Goldie, John

Arranger, composer and guitarist from Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, who began playing from about age six and performed in blues and rock groups from about age twelve.

At around fourteen years of age, he saught some formal education, and hired an instructor to teach him about harmonic theory and how to read and write music.

A turning point in his career came when we went to see violinist Stephane Grappelli and guitarist Martin Taylor play a live gig in Glasgow. He got to meet Martin and Martin invited him to his house. Martin asked him to join his group, Spirit of Django. They won in the category of Best Small Group at the British Jazz Awards in 1997 and 1999.

In addition, John toured with Martin as a duo and toured with a production of Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber. His down time was usually spent penning his own compositions. This manifested itself in his first album, Turn & Twist, which he recorded with percussionist Jim Drummond and Ewan Vernal, ex-bassist of Deacon Blue.

This was followed by a string of solo albums: A Little of What You Fancy, Open 4 Closure, Picked in the Past, This Time and Place, and The View from Here. John’s albums feature his arrangements and covers of Celtic, jazz and rock songs, mixed in with his own compositions.

In September 2005, he participated in the Shetland Guitar Festival (a.k.a. Peerie Willie guitar Festival. He performed “Paper Moon” and “Summertime” at Acoustic Avalon in November 2006.

In 2007, he collaborated with fellow guitarist Paul Buckley at the Ullapool Guitar Festival. On 31^st October 2008, he performed live in concert at Tom Lee Academy Hall in Kowloon Bay. He returned to the Ullapool Guitar Festival in 2009, this time jamming with Hugh Burns on Taran Guitars.

On 15^th November 2011, he teamed up with Remy Hansen, John Rijsdijk and Alex van der Voorst for a show at the Pepijn in The Hague, Netherlands. He made another appearance at the Ullapool Guitar Festival on 7^th October 2012, when he played his arrangement of “I Heard it Through the Grapevine”.

In addition to his own recordings, he appears on Last Train to Hauteville by Martin Taylor, Remember Me by the Celtic Tenors, and We Rise Again by the Glasgow Phoenix Choir.

He also wrote the theme song for the BBC Scotland comedy program, Dear Green Place, which won a BAFTA award.

In the field of music education, he has given workshops at the Edinburgh Guitar & Music Festival and published the book/DVD, Acoustic Rock, which contains his arrangements of “Honky Tonk Women” and “Smoke on the Water”.

The Celtic Tenors recordings
Still By Your Side (Jimmy MacCarthy/Feargal Murray)
Telarc 80667 (CD: Remember Me)

Sources:

Goldie, John

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