Can Anyone Learn to Sing Beautifully?
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Or only those blessed with an amazing singing voice?
Having a great singing voice was not a prerequisite in the first band I was in, just the ability to sing at all, and be a “front-man”.
It was the 1980s and, to raise funds, the Church I attended was putting on a cabaret, which a wise group of people had decided to call “Le Giggle”. It would feature comedy acts, performance artists and, of course, a band, to keep the audience, munching gourmet food and partaking of fine wine, entertained.
My best friend played clarinet, and having an amazing musical talent, had then branched out into alto saxophone and, as his family owned a legendary Hammond organ, keyboards. He had bought himself a Yamaha DX-21 synthesiser, one of the most popular 1980s keyboards.
We put our creative minds together, and, being influenced by 1960s and 1970s Blues music (probably from seeing the Blues Brothers way too many times), we decided to form a fun Blues/Rock band for the event.
At the time the only musical instrument I played was the flute, having learnt this while I was at College (I took Classical lessons from Grade 1 to Grade 6), but I decided to try my hand (or vocal cords) at singing — after all, Jake and Elwood Blues could do it, and it was for fun.
We needed to rope others into our project, and, using our Church Youth Group contacts, soon were able to “put the Band together”.
Out of nowhere, we now had a very talented “older” (in his early 30s) lead guitarist and a rather cool bass player who owned an even cooler square bass guitar (popular in the 1980s — below).
On drums was someone I knew from College, by the name of Jeremy.
A friend of mine, Brett, was intending to play rhythm guitar, but then decided that he had far more talent on the mixing desk.
We were now complete, and were confronted with the arduous task that many bands face: a band name that is somewhere between boring and ridiculous…
My best friend and I had, late one Friday night a month earlier, accidentally found ourselves at the front bar of a rocking Richmond pub (Melbourne, Australia), and were confronted by not a mountainous bouncer asking for…
