John Maul, Rick Astley / Nik Kershaw / Dire Straits Experience

We catch up with John Maul, who aside from an impressive and ongoing career as musical director and keyboard player, is also still working in the musicial instrument industry itself. We cover both aspects of John’s work, alongside guest co-host Damon McMahon. Lots of fun in this one! To listen / watch: Audio-only: click on...

The post John Maul, Rick Astley / Nik Kershaw / Dire Straits Experience appeared first on The Keyboard Chronicles.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
He really hated 80s bells, so we had to cancel those from any gig that we ever did.
Hello and welcome to the keyboard Chronicles, a podcast for keyboard players.
I'm your host, David Holloway, and I'm pumped as always to be here with you.

(00:22):
I'm excited to have with me a guest co-host, Mr.
Damon McMahon.
How are you, sir?
Thank you, David, and thank you very much for inviting me on.
Now, Damon's here for a couple of reasons.
For those that have watched or listened to a lot of our episodes, Damon's actually been aguest before, so, and for very good reason.
And we'll link in the show notes to Damon's episode.

(00:42):
Damon's done some amazing work across both playing as a musician and in the musicindustry.
And it's actually Damon that suggested to me our guest today, Mr.
John Moore, because Damon and John work together.
or as colleagues in different music instrument manufacturers and we'll get to that in theinterview.
But Damon, I think it's fair to say just from what I'm seeing, you two have some storiesto tell and only some of them are fit for publication.

(01:08):
Yes, very few of them, in fact, will make the air here.
That's for sure, I can assure you.
John and I go back, gosh, I'd know probably two, maybe even towards three decades now withour time in Japan, working with Roland and R &D capacity and bringing John to Australia
for Roland Australia for clinician tours, product launches, and then in his capacity as aninternational studio session musician and arranger.

(01:37):
catching up with him in various shows and he's absolutely one of nature's gentlemen andhumble right to the bone.
He is, and you're all about to experience that.
John has some amazing insights, even if they are only the publishable ones, there's stilla lot to enjoy in there.
So we'll let you go listen to John and we'll talk to you after the show.

(02:05):
John, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on.
as our listeners and viewers can see, we've already had a couple of laughs before the showstarts.
So yeah, these two reprobates know each other and we'll get into that in a minute.
But John, I thought we'd kick off just talking about your last 12 months.
You've remained incredibly busy.
Just tell us about what you've been up to over sort 2024 and into this year.

(02:29):
Yeah, okay.
Well, really, most of the touring and traveling has been down to one particular band andit's called the Dire Straits Experience.
And what can I say about them?
Well, some people like to call them a tribute band, but I don't really think they are atribute band.

(02:50):
We've got the main guy who runs it, the sax player, is a guy called Chris White and anyonewho knew Dire Straits.
would know that Chris was in the band from the mid-80s onwards.
So a combination of his skills plus our lead singer, Terence Reich, who is absolutelyphenomenal.

(03:11):
um And we just found this growing success.
So wherever we seem to go, whether it's Europe or as you know, we've been over your way,uh it's just been incredible.
The reaction's been incredible.
And...
You know, the other really unusual thing which is well worth mentioning is the audience.

(03:32):
We can't get over the age range of the audience.
I mean, we're talking music 45 years of age, are we?
Or plus thereabouts.
And we're looking at teenagers in the front row.
We're looking at sometimes younger, mouth in the words.
So it's been an incredible experience and it just shows you in this industry, you neverknow where music's going to take you.

(03:54):
And this is where we're at the moment.
and yes, and of course, towards the end of last year, we had seven weeks on the road whereI came over to New Zealand and I came over to uh obviously Australia, Sydney, always
fabulous to come over.
I of saw you, Damon, as well.

(04:16):
And yeah, the are great.
The people are great.
What can I say?
It's been great.
We even had a little stop off in Tahiti on the way home just to do a one-off gig there,came back home and then we had three and a half weeks around France.
So, yeah, it's all right.
That's very nice.
And I've got to ask from a keyboard viewpoint, obviously, there's some amazingly intricateand diverse keyboard parts across Dice Trades' discography, well, more like the second

(04:44):
third of their career, because as you know, they keyboard player free initially.
Tell us about how you had to sort of get organised for that and were there any particularchallenges that posed for you once you got involved with them?
You know, it's an interesting question because I mean, I've been playing for 80s nostalgiagigs probably since the millennium, you know, and we always have the same question and

(05:09):
that is as keyboard players, do we produce the sounds according to the best we have todayor do we try and stay authentic to the sounds that existed at the time?
So, you know, if you look at, was it Brothers in Arms album, I think,
didn't they use a DX1 on that and some of the sounds, you know, I mean, to be honest, theywere definitive for that time, but they weren't great.

(05:37):
But what do we do?
Do we go down that route?
Do we use the Manitone string sounds?
Do we use this?
Do we use that?
Or do we go for the later sounds?
And to be honest, we've tried to go in the middle.
We're not going for the latest, we're not going to use East West for the strings, we'renot going to do that, we're going to just try and keep it within sensible regions.

(06:01):
And to be honest, by the end of the day, you've got a fabulous fun of house engineer whocan make the whole band gel sound great.
So long as we've got the best piano samples, we've got some really good organ samples.
and the occasional strings, pads and other bits and pieces.
um Hopefully the music and performance speaks for itself.

(06:25):
um So no, we're not steeped in technical, uh you know, uh of bits and pieces, main stage,all of that.
No, we've not gone down that route.
And also we've got the logistics as every touring musician knows.
You're turning up, you're hoping you're gonna get what you've asked for.

(06:45):
And whilst we've got a great team that will chase it up, some days we do turn up and wehaven't exactly got what we've asked for.
So that usually means two hours, three hours in a hotel room with whatever keyboard I'vebeen given, trying to recreate what I should have been done.
So the number of keyboards I've had to reprogram over the last few years has beenincredible.
But it is what it is.

(07:06):
We just get on with it.
Yeah, absolutely.
And from a playing viewpoint, John, the Dire Straits discography, they're particularlychallenging pieces or given your experience, nothing particularly through you.
uh The playing through, I mean the set we do is two and a half hours.
We've just bought a board, two or three new songs.

(07:26):
Obviously there's the mainstays, if you will, the evergreens, so they've got to all stayin.
As a play, I think it's one of the most enjoyable plays I've ever done.
You know, it's just, yeah, it's a real, I I come off exhausted.
And that for me is a good sign of rock and roll because you really are playing to the bestof your ability.

(07:53):
Obviously, Alan Clark was a phenomenal piano player as well as a keyboard player.
So I've tried to stay true to his style of playing, but Chris has always been very keenfor a bit of us to come through as well.
And that's what he's tried to nurture in us.
And I'll be honest, when I first joined the band, I didn't really get it.

(08:15):
because up until then I'd been hired help, a session player, tell me what you want andI'll do it.
But it was totally the opposite way around.
He wanted us to almost express ourselves and sort of stay kind of true to what Alan woulddo.
I try and keep some of his licks in and some of his bits and pieces in.
But the other get out clause, if you will, is that if anyone heard the band live.

