About Me
John was brought up in the North East of England, in Washington, a mining community. In actual fact, the ancestral home of George Washington, the Father of the American Constitution. John was born in 1947 in the post-war period. His Father, Jack, was a teacher, a fine Tenor and a Cornet player in a local Brass band. His Mother, Lillian was a wonderful pianist, singing teacher and choral conductor. John’s Uncle, John George Brown, his Mother’s brother, was a fine church organist and pianist. So, without realising it, in such a musical environment John’s early musical training occurred through a process of osmosis. John remembers lying in bed as a young boy and listening to his mother teaching piano or singing. Often, he would leave his bed, much against his parent’s wishes and sit on the upstairs landing, with his legs dangling between the bannister rails, listening to the songs his mother was teaching. By the age of 8, he could sing most of his mother’s teaching repertoire, including solos from Messiah, and much else besides. He now understands that this regular aural ‘musical education’ had a profound effect on him.
At the age of 8 he was given his first violin. Lessons from a local teacher began and John loved the instrument. Practice was never a chore but a delight, and so his early life continued with singing and violin playing fitted in with football, school work and spending time with his childhood friends.
By the age of 12 he was at Washington Grammar School, doing very well with the violin and still singing. It was then that he heard a nylon strung guitar for the first time, played by his French teacher, Mr Barry Canham. This was used to accompany songs, which were used as ‘collective music making’ to soak up endless evenings, when John’s year group went to Switzerland on a European visit. The portability and sound of the guitar inspired him. He’d tried the piano but he and his Mum didn’t quite see eye to eye so the piano never really happened for him. A great regret throughout his life.
The guitar was different! In 1960 it was all the rage and the ‘pop’ phenomenon was already in full swing. John wasn’t interested in the ‘pop’ guitar. He knew he wanted that nylon string sound.
John aged 18 with members of the International Master Class with Julian Bream, at Dinton House in Hampshire, England. John is standing 3rd from left, next to the English guitarist Eric Hill. Cross legged on the stone pedestal is Anthony Rooley. Julian Bream is standing, 3rd from the right.
John aged 20 in a publicity shot for a series of recitals in 11968/69 which culminated in his first BBC Radio broadcast on the “Third Programme” (now Radio 3) in a programme called, “Debut”, which also featured new up and coming performers.
John’s Uncle John George obliged and gave him a guitar and tutor for his Christmas present in 1960. With his violin playing background and ability to read music, John applied himself to the instrument and by the end of Christmas Day he could get through 90% of the pieces in the book. Only one piece eluded him. It was the hardest in the book, an arrangement of the Russian Tune, “Black Eyes”. John says: “It took me 2 weeks to master it”.
In the late 50’s/ early 1960’s there were no Classical Guitar teachers in the North East so John, for the next year, taught himself. Looking back he says that he displayed a relentless determination but his guitar was not a particularly good instrument and was hard to play. He did not understand technique but applied violin technique to his Left Hand and did the best he could with his right hand. He discovered a Music Shop in Newcastle. “Windows Music” sold Classical Guitar music and he bought all he could afford, using his violin music as a comparative for the standard of piece. Then his cousin, Robert, a Merchant Seaman, brought him a ‘Torres’ guitar from Spain and suddenly his playing took off. Still no teacher and self-taught he learned 3 sonatas by Francesco Molino and then an E Minor Study by Napoleon Coste. Where other people had ‘pop’ musicians as posters on their bedroom walls, John had a poster of Segovia. He tried to copy his Right Hand position. He had no record player and would search the radio in the hope of hearing a guitar being played. He had no role model on which to base his playing except a picture of Segovia and several pieces arranged by Segovia, one of which was “Variations on ‘La Frescobalda'” by Frescobaldi. He learned it from memory.
When he was 14 and had been playing for 18 months, a young John Williams came to give a weekend master class for guitar enthusiasts. it was organised by the WEA, the Workers Education Association. John was actually too young but there were very few guitarists in the North East at the time and he was given a place, probably to make the numbers up. He remembers the whole weekend as a spellbinding experience and was totally captivated by John William’s playing, particularly of the transcription of the E major Violin Partita. This had another effect! John realised that violin music could be played on the guitar, so he managed to find a copy of the A Minor Partita and learned the fugue, which he couldn’t play on the violin because the double-stopping was so difficult. The guitar had it!
John, in 1998, pictured at Marmelejo, Andalusia, Spain, the home of Jeronimo Pena Fernandez, the world- famous Luthier. John plays an instrument made by Fernandez in 1978 and describes this guitar as “one of the finest guitars I have ever played, rich in sonority and with a warm tone. An instrument with a real sense of ‘presence'”.
The pages from “The Complete Guitar” ( a limited publication )which gives a full account of the history of the instrument and features those guitar makers who are universally regarded as the finest. The featured pages focus on the work of Jeronimo Pena Fernandez.
