Looks like I'm first ! ok here goes...

Noel Jay Honey....Bio

From the age of 6 years old I would stay with a relative who had an old Harmonium, I was taught a few chords to amuse myself and took to playing it fairly well in a short time, the Harmonium was quickly replaced by a Lowery Holiday organ and after 2 years of learning on that I was then sent off to learn piano, the piano training continued for 7 years, at the age of 15 I became interested in Hammond organs and by chance a local bar let me play their Hammond T202 on Saturday mornings, after 6 months I was asked to play during weekend opening hours for a small fee, at age 17 I was approached by an agent to play Hammond T500 in a large seaside complex in Southsea, UK which continued for 2 years when I was then offered a position as organist in a travelling circus which I toured with for 3 years.



On making enough money touring I returned to my home town and bought a Rhodes 73, a
Solina String Machine, Clavinet D6 and a Korg 700s and became a freelance keyboardist
doing sessions and gigs around the south coast. I just about covered every type of gig back then, playing a piano concert one night then a rock band gig the next, a reggae band the next night, a Beatles tribute band finishing it off with playing sing-along's in a rest home.

I started doing a bit of teaching too and got introduced to the Yamaha electone completion which I entered and went all the way through to the UK finals coming 5th overall, also in the same year I got voted best keyboardist in my home town of Portsmouth UK. My workload flourished but female intervention saw me teaching more and dropping gigs to just 2 or 3 a
month for a few years, my interest suddenly flared up when I encountered a Roland Pro E
arranger and the possibilities of arrangers to replace larger bands and went on to gig in duo's using a succession of arrangers and formed a successful Dinner Dance trio which has been going for 16 years now currently using a Yamaha S900 and a Roland FP4 piano.



Wanting to hone my jazz skills recently I enrolled in a College course to study improvistion
and jazz theory, I now have more jazz gigs than anything else and am slowly making a name
for myself locally as a jazz pianist with a full diary and have just landed a top jazz gig in
October at the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel in Cannes, France...

Music has taken me many places and I'm still as enthusiatic about playing as I when I first encountered the Harmonium...ok must go now as have to rehearse for tonights jazz gig.

Rgds

Noel J


[This message has been edited by pasadoble (edited 04-24-2010).]