Glens biography :-) Born in Durban 22/5/48 Penzance Primary School – Disappointed everyone by not being as clever or good at sport as elder brother at same school. Shooo! High spot was befriending Mike Slavin when we were about 7 – still best of friends nearly 60 years later. Mike lived next door to the late and not lamented nearly enough Hugh Hind who, in his own time and at his own expense taught a bunch of us schoolboys to play brass instruments – Mike, trumpet & euphonium, and myself E flat Saxhorn (tenor horn) and tenor trombone. At +/- 12 yrs I played in Hugh’s amateur orchestra and the Natal Mounted Rifles Military Band which Hugh Hind had initiated, again at great personal cost. Hugh’s departure from this realm was both untimely and strangely poetic, being taken by a heart attack while conducting his orchestra. I wasn’t playing that night. Added that last information to highlight the fact that my sketchy playing was not responsible for his passing. Glenwood High School – still a disappointment to those expecting a replica of brother Mike. Sorry hey. Played in cadet band for school, swam for school, did athletics for school, played rugby for 2nd team – can’t win them all. By standard 8 (grade 10?) Mike Slavin and I had discovered electric guitars, decided these were the way forward and by the end of the year had the beginnings of a band together. Mike on “lead”, Hilton Horsely on “rhythm”, Hilton Blair on vocals, Lee (????) on drums, me on bass. We were really awful but very enthusiastic and actually got a few paying gigs as The Kinsmen. The following year saw some changes, with Dennis Brunton on drums and, later Howard Carpendale on vocals. Plenty of playing work followed and we won the “Battle of the Beats” competition on Springbok Radio. Some months I suspect we earned more than some of our teachers but that’s more a comment on how badly teachers were paid at the time. Howard went on to become a major star in Germany and still records and performs there. Squeaked through Matric, left school, joined The Dave Anthony Quartet as a full-time musician, 2 years or so into my illustrious career, met Patty Hardy and decided that marriage/kids/all that stuff was incompatible with a career in music and left. During my stay with Dave Anthony Quartet, got tired of the poor levels of technical backup available to most players and, starting with the only really valuable thing I learnt at Glenwood, Ohm’s Law, began learning electronics as related to audio equipment, a self-teaching process which continues to this day. Done all sorts of things since I guess. In an attempt to escape the world of music, I spent 2 years being a building society clerk with my Dad’s words - “Get a proper job”- ringing in my ears. It was a nice idea but not for me. What is a “proper job” anyway? Early in 1978 my wife Patty died very suddenly and very unexpectedly. My eldest son, Dale was about to turn 5 and daughter Debbie was just 13 months old at the time. An ex-girlfriend decided I couldn’t remain single and engineered a blind date with Liz who is still married to me after all this time and deserves many medals. She is the mom of my son Andy who is becoming well known locally as a drummer/guitarist/pedal steel player/what-have-you. I have had the ultimate fatherly privilege and pleasure of sharing the stage with him in a number of shows, mostly “Guitar that Rocked The World”. I’ve done time in a number of musical instrument and sound gear retail operations, done good and bad gigs, although mostly good, was a start-up member of the late Loudspeaker Projects and also of P.A.L. both of which companies designed and built sound gear. Worked for the (in)famous Geoff Lonstein of Colosseum Acoustics designing and prototyping various pieces of industrial audio gear. Was founder member of Larry and the Lounge Lizards with Stuart Mey and we had a lot of fun playing nationally for some years. Over the last 12-or-so years I have been self-employed, selling and repairing “pro” sound equipment and doing sound for live music productions, mostly at the now-defunct Heritage Theatre. My daughter Debbie, with her husband Boyd have blessed me with 2 wonderful grandchildren, Daniel (9) and Alannah (5) and, outside of my marriage to Liz, they are the light of my life. Eldest son, Dale works on large cruise ships as a Senior Production Manager and travels the world providing his excellent technical contribution to the world of entertainment. My playing activities are now mostly as the grumpy old bass player at Westville Baptist Church on Sunday mornings, an activity which I love and feel very privileged to be part of. God continues to be very good to me and my family and I’m hugely grateful to Him for the life which He gave me.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 08:19:32 +0000
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