(08:40):
Certainly back in the 80s, pretty much every night, it was going to sound differentanyway.
So you're not fixed to one gig.
You know that what it's about is the spirit of the performance and whatever othersubstances may have been involved at the time.
So that's what it is, really.
And if you can get that, that's it.

(09:01):
It just brings the band alive.
And yeah, it's very rare we walk off the stage thinking that was awful.
I can't.
remember the last time we did it, it's always elevating in some shape or form and yeah wemake a few mistakes but it doesn't matter does it?
Yeah, that's right.

(09:22):
And John, are you covering both parts?
you covering both guys in Alan's parts or have you got two players in the two keys?
We've got the other keyboard player, chap called Mike Branwell, very, very good keyboardplayer.
He really takes up all the Hammond stuff.
We use a Nord Hammond or a Nord-style organ.
I think it's number two, the Nord Hammond organ two.

(09:45):
um Forgive me, I forgot the name of it, but he uses that.
He gets a fabulous sound out of it.
And believe it or not, he uses generally uh a rolling stage piano, an RD-800.
which covers pretty much a lot of the stuff we need.
I'm never happier than on my RD-700NX.
I've used it for years.

(10:08):
I think it was one of the best Roland ever did.
yeah, occasionally we have an RD-2007 up.
That's absolutely fine.
But there's just something very special about that stage piano.
So if any of your viewers agree with me, please let me know, because sometimes I think I'mgoing mad.
and it just sounds fantastic and plays great.

(10:29):
So, yeah.
Great.
Nice one.
John, obviously aside from now the very, very top of the business, jetting around toplaces like Tahiti and Australia and all over Europe, um for a young bloke like yourself
to take it back a couple of years, was, can you tell us a little bit about the start ofyour music journey?
How and when did you start?

(10:50):
what happened.
So it's a bit cliched really.
At the age of five, I go and see Gran, she had a piano.
I'd start knocking out tunes before we knew it.
Mum and dad said, let's sing the piano lessons.
Went for piano lessons at a place called the Watford School of Music.

(11:10):
And yeah, started getting into it, enjoyed it.
Got to that age, mid-teens, nearly gave up three times.
Obviously we've got football, we've got girls, we've got all these distractions.
But somehow managed to keep going.
And finally, kind of made a decision that is what I wanted to do, really, about 17 or 18.

(11:35):
So found another sort of piano teacher who really, really sort of said, right, if you wantto do it seriously, here we go.
So.
I did A-level music, so high level music.
I did all my theory exams.
I did all the piano-graded exams for the Associated Board and just went through the wholething and ended up going to the Royal Academy of Music in, I think it was 1983.

(12:04):
I was there for about four years.
The fourth year was a jazz course.
which I didn't even realize until I finished the year, but anyway, it's a long story.
And then, yeah, that was it really, out into the big bad world.
Like many musicians of that time, so when are we talking?

(12:25):
I think we're talking, yeah, probably late 80s, early 90s when everything was black andwhite.
And we started sort of getting into sort of just gigs.
I'd be doing functions, I'd be playing.
know, cocktail piano in hotels around London.
It was just earning his stripes, just sort of trying to get as much experience as wecould.

(12:49):
And the big change was not long after that.
I think it was the early nineties.
I was doing a bit of teaching and a mate of mine who sells and had a music shop at thattime said,
You really got to go and see this guy.
He really needs a piano lesson.
He's an old guy.

(13:10):
um Could you give him a piano lesson and see what you could do?
And I went and um this guy, to be honest, was struggling.
He wasn't a great piano player, but he was keen and he was a lovely chap.
And his name was Fred Mead and he was the uh financial director of Roland UK uh or salesdirector.

(13:34):
I think sales director of Roland UK.
And at that time I was being, had gone for interviews with Yamaha to prospectively be aclinician, a demonstrator.
And I'd mentioned it to him and he said, you're not going there, you're coming to work forus at Roland.
So before I knew it, I was aboard and that was it.

(13:56):
And obviously that began, I think it was 27 years of
traveling around the world, working for Japan, R &D, meeting fabulous friends all over theworld, Damon included.
And yeah, just getting an experience of what that industry is like, keyboard development,product development, content development, which I do nowadays a lot of for Yamaha.

(14:23):
And also it gave you an insight as well into just what customers want and trying to caterfor that.
uh
Yeah, it was, that was the general progression.
It came to a point where I think nearly approaching 2000 when um I really wanted to reallydo more gigs again.

(14:47):
I was really missing the gigs.
So I managed to get a 50-50 thing going.
I'd do 50 % work for Japan and then I'd go out and do my gigs.
And before I knew it, thanks to various...
company restructurings and everything, eventually I was handed back out to the big badworld, but still with a close contact to Roland.

(15:07):
And that was it really, just carried on gigging.
So John, I'm obviously really keen to hear about that amazing career in the musicinstrument industry across Roland and Yamaha before we get into the musicianship side.
So probably to start off just over those 27 years, what's changed?
And I know there's been huge change.

(15:27):
What's changed in the way you approach the role and just some of those key moments acrossthat time?
And Damon, I'd love you to jump in as well because you've sort of had a career across asimilar timeframe.
Where do we start, Taitman?
Leave out the incarceration parts.
uh Yeah, what's changed?
What's changed?

(15:47):
A lot's changed.
It's a totally different industry.
I stay in touch with some of the guys there at Roland all around the world.
And now I do a lot of work for Yamaha and that.
And yes, know, what's changed?
Retail has changed as we know, thanks to, you know, the likes of Amazon and the

(16:14):
bigger music like European music companies like Tome and then that so much has changed.
It's kind of sad.
is life.
Life's moving forward.
I'm not here really to talk about the industry or the business or how we improve it or howwe don't improve it.
All I can see is the way things are changing.

(16:35):
Is it going to be for the better or for the worse?
I don't know.
Sadly, I fear the day of the
the music shop, the street corner music shop, I think those guys are gonna find it harderand harder and harder.
And it's a real shame because if I think back, I mentioned a friend of mine who owned amusic shop, he was the one that introduced me to the boss of Roland, was in a place in

(17:01):
Watford.
And I remember walking in um one day and it's only a small music shop, you know, this newkeyboard from Roland, just been put up.
And he said, go on, have a go at that.
And it was something called a D-50 and I sat down and I played it.
And as you can imagine, you know, I nearly cried with the sound.

(17:22):
was just...
It's Special.
All that time.
And he was such a good friend.
said, I'll keep in mind, I was pretty much a student really.
And he said, he said, you probably want one.
I said, oh yeah, sure.
He said, let me go and get you one.
You pay me later.
he literally trusted me over the space of two years to pay him back.

(17:47):
But I fear that era is gone, you know, and the era of just being able to drop into musicshop and chat.
talk about the good old days and by the way how can I do this with my keyboard all of thatstuff it's all it's all changing so I mean that's that's it in a nutshell what about you
David what would you what would you say

(18:10):
Yeah, look, I um think it's just a different commercial era that we're in now.
And I think that's brought a lot of pressures that perhaps in the good old days, so tospeak, given the three young fellas that we're all are, the pressures were different then.
Not saying there weren't pressures, but I think that's changed things.

