Andy Tompkins was a project director for BT until recently. He is now working full-time at his studio at Aughton, near Howden, recording his own music and hosting corporate team events.
HAVING failed to gel with my piano teacher, I started playing guitar at about 10 years old. I still have my first guitar, a nylon-strung acoustic which cost the princely sum of £10 from a music shop in Walthamstow in 1961.
I had a few guitar lesso
ns at school, but am mainly self-taught; the manual of the day being Bert Weedon's Play In A Day, which was often the starting point for many budding guitarists in the 1960s.
It was not long before I succumbed to the lure of the electric guitar and I persuaded my parents to buy me a red electric guitar and Vox 6 watt amplifier. Within weeks, a school band was created from an eclectic mix of lead singer, bongos, clarinet, acoustic rhythm guitar and me on electric lead guitar. Our first and only gig was at Chingford Assembly Hall.
Throughout my teens, I played with many bands working endlessly on technique and style, inspired by Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton (early days) and later, as jazz fusion music became my passion, the great master, John McLaughlin.
My parents decided I needed a "sensible" career and I went off to university to study electronic engineering. After college I was asked to play with Hocket; a folk-rock band formed by my friend Gary Carpenter, a Royal College of Music trained composer. We started playing in clubs, built up a good following and had a great time playing the college circuit and major festivals. One day John Peel saw us and asked us to record a set for his show which was broadcast on Radio 1 in 1972. Gary was offered the job of musical director for the cult film The Wicker Man and we were engaged to record the soundtrack and appear in the film. I am to be seen playing guitar in the bar and have long black hair.
Fame at last! This meant more session and theatre including several European tours with Stomu Yamashta's incredible Red Buddha Theatre. This, and playing with the other amazing musicians in that stunning band made it one of the greatest musical periods in my life.
In my mid-20s, I decided I needed a "proper job" and joined BT as a computer programmer. My career with BT developed and, until most recently, I was a programme director with responsibility for delivering all BT projects associated with HBOS.
My wife and I moved from London to rural East Yorkshire in 1988 and since then I have been playing in a local band at parties and charity events for fun. One of my greatest pleasures is to share the thrill of playing music, in a band, with colleagues and friends, even if it is only at a local village hall.
I have a professional recording studio in a stable block in my garden and am now returning to my passion; writing and recording my own music full-time. I am planning to set up "corporate rock days" for companies to send their people on team-building days out. Nothing beats the team spirit you need to play in harmony together.
I have released four instrumental albums on iTunes and am promoting them through MySpace, which is another world completely.
n For further information visit http://www.myspace.com/andytompkins.
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