  |
|
Steve Wicketts - Biography
At first, I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to put on this page. I've seen so many uninteresting biographies on other web sites. Hopefully you will find this short biography to be amusing and informative. It’s just a little look back on my life and how I got so interested in music. Like any good film, it starts with a bathroom scene. Unfortunately that's where the similarity ends, as it's not some gorgeous super model taking a shower, it was my Dad. I was about 4 Years old, I couldn’t wait for my Dad to come out of the bathroom and hear me playing the theme from Van Der Valk on his small electric organ. I remember Two things that left a lasting impression.: 1. It was the first thing I did that I remember my Dad being really impressed by. 2. I loved the feeling I felt from knowing that I'd worked out how to play the melody. I started to take a real interest in music, I can recall the first time I was truly amazed by someone's voice. It's as clear in my mind as if it only happen yesterday. It was at a family party, I would have been about four years old, Roy Orbison’s Album was playing on the record player, I desperately needed to know who was singing. I asked one of my Aunties, “Who’s singing on the Record?” She replied with such Worldly knowledge, “it’s Jim Reaves.” I asked my Mom to buy me a Jim Reeves Album. I couldn’t understand why it didn’t sound the same as it did at the party. I remember feeling empty inside, I thought I’d never hear that beautiful music again. When I was about six, I remember sneaking into the piano room at School. I knew that I'd get told off for being in there without a teacher but I couldn’t help myself, I only had to see a piano and I felt mysteriously Drawn To it, I couldn't have just stayed quiet in there, I had to play it, well, maybe playing it is a slight over exaggeration. I clearly remember losing myself in the noise, when a teacher came rushing in to the piano room and shouted, "come away from the piano at once, before you break it!”. At the age of eight I started piano lessons at school, and at the age of ten my parents gave me the choice of going to Disney Land in Florida or having my own piano. I decided I'd like my own piano. I didn’t know how to play many recognisable tunes so; I began composing little tunes of my own by playing 3 or 4 chords and playing a little melody on top. Over the next few Years, I kept writing my little tunes, each one slightly more complex than the last.
This little set back didn’t deter me one little bit, in fact, it made me work harder at my music. I loved the feeling of achievement I get when listening back to an original composition. It was at this time my attention was starting to be split between my love of music and a 14 year old Girl called Amanda. I never thought she’d be interested in me. I eventually picked up enough courage to ask her out, she smiled and replied, “I’ll think about it.” The next day she said ok, and we spent the last 6 Weeks of the School year meeting up every dinner hour. Every time she smiled at me, it was like being in some romantic film it just felt so perfect. I know, I know, (Where’s the bloody bucket?) The last day of term arrived, I couldn’t believe that I wasn’t going to see Amanda for 6 whole Weeks. I took an old camera into School that day, I took pictures of all of my friends as a decoy, the only picture I really wanted was Amanda’s but was too embarrassed to say. One of my friends stood by Amanda as I took her picture so I turned the camera slightly left and managed to get a picture of just her. That Summer I was on Holiday in Wales with my family, I turned on the radio on my radio cassette player and heard a song that had the same impact upon me as Roy Orbison did ten years before. This time it was Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Great Balls of Fire!”I thought the sound and energy of this record was amazing! I quickly pushed down the play and record button on my radio cassette player, and waited with eager anticipation to hear who the artist was. However, the DJ didn't announce the artist at the end of the song. I was so impressed with this song that I played it over and over again the whole holiday. When I wasn’t playing the song on my tape machine, I had the radio on in the hope that it would be played again and I could find out the name of the Artist. It didn't happen, I didn’t catch the song again on the radio. However, I did hear the song “Marie Marie” by Shakin Stevens and I was certain it was the same singer. I bought the Album “This old House” by Shakin Stevens, only to find that Great Balls of Fire” wasn’t on it, however, I liked the way Shakin Stevens sang Rock ‘N‘ Roll. It wasn’t long after that Holiday that I realised, I was drawn to anything that had that 1950’s sound. After
the School Holiday was over, I couldn’t wait to see Amanda.