(18:33):
And I think too, with younger people now, a lot of which are working in music stores,
I think they're able to move around and travel a lot more than was perhaps, it wasn't aseasy to do back 30, 40 years ago, whatever we're talking.
So I think that probably means that staff changeover can be a little bit more of achallenge.

(18:55):
And I also think as an industry, music products wise, I'm not sure, certainly inAustralia, perhaps globally, that
we're doing as much as we could or effectively as effectively as we could to recruit andprovide a or help carve out a career path for young people.

(19:15):
Even if it's on the peripheries, not necessarily full-time music products, but in thatindustry.
So there's a couple of thoughts for what they would.
And I do need to ask you both, and I understand both of your roles within the industry wasobviously not in the technical development and so on.
But I'm just interested as probably observers that have worked in the industry, how havethe development cycles changed?

(19:38):
How much have consumers played a role in new product development from what you can see asan insider, but also at arm's length?
John.
Yeah, well, I mean, obviously a manufacturer would be foolish not to listen to thecomments of, you know, customers and they do.

(19:58):
From my experience, certainly with Ronan, I know for Yamaha, they listen and they listenvery intently.
The sad thing is, or the difficulty is for a manufacturer to explain the inherent issuesand difficulties that we can have trying to implement.
some of these requests.

(20:19):
And, you know, this is just the fact of life.
So, you know, we'd always say to anyone who's got a keyboard who's not happy withsomething or just let us know, please, it doesn't fall on deaf ears.
We do hear, we do listen, but the difficulty is sometimes trying to implement that forwhatever reasons, whether the...

(20:43):
operating system or whatever keyboards we're using just doesn't allow us to do certainthings.
This is something we're constantly faced with.
And, you know, often it's just a question of us trying to find the solutions that we canfor customers, maybe in other ways that they hadn't expected, but they will see in two

(21:04):
years time or in a year's time, whatever.
So, you know, uh but again, in terms of development, it's very, very difficult.
um, because having seen it at firsthand with, you know, two top keyboard manufacturers, Ican tell you the frustrations.
I can tell you what it's like sitting across a Japanese engineer, scribbling away in theirpad and just going, no, there's no way we can do this, you know?

(21:31):
Um, and so you're trying to work with them to go, okay, we can't do this.
What else can we do?
How can we, how can we make this work better for customers?
So.
There's probably occasional frustrations from customers, but all I can say is please, youknow, bear with us.
It's not as easy as you might think to make substantial changes to keyboards, toequipment, anything like that.

(21:57):
That's right.
And do feel those frustrations have increased because there's a bit of a stereotype or anassumption out there that because most keyboards now have a heavy software basis that
people just tend to take this blasé view of just fix it in the software, make that nowwork within the software.
And I assume that's one of the barriers you're facing to try and make people understandhow hard it is.

(22:19):
Yeah, it's a game.
If you could afford a team of software developers to the level of Apple, then you'd belaughing.
If you could have hundreds of software developers at your call and go, today, you're goingto go and fix this, it would be fabulous.

(22:42):
Life doesn't work that way.
Even in a software house of 100 developers,
you know those developers are already working quite keenly at various projects in terms ofkeyboards.
They could be working at various aspects of the keyboard.
That's all eventually got to be come together.
It's all deadlines.
It's all got to work in sync.

(23:02):
So for us to suddenly say, by the way, you, can you guys just take a rest on that for aweek and do something else?
The whole thing can get thrown.
Now that's my understanding of it.
please don't quote me as being official.
But that's the way I've heard that these are the um challenges, if you will,

(23:23):
Yeah, and I do love Yamaha and I'm sure the other manufacturers may do this.
Yamaha have their, I've forgotten the name of it, but their ideas generated, basically theforum where users can put in user requests for future improvements.
I love that and you can receive weekly emails and yeah, I think that's one of the upsidesof the current development cycle.
John, having uh your work now with both Yamaha, you know, content and uh capacity, andobviously you have a very good understanding of the technical capabilities of the

(23:56):
instruments you're working with to develop content.
um And also Roland, I know you were quite R &D focused for quite a while with them.
Are there any interesting contrasts or uh any comments you'd share?
with the listeners on the differences between those brands, whether it be culturally,whether it be even any funny anecdotes, but two quite contrasting but very competitive

(24:21):
brands, right?
Yeah, it's probably tricky for me to answer that.
Of course there's differences.
know, Yamaha, we all know has got more money, I think in terms of development.
That's my understanding of it compared with what I saw with Roland.

(24:45):
And that's fine.
That's just the way it is.
You know having worked for Roland within the Roland development side and seeing what whatwhat happens I know how much and how hard those engineers were to achieve what they
achieved.
Absolutely.
It's a bit now.
It may have done it.

(25:06):
It may have had a different structure inside.
But I remember how hard we all used to work.
I mean a two-week visit to Japan.
I'd come back wasted and couldn't work for a week because it was so intense.
And I would imagine there's no change with that.
Surely they must keep going.
uh There are a lot of resources, but again, the intent, I mean, the team I work with are aphenomenal bunch of fantastically musically talented musicians.

(25:38):
know, I feel honored to work with the team that I'm with at the moment.
And, uh you know, we've got sound engineers, we've got...
fabulous programmers and you know, really since working for uh should we say the R &D sitefor Yamaha, which is pretty much since the beginning of the pandemic.

(25:59):
I mean, I had a learning curve that pretty much took me about six months solid working athome to get to a level where I could hopefully start producing useful stuff for them.
But the team are phenomenal.
They are uh
Very, very talented musicians.
Never ever think for one moment you're not dealing with on the engineering side, reallygood musicians that know what they're talking about.

(26:25):
um And it's the same for both companies.
We're all in this, you know, to really help the customer achieve their musical dreams.
That's what we're here for.
And...
uh
you know, we may have slightly different ways of doing it according to the companies.
Again, Cork, phenomenal, phenomenal company, phenomenal instruments.

(26:50):
we're just all trying to achieve hopefully the same goal and that is for happy customerswho want to buy our products.
And that's what we're aiming for at the end of the day.
absolutely.
And John, our listeners and viewers are now where you're going to do an exclusive unveilof the Montage successor here for us right now because of your R &D experience.

(27:12):
no, a serious question.
Obviously, you've worked with instruments for many years.
They're all amazing, as you've just said.
I'm looking off to your left.
I'm assuming that's a Moody X8 you've got there on the bottom.
Yeah, that's a Moly X8.
I thought I must get one because a lot of the development I've been doing is more for thehome keyboard side, the Genos and all of that stuff.

(27:39):
And to be honest, I've neglected the synth side and I thought I'd just owe it to myself toknow the Yamaha synths the way they're structured.
If you think I'm
indoctrinated by Roland for God knows how many years in their way of thinking and their,you know, their way of programming, et cetera.

