact was made by email and the perfect location literally 10 minutes’ drive from my friend Susan's house was the rendezvous for a brief meet up and for me to hand over that Norman guitar to Saffron.

It was an absolute delight to meet Saffron, Mum Sally and her aunt and uncle at their delightful home, to drink coffee and eat Saffron’s home-made brownies which were delicious! Saffron was like a duck to water when she started playing the steel string and it sounded lovely.

I hope it brings her many years of joy and I hope you enjoying looking at the photos and reading a little bit of history about this special young lady and her musical journey thus far.

A brief overview of Saffron & music. (By her Mum)

Music is very much her hobby rather than looking at it as a career choice. We all know the dedication and work it takes to get good enough to be able to truly enjoy the instruments, she likes the challenge and seeing/hearing the rewards that hard work brings. She particularly enjoys the social aspect of orchestral, chamber and quartet playing with the violin, and the freedom and variability the guitar gives to explore different styles and emotions.

She started the classical violin aged 5 and is now working towards her grade 8 on that. She plays every Friday in the Peak District Strings Orchestra - and also bi-annually in the City and County Youth Orchestra for Derbyshire (as well as on quartet courses and other small events throughout the year).

She started the guitar through group school lessons aged 10. Not knowing much about the instrument and styles - she has worked through the exam books as a way of exploring these and charting her progression. She decided to sit the performance grade 6 last year and has just submitted her performance video for her grade 8 last week (still awaiting results). Her teacher (John Patterson) has been trying to get her to do guitar performances for a few years now - she finally agreed a few weeks ago, and played as a warmup for Carrie Martin, and the rest you know about.

I don’t have many photos of Saff playing the guitar as it tends to be alone in her room, but I have attached one of the two of you, a screen shot of her playing the new guitar from the same day, and also one of her playing at my sister’s wedding 3 years ago during lockdown. (left)

Thank you again for inspiring her - she has found the style she likes; she is currently working on ‘The Lords Seat’ and is aspiring to be able to play ‘Isabella’s Wedding’ (that’s a little challenging for her at the moment)

From the archives

This was sent to me by my old friend Ed Bicknell who was once manager of Dire Straits.

It’s a bit of history that I'm sure my readers will find interesting. Especially the blurb on me!