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Read about Tony Hillyard
I was brought up with music. My Dad was a ‘crooner’ and was the lead singer for a 1940’s big band that played in the Concert Parties for the British Army in India during the war. (That’s right, just like ‘It ain’t half hot mum’ on the telly!). Gran was a piano teacher and played piano for the silent movies! At family gatherings it wasn’t long before the radio got turned off, song sheets handed out and the singing round the piano usually lasted ‘til breakfast.
Not surprisingly then, when I got introduced to the folk clubs in and around London in the late sixties it wasn’t long before I started to do the occasional floor spot. Songs recorded by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Judy Collins and The Clancy Brothers seemed to dominate my repertoire in those days!
Together with some friends, we started our own folk club in Wandsworth and not long after, I joined a band, ‘Nostradamus’. We played gigs around London and the Home Counties from 1975 until 1978, when Malcolm, our lead musician tragically drowned in Italy. We didn’t have the heart to carry on without him so I started performing on my own, singing a more traditional set of songs. I went to a Frankie Armstrong voice workshop and learnt how some of the traditional English folk songs and ballads could be brought to life, (Frankie is still the best at ‘story telling’ with a traditional ballad) and then started singing regularly at Bromley Folk Club.
I was lucky enough to team up with Dave Benton, one of London’s best acoustic folk guitarists and all-round musician. Dave’s eclectic taste exposed me to a much broader range of material and I started singing compositions by contemporary writers (including Dave) with a leaning towards more lyrical material – tragic love songs a specialty! We played regularly at Catford and Battersea Folk Clubs and over the years built up a very mixed collection of material. We gig’d together until I left for New Zealand in December 1985.
Arriving in NZ, I got involved in the Wellington Folk Club which quickly helped me get established in the folk music scene here. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed performing in many of New Zealand’s folk clubs (Wellington, Upper Hutt, Kapiti, Pukerua Bay, Levin, Palmerston North, Blenheim, Nelson, Christchurch, Devonport and the Auckland Irish Society) as well several of the New Zealand Folk Festivals.
I usually perform solo, but I worked for a time as a duo, with singer and multi-instrumentalist John Sutherland, performing as ‘Both Sides of the Wall’. We recorded my first cd: ‘Hidden from the Eye of Chance’ when we were touring.
I also had the pleasure of supporting Margaret Farrelly on three of her radio gigs; her ‘Once in a Blue Moon’ and ‘Bright Blue Rose’ recordings; various concerts and the National Folk Festival in Wellington.
Recently I’ve performed with good friends and award-winning musicians, Bob McNeill and Davy Stuart, playing Concerts at Auckland, Canterbury and Wellington Folk Festivals as well as several club concerts.
The new studio album, ‘Each Step On The Way’, produced and recorded by Davy Stuart in Christchurch, was released in October 2005, it features a group of friends and musicians drawn from NZ and overseas: Bob McNeill; Davy Stuart; Karen Tweed; Tapani Varis; Chris While and Julie Matthews. I'm flattered to have worked on the album with these wonderfully talented people. It's as much theirs as it is mine and I cannot begin to thank them enough. The album takes a fresh perspective on a few traditional favourites and has some exciting new arrangements of the best singer/songwriter material from New Zealand, Britain and the USA. | | |
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