(28:02):
yeah, it took about a week.
I sat down, I waited at it and I absolutely loved the system.
I just think it's phenomenal.
There's two very different ways, very different approaches.
Yeah, I mean, it goes, speaks for itself, obviously, but it's phenomenal, yeah.
And I do want to ask about things like the Genos because I've always been fascinated, andI'm only a weekend warrior, I've always been fascinated about the divide between keyboards

(28:29):
like that and ones like the Moody X and the same across Roland Corgan or the othermanufacturers.
I had a go at a Genos in the last year.
They are absolutely stunning, amazing keyboards.
Why do you think there's, I don't know whether it's a snobbery or a divide between thosesort of keyboards and what you've got there near you.
You know, it's interesting you said that because there are perceptions and companies aretied down by marketing directions, of course, and Genos has always been very much geared

(29:02):
in the UK at a certain age range of customer, usually with a certain time of life wherethey've got a bit more cash to spend.
And we have to, if you will, count out to that customer and make sure we provide
that customer but I remember getting a delivery of a G-NOS 1 and I had an 80's gig come upand I needed, was using my RD NX again, RD 700 NX and I was doing, I think I was doing

(29:36):
Nick Kershaw, I was doing, who else were we doing?
I can't remember, West, there was a few synthy things that were required and I thought
I looked at the Genos and went, I wonder if I can do it.
So I programmed the Genos up for a lot of this lead synth sounds and everything.
And at the end of the gig, not only did I get a thumbs up from the artists involved, butthe front of house sound engineer asked me, and he said, what was that top keyboard you're

(30:07):
using?
He said, I've never seen it, it's phenomenal sound.
I said, well, it was a Genos.
And he said, why haven't I heard of it?
And I went, well.
obviously explained.
So yeah, it is a stigma.
There is a stigma attached.
But, you know, if you realise the potential of what the, mean, think of yourself as asongwriter, and maybe you're not the best of programmers in the world, and you've got an

(30:34):
idea for a song, you just want to quickly get it down, get some chords down, get a feelgoing.
You know, the genus would let you do that.
And after you've done it,
If you're not happy with the sound and if you want it changed, you can just extract it asa MIDI file, put it into your door, off you go and tweak it to your heart's content.

(30:55):
yeah, so this is kind of a mystery to me because if people realize what it can do, thenyou kind of go, you know, do you realize what you're actually missing out on here?
And some of the, you know, the articulation samples that we, you know, we've got in there,the saxophone samples, et cetera.
with all the breath attacks and the breath drop-offs and that they're pretty good.

(31:20):
They're about one of the best I've heard.
And as we know, we're keyboard players.
If anyone asks you to play a sax solo on the keyboard player, you know, we lose the willto live, don't we?
Because you just don't want to it.
I've got to a stage now where when we do Paul Young and we do Common People, I don't knowif you remember it, there's a trombone solo on it.

(31:40):
And I used to try and imitate it, but I gave up.
years ago and just playing Synthline is much easier.
but with that you could almost sort of start to get back to it again and it's playable.
It's not just programmable.
It's playable.
yeah, it's interesting you say that because sometimes tricks are missed.

(32:03):
Yeah, no, great point.
John, you've gone through your musical history, how you had your lessons and developed,went to the Royal Academy of Music, um started your gigs and things like that.
um Your first pro gig um from there and then transitioning um as a working musician,you've covered all that pretty much, started doing piano gigs and all that sort of stuff

(32:29):
and then moved on.
um your role as...
um
Rick Astley's musical director.
And Rick is a hugely loved artist all around the world now.
And I think he had a little bit of a label at one stage as almost being this sort ofslightly geeky kind of a guy, but he's hugely successful.

(32:49):
I know you've had quite a background with Rick as MD and keyboardist.
Can you tell us a bit about that?
I'm sure everyone would love to hear.
Yeah, I think it was probably all told about 10 years.
uh pretty much indeed been for about five of those years, but our very first ever gig wasin Japan.

(33:11):
I can't, I've forgotten the date, but yeah, it was kind of weird because we went out toJapan to do a one-off kind of tour with him and
We were really all handpicked musicians for the job.
He'd known us because a lot of us were involved in these nostalgia 80s gigs.

(33:31):
We called them Here and Now tours.
And that was pretty much our first sort of foray, if you will, with Rick.
And that was kind of for him coming back into the public again, I think almost to thepoint where he was kind of trying to find himself a bit, you know, and go, okay, well.
What am I now?
Where do I stand now in the grand scheme of things?

(33:55):
And yeah, it was uh really good.
I mean, what can I say about the man?
He's hugely talented.
He's got a voice that's just phenomenal.
just, you know, it's just where the power comes from.
I don't know, but there's legendary stories about this.

(34:16):
and people just not realizing are fitting the face with the voice.
So, and so yes, I've worked with him over the years.
He brought out his album 50, which was one we we toured, I think that was 2016, 2015,2016.

(34:37):
And he's just a sheer pleasure to work with.
He knows what he wants musically, that's for sure.
And I know the album, that album he did, he did most of it himself.
He records it all back in his studio at home.

(34:57):
So he is and does like control musically of what's going on.
I remember distinctly one of the things he always used to hate was 80s bells.
He really hated 80s bells.
So we had to...
cancel those from any gig that we ever did.

(35:17):
And it's a shame really, because pretty much every Stockhaken and Waterman sound has got80s bells on, but they had to go by the wayside with Rick's gigs.
no, it's a real pleasure.
But I mean, you he's a phenomenal drummer, he'll get up and play.
And he's a real muse though, in terms of he's open to keeping the band open.

(35:39):
So if you want to take a few more verses, let's have a solo and let's do this.
There's none of this
rigorous, you know, I've got to sing two more choruses and then we finish.
There's none of that.
So he's an absolute mute, you know, a really good musician.
And I suppose we use the term a diamond geezer as well, which is just, you know, he's alovely chap, really lovely chap.

(36:03):
He's always treated us really well in the band.
The band moved on, it evolved a bit.
I think I left in 2016, end of 2016.
and he went on to do some other bits and pieces.
Very successful, rightly so.
I think he's taking a break this year, as I understand it.

(36:24):
I still keep in touch with some of the band members.
And yeah, I'm not surprised.
He's worked really, really hard.
And we'll just have to wait and see where he crops up next and what his plan is next.
But, and he can also sing fabulous swing music as well.
You know, can do all the Sinatra greats and...
I heard him perform with, I think it was the BBC Big Band at a festival and yeah,absolutely phenomenal.

(36:50):
So the only difficulty he had was trying to remember the words to a lot of those songs,mainly because his father used to sing all the wrong words to the songs and that's how he
learned.
Thank you.
He's a cool guy, very very cool guy.
Yeah, and I mean, for our listeners and viewers out there that aren't aware of Rick Astleybeyond his initial appearance in the 1980s, you couldn't get a more different uh performer

(37:14):
nowadays, as John's alluded to.
just, the diversity of the music's incredible.
He will jump on drums.
um There's an amazing video out there of him doing Highway to Hell.
Was it at Nibworth or the other amazing festival in Northern England?
Glass Marie, of course, yeah.
He's just amazing.

