biography for John Aldington

Biography

It all started way back in the late sixties; when free gigs frequently took place in parks in and around London and were used by local singers and bands to showcase their work and create a fan-base. It was at one of these events in Bromley Gardens, south-east London, where my band Maya was playing on the same bill as local pop star David Bowie, who was the headlining act. I was only 16 and still at school but the band already had an enthusiastic local following. Anyway, we were just finishing our set when David Bowie appeared on the stage with some friends in tow and after introducing himself to the crowd, turned to us and shouted: “Do you guys know ‘I’m so glad’ by The Cream?” We nodded nervously and before we knew it we were accompanying him. That was the start of a 30 year journey down a long road of performing, recording and writing.
A few years later, while Bowie’s music was dominating the charts in both Europe and the US, Maya was regularly headlining every Sunday night at the Arts Lab held at the Three Tuns pub in Beckenham, Kent – a night that Bowie had actually started many years before. We were essentially a folk-group; my younger sister Rita and I were on main vocals, I played the guitar and we were joined by Steve Horn on bass and Mike Short playing keyboards. Even though the band was successful locally and performing whenever we could; I was also attending Ravensbourne College of Art studying TV and Film. This is where I met Martin Colley who is now a freelance record producer and engineer - I didn’t know it at the time but this was start of a musical partnership that I would still have today. Together we recorded many demos and produced them ourselves; it was our ideal to sign to a record label that would allow us total control over our sound, production and writing. Unfortunately, in those days home-recording was not what the big record companies wanted.
When Martin began recording and producing an album for a group of musicians collectively called Reflection, entitled Sounds of Salvation, Maya became involved in playing a lot of the music for the record and I also contributed two songs. Many years later I discovered that this album is extremely collectable and popular in the US. There was a lot of discussion about a re- release five years ago, including extra tracks but unfortunately the parties involved got hindered by copyright. I continued to perform and record with Maya and on solo material for some years but became increasingly frustrated by the lack of interest from the record industry. Having passed my TV and Film course many years before, I worked behind the camera for over 30 years - well I had no luck trying to get in front of it!
There were many moments during this period and in the years that followed, where I had ‘musical moments’ and sometimes it looked like they may have been life changing… Not so long ago, on a warm July evening, a friend had a garden party and everyone who attended had to be prepared to play an instrument, sing a song, or both. I didn’t want to go - who would listen to me now? Well, they did listen and now I’m right back on that road I left behind… John Aldington 2009 John's new CD entitled "Songs from the Garden 'has now been released by Sitting Target Records it is produced by Martin Colley and features eleven of John's songs

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