' BAND WANTS BASS GUITARIST
PLAYS - ELP, YES, STONES, ZEPPELIN
Call Greg on 666 6666'

I answered the ad and turned up to the band room at Greg's parent's house in Westmead with my Excalibur Beatle Bass copy. Sure enough this band did play the exciting repertoire promised in the ad!

Greg introduced me to Dave Eager on Guitar and Dave Brown on drums, he tuned my bass, pointed to the music and we were off!

It was a different world then - no VCR's - no cable TV - no CD's or personal computers. Good information about performance practice was hard to come by - to say the least! Nevertheless at this early stage Greg had already developed the ability to sing like Mick Jagger - Jon Andersen (Yes) and Elton John. He could play a "workman's" style of guitar which was adequate to write songs.

On keyboard he could play barrel-house boogie, classical and jazz piano. He had already composed lengthy pieces of music inspired by ELP and Yes - multi movement classical-rock works with vocals. Not to mention his drumming - quite capable and in the styles of Sandy Nelson and Charlie Watts.

Regarding his boogie-woogie piano, Greg was chuffed to have met and played for Winifred Atwell.

Greg turned out not only to be a versatile musician but a Martial Arts instructor as well. He introduced me to Eastern philosophies (Taoism, Buddhism and Zen Buddhism) and the Alexander Technique.

I knew Greg for decades and was fortunate to be mentored by a person of such high intelligence, creativity and integrity. Read more about his amazing life here - Greg Gillett