(37:34):
So, linking to that, John, I have to ask, you mentioned StockAquam, Waterman and PeteWaterman and so on.
And I know you worked with, some sessions or some work with Colin Menaid, Jason Donovan.
Just tell us about how that relationship came about.
So going back a little bit further.
Yeah, well again, a lot of it stems back to these 80s nostalgia gigs and tours andeverything.

(37:57):
It was called a here and now tour.
The promoter is guy called Tony Denton who he was probably one of the first on the sceneto see the benefits of trying 80s tours and nostalgia gigs.
As in, when I say nostalgia gigs, mean getting the regional artists.

(38:18):
having a full show, maybe of 10 artists, maybe have one artist on for three numbers andother artists, so and so on.
A kind of, you know, conveyor belt of artists, but it just proved to be a very, verysuccessful formula.
And we've had other promoters come along, recreate that as well.

(38:39):
But through that, I got to meet a lot of the 80s musicians, artists, including Jason,Jason Donovan.
Again, yeah, he's a real character.
He's fun to work with.
Always to rehearse.
Yeah, I mean, what can I say?
You know, he's a pro.
He gets up um and does a really, really good gig.

(39:01):
excuse me, the, Kylie Minogue was a one-off, admittedly.
And there was a sudden thought to, wouldn't it be great if we could get Jason and Kylietogether?
to do their, what was it, especially for you, wasn't it?
Yeah.

(39:22):
And wouldn't it be lovely?
And I remember getting agreement from Kylie's team and they turned up for a rehearsal andI think we were gonna do it at Hyde Park.
And I remember she came a few days early, we did the sound check, we did a rehearsal Ishould say.

(39:43):
She came through, the second through, have to say, respect to Carly, totally on the nail,came in professional, did it, did a fantastic job, left again, said thank you very much.
And we planned to see her three days later in Hyde Park in the centre of London.

(40:04):
And then we had...
this rainfall or rainstorms like you've never had over three days running up to the gigand the whole thing was waterlogged, whole thing had to be canceled.
So basically that big sort of that reuniting of these two stars had to wait till thefollowing Christmas.
And I think we did it at Weverly and I remember she was invited to come and do you want tojust run it again?

(40:33):
She said, no need, I've got it, you know.
And it was a phenomenal moment somewhere on YouTube.
you scour through your find it and yeah, it's absolute pleasure.
So so I've not done a lot with Carly.
I've done a lot with Jason.
I've done all kinds of this with Jason.
And yeah, again, they're all pros.

(40:54):
You know, it's amazing what you Australians come up with this.
Absolutely.
And there are two others and I'm assuming it's the same story, John, via the Here and Now.
And the Here and Now also, they used to put out CDs, didn't they?
There'd Here and Now 17.
They did a few.
Yeah, I think we did also some DVDs and you also covered 80s and also 70s.

(41:16):
We used to have a brand called Best Disco in Town, which I'll tell you about a disastrousstory involving that later on.
But we used to do that one as well.
know, 70s music, well, it's just awesome to play.
It's so much groove and everything.
yeah, so sorry, I know too.
No, that's okay.
I assume it's those festivals that your brief or extensive involvement, whichever one itwas, with Nick Kershaw and Howard Jones, they're two major artists that have inspired me,

(41:45):
that's for sure.
Yeah, they're all great.
They're all great.
Who do we say?
So Howard Jones, the pleasure with working with Howard is he's just written, as we know,awesome songs.
And what I always liked about working with Howard is he'd come into the house bandrehearsal and he'd go, just play me what you're intending to play on my song.

(42:12):
And so obviously, you know, we're doing our best to recreate but
You're listening to an original recording, you're listening to the various live versionsyou've heard on YouTube, you're trying to amalgamate it all.
And Howard was really flexible to what the band did.
And he'd go, whatever you did there, I really like that.

(42:33):
Can you keep that it?
It might not have been in the original, but something happened.
And that's where I have immense respect for as a musician, composer.
who still open to let his music breathe and develop according to whoever's playing it.
So definitely fabulous guys to work with.

(42:55):
And Nick is an absolute dream as well.
Now obviously as a keyboard player with Nick's stuff, you're so wary and on edge thatthere's all this sophisticated stuff going on with keys.
You know, wouldn't it be good?
I mean, I had to do...
The last gig I did, it was a few months ago with him and he does have a few tracks butonly kind of percussive stuff.

(43:23):
But he only once won keyboard player, so guess what?
It was me.
And as you can imagine, there's an awful lot to cover on a lot of his songs.
So mean, poor old Mod X is getting split left, right and center.
And I'm trying to remember, like, bells are up here, pads down here.

(43:43):
you know, I need to wear a brown paper bag and is it a full moon and will we achieve andbe able to achieve it?
But yeah, the long and short of it is these are all phenomenal musicians.
suppose, you know, I don't want to cast aspersions at today's pop stars or anything.
And, know, perhaps I don't really work with it.
But certainly for that time, you were dealing with musicians, you were dealing withpeople, went into the studio.

(44:11):
In the 80s, was a lot of experimentation.
Sometimes some of the guitarists didn't know for sure what they were doing.
And I've worked with certain guitarists who go, I sort of play that.
And you go, right, I know what it is.
And they can't describe it to you, basically.
They didn't have that training, but it doesn't matter.
It just sounded fabulous and that was it.

(44:32):
So yeah, there is, I think there's a lot to be had.
There's a few, one or two prima donnas still in there, but yeah.
We don't talk about those.
With all those collaborations you've had, John, I'm guessing one of your answers I'm goingto ask you to describe is probably flexibility.

(44:52):
But how would you say your amazing range of collaborations with such a contrasting groupof artists, how have they influenced you, you think?
Flexibility, think, would be one, for sure.
You've had to be.
Yeah, flexibility.
think what's really happened is, mean, you think, you you do the 70s music, you could workwith Tavares, you could work with Gloria Gaynor, you could work with any of those, Three

(45:25):
Degrees.
You could then do the 80s and you work with artists of such uh different styles of music.
You know, we may work with altered images, we may work with...
Oh, God knows who whoever is flock of seagulls or flock of seagulls we call it now becauseit's just one.

(45:48):
But, um, you know, is, you learn to try and, um, take on board the whole style.
The, the spirit altered images was about a bunch of teenage kids.
that just thrashed their life out and played and had so much fun and so much energy, youknow, and sometimes it's hard for older boys to do that, you know, but that's what it was

(46:17):
about.
And that's what you've got to do your utmost to get over, you know.
And if you're gonna work and do the music of Odyssey, that was about cool grooves.
It's about getting the funk right, getting the groove right.
m
having to, I mean, the times I've had to really be careful about selecting the rightdrummers for certain music, know, for certain, for the music of the 70s, American 70s

(46:44):
funk, et cetera, it's gotta be right.
And so I think that's what it, it's given me a huge appreciation musically of what's beenachieved of the varying styles that I've seen over the years compositionally.
stylistically of course and harmonically, everything that's involved.

