Feature Sections: |
Biography
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Photo Gallery
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Song Clips
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Highlights/
Recollections
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Contact Peter
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or,
"The Odyssey of a long-time 'British Rocker'..."
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A
Tribute to all my "Comrades-in-Music" |
Music has been good to me, and I wanted to take an
opportunity to give a brief overview of my guitar-playing “odyssey” – spanning
over forty years – and also give my own special recognition and thanks to the
people who’ve been part of this journey.
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Promo Picture -
Chicago, 1981 |
Being part of the music scene in Great Britain
when the “British Invasion” was just beginning, I feel very fortunate to have
“done the tours” of Germany and Europe when British Rock was being formed. But I
also feel fortunate to have lived in the United States since 1966, and to have made music
and raised my family in the Chicago-land area.
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On Vacation -
Colorado, 2002 |
This Web Site is dedicated to all the people - musicians,
friends, family, and supporters - who have made it possible for a “long-time Rocker”
from the Mother Country to ply his trade and keep the music going for as long
as he has.
I also wanted to give some of my old “compadres” – my comrades-in-music
– a chance to reminisce with pictures and song clips that they were part of.
This is for all of us…
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Part I: Born in Britain and hooked on Bill Haley…
I was born October 22nd, 1940, in Grange Road,
Croydon, Surrey, England. Most people
aren’t aware of it, but Croydon is a very large city to the south of London, and was home
to some of the premier British guitarists and musicians that are now well-known
in America and other countries.
I was born (prematurely,
as I'm told) in the basement of my parent’s
grocery shop during an air raid by the German Luftwaffe. (Of course, I wasn’t
aware of that fact at the time, but maybe that experience had something to do
with my becoming a musician; you never know…)
There was always music in the house; my father, two of my uncles
and one of my aunts all played piano. I also had an uncle who ran a dance band
on the south coast of England in the Sussex area.
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However, I really didn’t get serious about music
until the
early 'Fifties - when I first heard Bill
Haley and the Comets on a record at a New Year’s party.
I suppose I wasn’t alone in this reaction, but I couldn’t believe the sound I was hearing.
It was the electric guitar, although at the time I didn’t know what was creating that terrific
sound.
From that point on I bought every record that had a guitar
on it. Most of the records were worn out within a few days – as they were 78
rpm’s – and you had to replace the needle every time you played the record.
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Practicing in London... |
As you can imagine, it was a very slow process, playing and
replaying again and again (and again and again and again…) at 16 rpm – slowing
down the record so I could learn the solos.
And at some point I even learned how to
tune my guitar. God only knows, it must
have sounded bloody awful up to that point, and I formally apologize now to all the people who had to listen to
it at the time!
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Next: The London Years – Bands, Friends and Guitars in the ‘Fifties…
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