Deep Purple

Pass the Cheese?
I was 66 the other day and purchased this sample set for a bit of fun and to try and play the way I did during many of my student days.
Back in the 70s I used to practise the organ at Ampleforth Abbey in holiday times. A great friend of mine - Andrew Lyon Tupman – had introduced me to the music department at the college. Andrew taught Classics, and speed reading. He was a wonderful musician, and we both had perfect pitch. He had a Lowrey and a Hammond organ, and we’d improvise for hours and hours.
One day we went to a hotel on the A66 called the Bowes Moor Hotel. Here I was introduced to Mark Johns. He had moved from London – to escape from the rat race – and gone into the hotel business. I played a little on the instrument there, and Mark asked me come back soon, “to talk”. So he proposed I learn to play “his kind of music” and for a tantalising fee. In exchange I just had to learn more than a 1,000 songs: and most of that was sight-read on the spot, on the night, in front of public. It was excellent training! Mark had very fixed ideas about music. He was a good friend of Lew Grade, and co-discovered Shirley Bassey. He was also the world’s first full-time television critic for a national newspaper -The Express - and he claimed that he coined the term “TV”.
So I escaped campus every week-end (for 4 years) to play at the hotel: Friday was light music, Saturday a dinner dance, and Sunday, classical and I was allowed to “get serious”. On Saturdays he’d often stand (lean) next to me and indicate changes of tempo: he liked to see the dancers trying to work it out and keep up! So this rendition is in that style.

Sadly these two friends passed away some time ago. Andrew from a massive heart attack (he was only 54). Mark, was murdered.

Andrew and Mark always encouraged me to ramp-up the harmonies and experiment. Both were very demanding. That’s why I learnt a lot from them. More cheese?