BRIAN WALKLEY
Hello, I'm Brian.
I'd like to welcome you to my website.
I have been lucky to have been involved with many interesting things
over
many years, so please read on, and I hope you like it.
I`m sure there will be many more exciting things to come in the
future.
Maybe as a result of you visiting this website.
My email address is :- brian_walkley@hotmail.com
(or you can send me an email from my home page !)
POTTED BIOGRAPHY
Brian was born in Maidstone, in the south east of England and his
parents Brian's first professional job on drums was with the first class band on the
After this he joined a French blues group for 10 months In 1967 Brian played for 10 months with Brighton's popular Syd
Dean Also in the 80's he was sometimes a compere / translator for big In 1989 he went to live permanently in Hong Kong where he was He also accompanied American singer Michel Hendricks for All this travelling, and 15 years in Europe, mostly France Teaching and playing and acting and public speaking and Please make contact if interested
moved to more interesting Brighton on the south coast when he was 9
years young.
He started to learn the drums shortly after, at first from his
father who also
taught him the accordian and some piano.
' Queen Mary ' which was still doing the regular crossing between
Southampton
and New York at the time. He then spent a year on another Cunard
ship,
the ' Carinthia ', and studied ' Method Jazz Drumming ' in New york
with
well known drum teacher Stanley Spector, and this put him in the right
direction,
or ' ahead of the pack ' as Stanley put it.
as he became the drummer with Gary Farr and the T-Bones, a
Brighton based rhythm and blues group with a Friday residency
at London's famous Marquee Club, toured the country, made many
records and TV appearances and got to accompany Stevie Wonder,
T-Bone Walker, Sonny Boy Williamson and British artists Julie
Driscoll, Brian Auger and Jeff Beck. The T-Bones featured
Keith Emerson on Hammond organ, later of The Nice and Emerson
Lake and Palmer fame. Brian enjoyed living through the
' Swinging London ' period.
and came back to London where he filled in for a month with
Bluesology, a group run by singer Long John Baldry and sax player
Elton Dean. The young pianist Reg Dwight later took parts of
those names for himself and became Elton John !
Orchestra, then after a while in Los Angeles playing drums dressed
as
Dracula, and some months back in London with a Jamaican soul
band, (
who hated reggae by the way ! ) , he went off to Germany, playing
on American
bases mostly, and in 1968 went back to Paris again
and stayed on the
continent for many years playing in all sorts of bands
in many countries,
mostly for a Swiss agency, with a lot of jazz gigs in Paris in
between. Paris
is where he was normally based, after having got married there !
agency to Thailand, Japan and later to Hong Kong.
business
conferences in Geneva, Switzerland. This gave him confidence
for speaking in
public.
teaching and
playing lots of jazz with some very good musicians.
a week. Her
famous jazz singer father, Jon Hendricks came to give his
congratulations.
Actually Brian had already played for a few famous female
singers, including
Adelaide Hall, Josephine Baker, Bertice Reading
and once a very successful
informal session with Eydie Gorme and her husband
Steve Lawrence on piano.
soap operas, and bigger parts in 15 TV commercials (sometimes
with
Cantonese diologue). He had already been an extra in
' Dallas ' when they
were filming there in 1985.
and
Switzerland, and 10 years in the far east (8 in Hong
Kong), has built up a
knowledge of 7 languages plus a
smattering of 5 others, which he still finds
useful even after
having wandered back to cosmopolitan Brighton in 1994
and then to London in 2006 where he now plays drums regularly
at local well known jazz venues.
of course all
those languages ! has kept him busy, and he is still
open to any offers, for
drumming or acting.
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