(47:08):
And of course there was so much enrichment with harmony back in those days, ever so in the70s, perhaps slightly less so in the 80s.
But of course as we get to today, the harmonic usage and language that's used seems to befor my ears more reserved.
Now there could be all kinds of reasons for that.

(47:30):
That's for the conversation for another day.
This is what I feel it's taught me to take on board, not only the style of music, but thevery spirit of the music and what it was about.
Why?
Who were they playing for at the time?
Was it for a discotheque back in the 70s?
Was it for a nightclub in the 80s somewhere in the West End of London?

(47:55):
And it's just getting that feel.
That's what it's about.
And I think that flexibility and you're just saying about the different styles, John, Ican't think of a better preparation than for the orchestra pit in a West End musical than
that.
So tell us about that's another key aspect of your career.
You've played in some amazing musicals.
Tell us a little bit about how you got into the musical side of things.

(48:17):
I'm a major musical fan.
Love talking about orchestra pits and approach to playing.
Bore me to death, please.
Yeah, I mean, that's usually word of mouth.
you know, I've obviously got lots of musician friends already in there doing shows and notso much nowadays, but I used to go off a lot of calls already fancy coming in and doing

(48:41):
depths.
You know, I'm the first keyboard player for this and the second keyboard player for that.
I mean, definitely one of the most memorable, enjoyable ones was doing We Will Rock You.
um
I usually had to, I mean, there were four keyboard players, including the conductor.

(49:01):
And I would normally do, I think it was Keys One, was non-conducting, but had a lot of thepiano-y bits in it.
And it was different from normal because we weren't in a pit, it was the London show, sowe were up on the sides.
Conductor, I had the conductor write.

(49:23):
right there by the side of me.
And there was still a lot of movement.
There were some clicks, but there's still a lot of movement in the performing and playing.
Sadly, clicks serving Western shows have started to become more of a necessity thanks to,shall we say, disagreements between performing artists and musicians about tempo.

(49:49):
clicks seem to override that.
And then there's no argument.
That's it.
That's the tempo.
That's what you're going to get.
But this was the good old days when we could still let rock and roll breathe.
uh Yeah, it was really, really good.
We turn up.
I think all the keyboards were Kurtzfile 2600s.
I'm not a expert.
And a friend of mine had done, I believe, lot of the pro on the...

(50:17):
It was a chap.
His name's Chuck Coles.
Jeff Leach and he's now famous for doing pretty much most of the keyboards on the BBCStrictly Dance Show now.
So the band, he's in that band.
Extraordinarily talented musician and programmer and he programmed up.
mean, we are just a rack of, you know, JV 1080s and Cursephile modules and goodness knowswhat else.

(50:44):
Four keyboards as I already explained around us, everything midi'd up to.
to within an inch of its life.
And it was a rock, rock, solid set, set.
So yeah, it was uh a lot of fun, a lot of fun indeed.
So, but there's been, I did a little bit for Avita.

(51:06):
We did, Avita was, yeah, that is, I've had roasts in my time, but that was a true roast.
And
I wouldn't have minded just having some kind of heart monitor attached to me from my veryfirst ever deck to a beater.
I mean, I think the opening conductor is something like 1516 or something stupid like1584.

(51:33):
And it's just all, you know, like this.
it's the scariest musical ever to play for, for a first keyboard point of view.
Managed to survive it.
didn't get them ever again, that's all that's important, not to get them ever again.
And um came back and did it a few more times.

(51:54):
yeah, mean, you know, I've lot of friends who do musicals around town.
It's obviously a wonderful source of income for musicians in London and in a lot of thecities up and down UK.
I think things are getting harder.
uh

(52:14):
Budgets are kicking in, bands are getting smaller.
I already mentioned the horrific click track syndrome, which is kicking in more and moreand more.
And yeah, it's, you know, I'd be interested to see where we are in 10 or 20 years time.
Musicians Union in the UK did their very best, I think, to try and protect musicians inthese circumstances.

(52:40):
you know, budgets are budgets and that's it.
who's going to go first?
But you know, if we can cut one or two musicians down in the black pit that you never seebut only hear, who's going to go first?
So it's a sad reality, but that's what I'm seeing anyway.
Yes, John, you mentioned something about the best disco in town.

(53:01):
Could that be an answer to the question?
uh
I remember it, I was like, I'm really lucky.
I've had very, very, very few train wrecks.
So, you know, I'm so grateful.
Thank you, whatever it is.
And I've kind of got this belief in a kind of, not a St.

(53:22):
Peter, but a St.
Peter of musicians that make sure the gig gets done, regardless of what adversity we face,it always gets done, you know.
But this one we came pretty damn close.
think it was 2004, best disco in town.
Perth, we just arrived in Perth.

(53:44):
And I can't be absolutely sure, but I think it was the day of the actual gig when we wereasked to go in early, 10 o'clock, to run through Gloria Gaynor's set list of 45 minutes.
And we were all on stage gear being set up and we waiting around and R &D was lookinganxiously and Gloria sort of came up to the stage and said, you know, hello to R &D.

(54:14):
I'm not going to mention any names because I'm not going to get into trouble.
and he said, oh, you know, great to see you.
Yeah, if you've got the charts, I'll hand them out to the band and we'll get going.
And Gloria said, no.
I haven't got the charts.
I said to you, you need to bring the charts.
And he said, no, I haven't bought the charts.

(54:38):
So if you can imagine that evening, 7.30 show plus other artists, we've got a 45 minuteset with Gloria and we haven't got a single dot in town.
So now, yes, we can all play, I Will Survive, but.
that ain't gonna keep us going for more than 10 minutes, you know.

(55:02):
yeah.
So basically, RMD grabbed the thickest pad of A4 manuscript you've ever seen, PencilsRubbers sat there with his, not his phone, because this is pre-dating the time we used to
send PDFs and have fourscore on our iPads and that.

(55:23):
Pencil in hand and literally,
had to go through every single song, transposing it because he only had the originals andsome of those keys were transposed as well.
So he said, right, this is this, but we're going to have to do it.
So we're going, oh God.
And of course he's happy writing down the chords, but we're still going, what about thatbrass line?

(55:45):
What about that streamline?
What about this?
And so, so yeah, it was a near disaster.
I'm pleased to say we made it just about.
by the skin of our teeth.
yeah, I mean, it's funny, you know, the way things happen.
I mean, there was just one other one, which this is going back.

(56:05):
When I first started, you'd get a phone call from a promoter and he'd say, can you getinto town, into London?
It's this hotel.
There's a band there.
You just need to, it's a wedding.
Can you just go and do some busking numbers, play a dinner set?
And I...
It was the norm.
This is the late 80s, early 90s.

(56:26):
And I turn up at this one one very swanky London hotel, the ballroom, set up othermusicians around me setting up.
And we started with the dinner set and we started playing and I was getting some funnylooks from the other musicians, but I played, you know, we all had our own gear and stuff.
And they were calling out, you know, a girl from Ipanema, whatever it was.