At the age of 15 John’s Father found a Summer School at the Bristol Spanish Guitar Centre, run by Michael Watson, a man who made a strong impression. It was near the home of friends of his parents, so while his parents had a fortnight’s holiday in Keynsham, John spent every minute of everyday at the guitar center, from the crack of dawn till it closed. He learned Right Hand technique and also discovered that he could sight-read music quickly, which for him was very natural, because of his experience with the violin, but which he discovered, was a weakness for many guitarists. The Spanish Guitar Centre was a ‘treasure trove’, with music and guitars: Ramirez, Manzanero, Rubio, Hauser and others. There was formal tuition but many hours of ‘discovering’ repertoire and being immersed in the world of the Classical Guitar.
John says:
“In that 2 weeks I learned 2 years of repertoire and technique. I played every piece I could get my hands on. I discovered the music of Tarrega, Albeniz and Granados. I learned a challenging piece called “Guitarreo” by Carlos Pedrell and began staggering through “El Colibri” ( The Humming Bird) which I had heard John Williams play. When I couldn’t afford music, I got manuscript paper and copied music out by hand. I heard Julian Bream for the first time and also Narcisso Yepes. My knowledge of the guitar was growing and I was infatuated with the instrument. I could not get enough of it. Michael Watson was the first teacher that I had ever had but had to make do without another teacher until the following year, when I returned to the Summer School at the Bristol Spanish Guitar Centre. I was 16 and that year was very important because I learned how to play Tremolo and taught myself “Recuerdos de la Alhambra. The impact of this intensive study and my natural propensity for music catapulted my playing forward incredibly. I spent hours playing and neglected my studies. The guitar, violin and sport in general were central to my life. I had a skirmish with a ‘pop’ group but found the musical experience tedious and endlessly repetitive. The experience lasted no more than a couple of months. I was more interested in developing my classical repertoire and could play about 2 hours’ worth of music from memory. I gave a couple of recitals locally and was invited to perform on Local BBC Television as part of a North East News programme, with Mike Neville. I can still remember playing Granados, “Danza Espagnole” No. 5 in one end of the studio, live, whilst at the News Desk, out of the corner of my eye, I could see Mike doing the arm waving of a Flamenco dancer from his seat. I found it amusing and had completely forgotten that this was ‘Live Television’ ….it was just fun!”
John conducting a performance of Messiah in 1996 at Middlesbrough Town Hall.
John, in 2000 pictured in a break of a BBC Sponsored “Big Sing’, to celebrate the Millennium. The picture is taken in York, where John was working with 1000 children from Primary and Secondary schools from Yorkshire.
Further recitals followed. He had applied for a place in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and at 15 was invited to the course, which in 1962 was held in Sunderland. He was not given a full place, but Dame Ruth Railton, who ran the NYO saw some potential and urged him to apply in the following year. The guitar came first however and the Spanish Guitar Centre in Bristol got first shout.
Aged 17, John’s father, by now a Headmaster, said that before John went to University, he would like a tape of his playing so that he and John’s Mum could listen to him when he was away. The tape was made at John’s father’s school. What John didn’t know was that his father, a devout Methodist, had seen, in a Methodist Journal, that Julian Bream was giving International Master Classes at Dinton House, near Salisbury, Wiltshire. At the time, Dinton House was a Methodist College and retreat.
The story of listening to his son’s playing, while John was away at University, was a ruse. The tape was made and unknown to John, sent to Julian Bream. Imagine John’s surprise when he received a reply inviting him to an audition. Aged 18, John auditioned, playing to Bream at his home. John says of the audition:
“When I arrived, I was shown to his ‘guitar studio’, set away from the main house. Bream was Beagle Hunting and eventually arrived with muddy boots. He asked me to play, which I did and then asked me to play something else while he changed his boots. This process went on for about 45 minutes. Bream said that he wanted to be sure that I had a repertoire and had not just prepared 2 or 3 pieces. I remember playing Prelude, Fugue and Allegro/JS Bach; Fandanguillo/Turina; The Mozart Variations / Sors; Caprichio Arabe / Tarrega and Serenata Espagnole / Joaqin Malats. They were all in my repertoire at the time”.
John’s playing must have been OK because he received a letter asking him to attend an International Master Class, at Dinton House in the summer of 1965. John says:
“That period of a month, where I spent hours playing and listening to the guitar playing of the other 14 players from all over the world, changed my life. I remain indebted to my father and mother for their ‘cock and bull’ story about wanting to listen to my playing while I was away at University. Later in my life, I was awarded a Master of Arts Degree (Distinction) at the University of Leeds. Imagine my delight when I discovered that Julian Bream was being awarded an Honorary Doctorate at the same Convocation.”