Updated March 2006
A Brief History
As a child growing up in the South West Wales village of Llansaint, which overlooks the beautiful Carmarthen Bay, Mels earliest exposure to music was in the late 50's and early 60's around the home on the radio and in his parents record collection, for example the Beatles and in particular the Shadows.
Throughout the years everything from various film and TV scores, Motown to Hendrix, Pink Floyd to ELP, Rachmaninov to Vangelis and Hawkwind to Tangerine Dream have been an inspiration to the way Mel composes.
Mels interest in electronic music was sparked when he first heard Telstar by the legendary Tornados (1962), closely followed by the theme music for the sci-fi series Dr Who. Even though Mel liked many styles of music from an early age it was these two very diverse pieces that were the most obvious influence on what was to become a lifelong interest in electronic music.
At the age of 11 Mel was bought his first acoustic guitar, but coming from a relatively poor background and not having the benefit of tuition, it took a long time to get to grips with even a few chords. By the time he got to 15 and bought his first electric guitar, his frustration at not being able to master it led Mel to experiment with alternative ways of expressing himself through the use of the guitar and effects a few years later.
His first sighting of a modular synthesizer (though he had never heard of the S word), was on Top of the Pops! Mel cannot remember the title of the song but it was recorded by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch (1969). He was amazed by the sight and sound of this bank of knobs and cables with a keyboard, this fuelled his appetite for this type of technology.
Mels first keyboard purchase was an organ, then he progressed to a Mini Moog in 1973. Due to job redundancies the Moog had to be given up, leaving him practically gearless throughout the most part of 1974. Never the less, this did not stop him from contacting an established band, ASTROXIA, in Llanelli, South Wales, as he was confident the band would welcome a synth player. As it turned out they got two, because he had been trying for a couple of years to put together a synth duo with a friend, (who later became the bass player in Astroxia). Mel found a new job which enabled him to purchase new gear and during his time with Astroxia he used the Mini Korg 700, Farfisa Pro Organ, WEM Copycat echo unit and various other effects. After one and a half years of being in the band Mel decided to leave at the end of 1975.
1976 was when Mel decided to do his own thing and started to accumulate some more equipment, but unfortunately recording equipment was out of the question due to the cost. The only things to be recorded at that time, were ideas and home performances on a consumer reel to reel tape recorder, obviously with no multi track facilities, (regrettably a lot of tapes were thrown out). In 1977 the only solo live performance he did was supporting another local rock band at the 'BOW' (The Cricketers, Murray St, Llanelli. Does anybody remember the 'Bow' and that gig in particular? please let Mel know) Mel used the gear previously mentioned along with pre-recorded backing and sound effects. At the time he seemed to be the only person in the locality performing electronic music. After the performance he received quite an ovation, but alas the recording of the performance by a friend using just a mono cassette recorder, was lost due to tape damage.
Towards the end of 1981 disillusioned by life and music, about to give up and sell all his gear, Mel was asked to join the re-formation of Astroxia. Not all the old band members were keen to join the new version of the band so a new bass player and drummer needed to be found, but to no avail. So guitarist Andy and Mel on keyboards (plus a vintage EKO drum machine) set about re-working some of the Astroxia music as well as writing new material. This lasted into the following summer until Mels gear failed on stage at a club in Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire. Lack of finances for repairs meant that the duo could not continue. This caused Mel to enter a musical wilderness for the next eight years.
During 1990 whilst working for a fast food outlet in Kidwelly, not far from a local recording studio, the owner Tim Hamill, who Mel had met 10 years previously, got talking to Mel whilst waiting for his food. Mel said he wanted to get back into music one way or the other. Tim knew of a synth based band in the Swansea area who were looking for more personnel and were also prepared to provide the gear. Tim arranged a meeting after which Mel joined the ranks of MEDIUM GREEN, (whose drummer at the time was Aled Richards who later went on to become the drummer with CATATONIA). Mels debut performance with Medium Green was at the Lyric Theatre, Carmarthen, September 1990. On a stormy December evening when they were due to perform at Trinity College, Carmarthen, He decided to quit the band shortly before the performance, as after several months of rehearsal he along with some other band members were asked to mime to a backing track due to a certain band members insecurities (not to mention ego!). Medium Green went on to play the UK Electronica Festival at the Astoria, London 1991.
Since then Mel has been slowly putting together a home studio and concentrating on the creation of his own music. A lot of this music especially from the early part of the 90's is scattered about in demo form on cassette tape. This material, with the gear available to him, is now in the process of being re-worked and re-mastered to the best of his ability.
In 1999 a house move meant that Mel was unable to set up his studio due to lack of space, this meant that Mel had an enforced year break in his creativity. As soon as he moved back to Kidwelly and had room to set up his studio again, the latter part of 2000 was a productive one and out of this came the album Mental Pictures.
2001 to 2005 was not as productive due to his illness and also death of his father in 2002.
At present as well as the album Mental Pictures, an album titled Fear, Rejection and Beauty (composed and recorded during 1996-97) is also available.
If you have any comments or require information on Cds etc.
please email: mel@theboxroom.plus.com
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