(56:48):
I finished the first uh dinner set and he said to me,
I think he was kind of the band leader.
The guy said to me, he said, he said, it's really good, really enjoying it.
said, but who are you?
And I said, I said, I'm John Moore.
I've been booked to play.
And he said, he said, I've just run up the motor.

(57:10):
He's not booked a keyboard player for this gig.
And I said, you're kidding me, aren't you?
And it transpires.
This hotel has two ballrooms.
I was playing with the band.
So I had to get the gear upstairs to the other ballroom really, really quickly.

(57:30):
And of course, the question is, who do you invoice?
That's the question.
That is cold John, that's one that's one I've never heard before.
anymore.
things don't happen.
That is amazing.
uh
John, a question that the Keyboard Chronicles likes to ask every guest is around tagging akeyboard player.

(57:59):
So is there someone out there, in a keyboard, MD artist, whoever, that you would reallylike to hear their story?
Oh, well, well, yeah, I mean, there are all kinds of play.
If you're talking high level, I still want to hear Bruce Horn speak, but you've not donethis.

(58:20):
No, he's on our bucket list, John, believe me.
the only about it is Bruce Hornsby would be great.
But if you really want a player who I have, I call him a colleague, a friend.
He is a phenomenal musician and he is and has been for years the director, what is the MDof the BBC.

(58:51):
Strictly Dance Band, BBC Strictly Band.
David Arch, Dave Arch.
And if you can speak to Dave, boy, will he have some stories for you.
He's phenomenally talented and he's conducted and the BBC Strictly Band for a very, verylong time.

(59:14):
He does all the arrangements.
He's...
Yeah.
He's just, and he's played on some amazing albums, including one of my albums that I wasgonna mention to you, but I'll mention it when we get round to that.
So he's, yeah, David R.
No, thank you.
Appreciate that a great deal.
And then we've got the dreaded Desert Island Discs question, John.

(59:36):
So let's talk about your five albums.
That's horrible.
How can you do five albums in a lifetime, you know?
Okay, well I mentioned Bruce, Bruce Hornsby.
Here comes the noisemakers.
I had to make a note of it.
1999, a live album, double album, double CD.

(59:58):
I just think, I mean Bruce Hornsby is for me the god.
He's got country, he's got rock in his fingers, he's got jazz.
got it.
is beautifully blended.
Yeah.
And I still do it to this day.
I've got friends who I play.
So he does do just just the way it is.

(01:00:19):
But he preludes it with a jazz standard.
Best you is my women.
And if I play just that clip to people, they they are stuck.
They can't tell you who it is or what it is.
that but but
Of course, if you listen, he starts just putting in a few little tricks and a few littlereferences to the big hit that's coming up.

(01:00:45):
And yeah, so Bruce Hornsby, here comes the noise makers.
I had to mention what is my first or my introduction to prog rock, and that wasWindermothery Genesis 1976.
It was what got me into Genesis is what got me into prog rock.
And ironically, it was after Peter Gabriel left.

(01:01:09):
yeah, that was pretty phenomenal.
Piano album, another one, a trio is, I believe it was his first ever live radio broadcastin New York, A &R recording studios, Elton John.

(01:01:30):
The album is called 171170.
And it's just the three of them.
It's Dean Murray, Nigel on drums and Elton playing piano.
And it is, I mean, it is just sublime.
It's just a trio and they fill the evening out.

(01:01:50):
They've got the audience absolutely going ballistic.
And it's proper, you know, what I call rock and roll piano.
And it just, really shows.
what an amazing player he was and still is.
So yeah, that definitely goes there.
Bit of a thoughtful one.

(01:02:11):
I do love orchestration, arranging and everything.
I've got to do a caveat and say there's two albums that I link together.
First one, Jodie Mitchell, both sides now.
Vince Mendoza's arrangements are just...
phenomenal.
It's like there is something magical happened in the studio and Dave, Dave Arch has playedon that album.

(01:02:37):
He was on it.
I don't know to what degree he does get credit to.
But the other one I'd couple with that is a jazz singer called Shirley Horn, his To Lifealbum.
And that was an arranger called Johnny Mandel, who did all of the strings and I gather hedid it.
after the trio had been recorded or he heard the trio first and then he arranged allaround it.

(01:03:02):
So it's a uh more of a sort of a different approach if you will.
Yeah, there's one final album and I just, as I said, there's so many albums but I waslooking for albums that really influenced me.
The final one is Monte Alexander, Jazz Pianist.
Live in Montreux and I believe that was 19...

(01:03:25):
And again, it's a trio album.
If ever there is a masterclass for keeping an audience on the edge of their seats, go andlisten to this album.
It is phenomenal.
It's jazz, it's blues, but it's so theatrical, the album, and you've got to hear it toknow what I mean by that.
And it's absolutely phenomenal.

(01:03:45):
So there you go.
Five, six albums.
Yeah, no, five six is always good.
Thank you, John.
That's superb.
uh And now our final question is a ten parter.
So we call it our quick fire ten.
So John, um Damon and I will just fire these questions at her in a short and sharp way.
If you can give us an answer.
The first album you recall hearing as a child that really had an impact or as a teenagerthat had an impact on you.

(01:04:10):
Do know what it was?
The Muppet Show album.
Now, I'll tell you why.
Don't laugh.
It had, if I'm not mistaken, Jack Parnell, famous band leader, and his band playing on it.
He's one the most phenomenal musicians on this album.
think it was drummers, Ronnie Therrell, all old school players.

(01:04:33):
It was an amazing album, but everyone laughs when I say it, but it was a great album.
and I've still got it.
Excellent.
Question two, John, the most important pre-gig ritual for you.
And I'll remind you, young man, this is a family.
Yes!
Um, we, pre-gig rituals change from artist to artist, as you know.

(01:04:59):
I don't think Rick would, mind me saying Rick Astley, that we used to have a little shotof Jägermeister to get us going.
Um, to be honest, when I'm working with a house band, pre-gig rituals are all about,should we just talk through everything and make sure we're all sitting on the same in
sheet?
So I'm really sorry to be boring.

(01:05:19):
But that's about as pre-gig ritual as it gets when we're gigs and we've got so much tocover.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
John, if you hadn't been a musician, what do think your career choice would have been?
There was one other thing I went to interviews for and that was to be a pilot for theRoyal Navy.

(01:05:41):
So um had I done it and achieved it, it would have been a very different life.
And I also met, may have also met some very interesting members of the Royal Family, sobut we'll leave it there.
Alright, excellent.
Moving right along.
Hit the transpose button or adjust on the fly.

(01:06:03):
Oh, if you're reading, sometimes it's easy to use the transpose button.
If you're playing by ear, it's just easier to play in a different key for me.
yeah.
So can we keep F sharp major to a limit, please?
Please.
Absolutely.
um Favorite gig you've ever done, if that's at all possible, John.

(01:06:25):
Oh, favourite gig ever done.
Oh, so hard.
It really is hard.
There's so many gigs, so many wonderful places.
We did do Hyde Park with Rick.
It was 40,000 in the audience.

