Ken Achard played such an important part of the industry that he was asked to write a book. The book entitled “The Peavey Revolution” was released in 2005 and covers Ken’s long associat...
Don Airey is widely known as the current keyboardist for Deep Purple, a gig he has had since 2002. His career spanned the development of electronic instrumentation, which grew as his own ...
Jon Anderson is best known as a founding member of the band Yes. His musicianship, arranging and songwriting helped catapult the band to international fame with hit records and sold out p...
Lee Anderton’s grandfather started a small music store that Lee now runs, Anderton Music in Guildford, England. During Lee’s early years in the business, he worked to make the Internet an...
Rod Argent had an idea for a new sound, a new band in a new era of music. After creating a group and writing songs to perform and record, Rod’s dream of a new style of rock was born (with...
Peter Asher teamed with his school friend, Gordon Waller, to form the group Peter and Gordon. The two hit the pop charts during the golden era of the British Invasion in the mid-1960s. ...
Trevor Austin has encouraged and assisted countless young musicians for over half a century as the director of the Rosehill Instrument stores in England. His passion for playing goes back...
Alan Barclay entered the music industry as a salesman, which is where his love of the industry developed. In 2003 he opened Absolute Music, an instrument retail store in England that inco...
Nick Batt is the Director of Sonicstate - a website and podcast dedicated to reviewing and commenting on advancements in electronic musical instruments. During his NAMM Oral History inter...
Keith Beckingham recalls watching his father, a church organist, playing the piano at home and then sitting down and copying the music he heard. He grew up fascinated by the piano and org...
Andy Bereza was on the team that created the now famous Portastudio products for TASCAM. In fact, Andy is credited with the mixer’s first blue prints as well as coming up with its clever ...
Pete Best grew up with a strong musical influence within his mother. She encouraged the passion and desire to bring music into the lives of Pete and the kids in Liverpool, England by open...
Richard Blackford is the noted classical composer who studied at the Royal College of Music in England before becoming the assistant to Hans Werner Henze in Rome. His works are heard at ...
Graham Blyth began playing music at the age of 4 and studied electrical engineering in college, which led to his final paper on the topic of electronic organs. While writing the paper, Gr...
Tony Boase started his career in music when he was 16 and landed his dream job at Mersey Music, a musical instrument shop on the Wirral Merseyside near Liverpool in the early 1980s. Tony ...
Tony Bolland was just 16 when he got a job at Plug In, a rock shop in Liverpool. The store was part of Hessy’s Music, the famous store which sold instruments to the Beatles in the early p...
John Booth has played an enormous role in the development and growth of Roland within the United Kingdom. As President of Roland UK, he has witnessed the expansion of the market in Englan...
James Brady was front and center during the MIDI boom, working within the keyboard department at Rushworth’s Music House in Liverpool. The year was 1986 and the synthesizer was at its pea...
Les Brazil’s first retail job was in Manchester, United Kingdom in 1966 when he was just 15, at a shop called Reno’s. Reno was a famous violin player that worked with the likes of Stephan...
Dave Bresnan had a true passion for music that began when he was fifteen when he learned to play the piano. Throughout the 1960’s, Dave played guitar and banjo in several groups after dis...
Paul Brett knows a good story when he hears one and when he began digging into the history of the Bartell Guitar Company, he was hooked. Researching the California guitar manufacturer fro...
David Briggs is a great example that not all those in the music products industry enters into it because of their passion for music. David’s passion is business and he has developed one o...
Bill Bruford was the original drummer for the British progressive rock band YES. He later played with King Crimson and formed his own noted jazz fusion band Bruford, which included the y...
Roger Bucknall is an instrument maker who formed Fylde Guitars, which is located in Penrith, England, not so far from the Scottish border. Roger’s long and well regarded career as a guita...
Eric Burdon participated in the British Invasion of the 1960s as an original member of The Animals. It was an exciting time in music that brought popularity to rock bands from England to ...
Billy Butler started in the early 1960s singing with the Merseybeats group, The Tuxedos, having also sang with The Merseybeats and even performed on the same stage as The Beatles. He soon...
Graham Butterworth has spent a few decades in the British music industry. He has worked with both retailers and suppliers alike and has witnessed first hand changes to the industry that h...
Paul Campion developed a rich passion for opera and classical music as a youngster. He later wrote about singing and music that has been very meaningful to him throughout his life. Whil...
John Carpanini worked side by side with Robert Wilson at Sound Technology for just over 18 years. Perhaps considered a baptism of fire? The job was John’s introduction to the industry and...
Rober Castle is currently the managing director of KORG UK, having been tied to the company in one way or another since 1981. In his early days with the company, Rob played a role on the ...
Malcolm Cecil was the engineer and product designer behind the famous synthesizer known as TONTO! TONTO is the acronym for "The Original New Timbral Orchestra," the first, and still the l...
Nigel Clark began taking oboe lessons when he was seven years old. By the age of 17 Nigel started working in the music industry for an oboe reed making company Harry Baker ( oboe reeds) l...
