About Geoff

I was born in 1947 just in time for the very bad winter. There was always music in the house; my sister played the piano, the radio was seldom turned off and we had a gramophone. My mother realised that I had a passion for music when I was only eighteen months old. I started piano lessons when I was five.

My best 'toy' was a wind-up gramophone and a box of over fifty 78s. Before I could read I knew what each of them were. Classical, jazz, big band, country, Bing Crosby, comedy. Everything was there. I played piano to grade two when I was eight and when I got a scholarship to Dulwich College I took up the clarinet. I was taught by Derek Hyams who was a BBC staff musician. Later he suggested that I buy a saxophone, join a band and go on the road and learn how to be a musician 'properly'.

I was on the road until I was twenty. One thing led to another and when I was 23 I found myself at Abbey Road recording with the Beatles. I spent the next eighteen months working with George Harrison on his projects. Passed a pleasant day with John Lennon and Phil Spector at Lennon's house recording a single. I had a great time.

In 1974 I was musical director for a production of 'As You Like It' for the National Theatre that toured the States for seven months. In 1977 I found myself playing the Rocky Horror Show in the King's Road and then the West End. Various tours came up and I spent the 70s and 80s doing tours, shows, sessions, TV and radio, then back on the road again with the Three Degrees for a couple of years. Still having a good time.

I formed my own trio in 1988 and have worked with it ever since. I started composing orchestral music and was commissioned to write two shows and music for an animated film.

Having done so much and learnt so much I decided it was time to 'pass it on' in the way it was passed on to me i.e. through the love of music for its' own sake and not for the occassional certificate. Music is lifelong joy not just an academic exercise. There's music you haven't heard yet that will inspire you to want to hear more.

That is, I believe, what it's all about.