(01:06:48):
it was, I think it was quite a special day.
Yeah, it was quite a special day indeed.
But you know,
We've been all around the world with Singapore, we did some fabulous gigs.
Japan, always fabulous to come back to Australia and New Zealand.
So it's a real tricky one.

(01:07:09):
Nothing leaves out to mind.
It's just, they're all great.
Alright, you've almost touched on it.
Favourite city you've played.
ah Right, I've got to answer this one very carefully.
What's the statute of limitations in various countries, John?
You know, it's really weird.

(01:07:31):
I don't think I can equate it to a city.
No?
No, we play France.
We do some of the most fabulous tours in France and the audiences are all amazing.
We can go to Germany.
The audience is a great but in a different way.
We can go to various countries.
You get different audiences.
If you're talking about my favorite city to visit, well, I've always said in life of allthe traveling I've done,

(01:07:56):
The two places I could potentially settle, first one was Vancouver, because I've alwaysloved Vancouver.
And the second one is Melbourne, yes.
Yeah.
Yeah, you're a charmer.
Um, John, name a song that you used to love but you've now played it to death.
Hey!
Um...

(01:08:18):
God, dear.
It's, again, it's so difficult, isn't it?
When I used to do functioneering, I remember we always used to open with, it'd be awedding, we'd always open with, I just called to say I love you.
And I remember one day thinking, I'm going to have to hang myself if I play this song onemore time.

(01:08:42):
There's no disrespect to Stevie.
It is an amazing song, but it was just one too many times for me.
So I think that's fairly highly rated.
yeah, I mean, you you know what it's like if you've done functionary, you just havecertain songs and yeah, you're just looking for like a beam.

(01:09:04):
can hang your new song and just go and and yeah, go and disappear quietly.
music documentary or movie.
ah
Again, it's a family show.
of going to the family show.
And actually, we even allow swearing, so go as inappropriate as you like, John.

(01:09:26):
It's easy, it's so so easy without a doubt the spinal tap.
Boy are we looking forward to the next one.
When is it coming out?
Is it September?
Spinal anyone non-musical asked me to explain life on the road I say look at spinal tapand eat

(01:09:54):
every aspect of that show or film keeps reoccurring in my life.
Even recently, and I'm not going to go into details, I'll just say the word Janine and howwe've had a similar experience in life.
And it just, you know, it's just, it never stops.
It keeps going and going and going.

(01:10:15):
And although I do know how to handle a square lump of cheese in a brown roll, so there'sno problem there.
Love it.
John, name one thing you'd like to see invented as a keyboard player that would make yourlife easier.
Wow.
Well, the usual thing is, I have a weighted, uh a non-weighted, weighted piano, isn't it?
That's the one we always used to get on.

(01:10:36):
And it used to make you think and go, how the hell can we do that?
I think if the technology or mechanical technology could ever exist to recreate the feelof a piano, but as we know, or as I know, with aging years carrying heavy 88 note piano
keyboards,

(01:10:57):
gets harder and harder, but I'm just not happy playing on any.
If I've got to play piano, I don't want to play on a synth keyboard.
I've got to play on a piano.
That's why for programming, I've got a weighted action by the side of me as well as thesynth action side of me.
So I guess in real terms, if they could ever truly master that, how can you produce aweighted action keyboard, but without the weight?

(01:11:25):
Sounds stupid, but that would be my biggest dream.
slow.
Excellent.
And last but not least, your favourite or a favourite non-musical activity or hobby.
Non-music or activity or hobby?
Wow!
I don't have time for non-music!
Ha ha ha

(01:11:46):
No, I live a very boring life.
We're pretty much more out in the countryside.
So do you know what?
Nothing makes me happier than dog walking, getting out, occasional cycle rides, meeting upwith mates for a pint down the pub.
I am so dull and boring.
You can't believe it.
But do know, that's the thing.

(01:12:08):
You tour, you go away and as you can imagine, I'm sure you know, you live a kind ofdifferent life for a few weeks in.
running up to Christmas last year, seven weeks, and you were just so hungry for normalityagain, just to get back to normality.
yeah, that's it really.
Sorry, there's nothing more exciting than that.

(01:12:29):
No, that's good.
think you're right, there's nothing wrong with being boring.
was worried you were going to say dogging rather than dog walking and I'm glad you didn't.
So that was good,
stay at site just down the corner actually so if I do get bored there's always thatopportunity I suppose.
And for our non-UK listeners, you'll need to Google that, or maybe don't.
And so...

(01:12:49):
Not dog walking, it's dogging.
m
right.
John, I can't thank you enough for your time.
It's been absolutely amazing speaking with you.
And I know we've mentioned in the introduction that you and David go back a long way andjust, yeah, look, you've made an amazing impact both musically and across the industry and
we really appreciate your time.
It's been really, really enjoyable.
Thank you, David.

(01:13:09):
Damon, it's lovely to see you again as well since our beer on the beach.
well, maybe we can do this again sometime.
Bye!
And there we have it.
Damon, you mentioned in the introduction that John is one of nature's gentlemen and hecertainly proved it during that interview.

(01:13:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
is.
uh He's very, very humble.
He almost shrugs off the level that he has worked at in various parts of the industry fromworking with the very top keyboard brands in the world at an R &D level to uh his session
work, um touring and recording with some major, major artists and all over the world.

(01:14:01):
He's just so humble and so fascinating, that almost hybrid
music career that he has stitched together and succeeded through.
Exactly.
And it was, I'm happy to pull back the curtain a little bit for our viewers and listeners.
John did mention after we stopped recording that they are discontinuing the whole montageseries and just merging it into the genos line.

(01:14:21):
So you heard it here first.
Now that obviously it's really important.
I now say this, that is a joke.
That is absolutely, that is absolutely a joke.
So no, a huge, a huge thank you to John for his time.
It was amazing.
What a guy.
So.
uh As always, we'd like to thank you for taking the time to listen.
We hope you got a lot out of it as well.

(01:14:42):
And I do want to give a quick shout out to our gold and silver supporters.
So the wonderful Mike Wilcox at Midnight Mastering.
If you are creating your own music and need someone to do an amazing job of mixing andmastering, Mike's your guy at MidnightMastering.com.
The lovely Tammy Katcha from Tammy's Musical Stew.
uh Tammy, you'll kill me, but I know Tammy's got an exciting new project coming out thatmaybe we'll be able to mention down the track as well.

(01:15:05):
So thank you, Tammy, as always.
Bring it, Dewey Evans from the sunny land of Wales.
Thank you sir, for your ongoing support.
And last but definitely not least, Dave Bryce and the team at musicplay.com forums.
Lots of interesting discussion on the forums this week.
Everything from the Viscount Legend 1 through to, oh, we've covered off Keyscape stuffthis week.

(01:15:26):
There's always some interesting discussion going on.
So I highly recommend that.
But.
Again, thank you for listening.
We'll be back in a week or two, Damon.
Thank you, sir.
It's been an absolute pleasure.
We'll definitely have you back on at some stage.
If you must.
Thank you very much, David.
Your pleasure is all ours.
So yeah, look, um thanks everyone out there and in the meantime, keep on playing.