I waited for her outside
of the Dining Room holding a box of chocolates. However, no one had told
me that my voice was starting to break and when I croaked “I’ve
really missed you over the Holiday.” She just smiled, took the
Chocolates and walked off with her best friend, the same friend who
later that day told me that Amanda wanted to finish with me. I couldn’t believe she'd finish with me just because my voice was breaking! We never really talked much to each other for the rest of our time at School. I used to get cross with myself as no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop thinking about Amanda. I decided there was only one thing to do, I went out with Amanda’s best friend, (Yes, the one who Amanda had used to tell me it was over). It wasn’t really quite like that as I didn’t go out with Amanda’s best friend straight away, I waited for my voice to settle down, which took about a year or two. Whilst I was waiting, I’d started to get interested in synthesized sounds, I remember watching Top of the Pops and noticed that Hot Chocolate had a electronic keyboard on top of their piano. I loved the idea and a few days later I sold my racing bike and bought a second- hand Yamaha P3 keyboard. This was a tiny little keyboard with only 8 different sounds and 4 different rhythms, but I was mightily impressed. I fell in love with electronic keyboards and used to go to music shops and pick up the brochures and spend hours just gazing longingly at the pictures of the latest keyboards, I know, it sounds so sad. It wasn't long before I was the owner of several little keyboards. My Mom started paying for me to have private Piano tuition at home. This paid off, because in 1982, after just one year of private lessons, I achieved a Grade 5 piano exam with distinction. I got the highest mark in the whole of the Midlands. 1982 proved to be a good year for me, as that same year I also was awarded a brown belt in Judo, which is as high as you can go when you are only fourteen. 1982 was also the year when the TV show Fame hit the English screens. Bruno Martelli, one of the characters in the show, had keyboards to die for and would sit inside a castle of keyboards on every side of him. What I would have given at the time to have all those wonderful synthesizers at my fingertips. I began to get more keyboards, albeit, due to lack of crucial cash, all of them being no more than glorified toys. I used them for my recordings. I also lacked at the time any kind of sophisticated recording equipment, so I just used two ordinary tape machines and used them to multi-track, by simply recording myself and then playing along with the recording whilst re-recording on the second tape machine. By this time I was writing and recording songs that also contained lyrics. By the time I was fifteen, I had probably written and recorded over a hundred songs. Howard Jones was the new kid on the block at the time, and being like myself a singer song writer and keyboardist, he was a true inspiration to me. I still loved the sound of the 1950’s and in 1983, Mom bought our first Video Recorder. I went to the local video shop and saw a video called “Lemon Popsicle” it appealed to me as it had a Rock ‘N‘ Roll sound track and was a teenage comedy set in the 1950’s , oh yeah, and was a little naughty. The third one in this series of films was called, “Hot Bubble Gum” it had a music Teacher seducing her Student. This sounds almost unbelievable, at the end of one of our School music lessons, the young female music Teacher asked me, “Have you seen any good films lately?” Well, what could I say, I mean all my mates were there so I said, “There’s a good film called, Hot Bubble Gum.”
I was no longer feeling cool; I walked in to the music room like a scared Rabbit. I don’t know to this day whether it was an amazing coincidence or a teacher getting her own back on a cheeky Student. For my sixteenth birthday my Mom bought me my first semi-professional keyboard. A couple of weeks after this, whilst holidaying with my dad in Skegness, without me knowing, my dad put my name down for a talent competition. When I saw the grand piano I was to play, I was immediately won over to the idea. I entered the Competition, played two Songs and came second. That very same year, for an early Christmas present, my parents paid for me to go into a large recording studio for the first time. When I first arrived and the guy running the studio saw my keyboard, which, although to me at the time was the “bees knees”, to him looked cheep and nasty, I was assigned the office junior to do my recording. However, within a short time, the person in charge heard what I was doing and was so impressed, that he took over the recording. Although we had paid for eight hours, which should have elapsed at about 6.00 pm, at 2.00 am the next morning me and my parents were still in the studio and the manager of the studio was talking about signing me up for a hundred thousand pounds recording contract. My mom was concerned about signing contracts with me being so young. She told me that there would be plenty of time for that kind of commitment in the future. Click
HERE for page two of Steve Wicketts' biography
|
Hi
there, my name is Steve Wicketts.
When
I was 13, I teamed up with my best friend Paul, and we entered our first
music competition at school. Paul and I had written an original
composition called, Bright Lights. We
both eagerly waited the judges decision.
A
Week had gone by and I was walking up the Corridor that leads to the
music room for my Weekly Piano lesson when, I heard a piece of classical
music that made my Heart stop! It was the same music the teacher played
in the film “Hot Bubble Gum”.