User:Martinjohnkershaw

MARTIN KERSHAW was born in Shipley, Yorkshire on 13th July 1944 and he attended Wrose Primary School and then Bingley Grammar School from 1955 to 1960. At the age of nine, he showed much tallent on the Ukulele and was given an old battered guitar by his Father.

His Father, ERIC KERSHAW was a session guitarist in LONDON and he also became famous as an author of 16 guitar tutor books, including the 7,500,000, World Wide seller "Dance Band Chords for the Guitar" which he wrote in REYKJAVIK, ICELAND during World War Two. Eric Kershaw was later to become the jazz guitar lecturer at Leeds College of Music, where he taught until his death on Feb 26th 1983, He left behind him the world's most coverted jazz guitar prize, the "ERIC KERSHAW GUITAR AWARD" competed for each year, by the guitar students at LCM.

Martin learned many guitar chords from this book and bought his first guitar when he was 13 from a sixth form student at BINGLEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, who returned from a Summer School trip to GERMANY, with an acoustic model, which Martin bought from him for £6. His Father Eric, lived in London and taught him little, except when returning home for the Summer and Xmas holidays - yet Martin asked him many questions and soon became the best guitarist in the Bradford area by the time he was 16 years old. His teacher was the very best !

Kershaw's first professional job came in London, when on holiday, staying with his Father. He ventured into the Picadilly Archade offices of WOLF MANKOWITZ the theatrical impressario and composer. He had his guitar with him and was asked to audition for a play called "The lion in Love" written by Shelagh Delaney from Salford. The show went toured the provinsial Theartres lasted for 10 weeks and eventually went into the Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London, where it lasted only two weeks.

He then returned home to Shipley and in 1963, he was asked to join a Rock Group called the "Del Rio Four" which was formed especially to visit the notorious Butlin's Holiday Camp at Clacton on Sea, Essex, for a Summer Season. Together with Malcombe Ives (Aka Mark Jordan), Ray Kenny (vocals)and Kenny Gough (Drums), this group packed the "Pig & Whistle" bar on a 6 nights a week basis, breaking the all time record for a season's bar takings on all the Butlin's Holiday Camps! Bobby Butlin visited them at the Clacton Camp, to present them with their £100 prize, which was more than a week's wages.

The Summer Season came to an end in Septemeber and Kershaw once again returned to his beloved home town in YORKSHIRE. He was soon contacted by Yorkshire Mecca Locarno Band, leader DENNIS LANGFIELD, who required him to work with his band at the BURNLEY LOCARNO BALLROOM in LANCASHIRE. Martin accepted the job and once again packed the brand new ballroom, playing all the popular hits of THE SHADOWS and THE VENTURES, whilst playing many quickstep and Foxtrot scores of the DAVE PELL OCTET and also playing slow "smooch" hits of the day, such as MARIA ELENA by LOS INDOS PARAGUAYOS.

In 1965, the LONDON Bandleader TONY EVANS came North head hunting a guitarist and he offered Kershaw the job as guitarist in his band at the LYCEUM BALLROOM, LONDON. MARTIN KERSHAW could drive but didn't own a car - however the next week, KERSHAW was extremely lucky in winning £375in the local BURNLEY FOOTBALL CLUB RAFFLE, for sixpence (2.5 pence) and the next day, he bought a VAUXHALL VICTOR motor car, accepted the London offer and was gone with much acrility to LONDON, where he was to fulfill his ambition as a top Session Guitarist in the London Studios.

In 1966, he left the TONY EVANS BAND and joined the "EDDIE HOPKINS QUARTET" at STREATHAM LOCARNO BALLROOM, for a period until he moved to the EMPIRE BALLROOM, LEICESTER SQUARE to join RAY McVAY and his Band of the Day, in October 1966. Martin's playing soon led him into the BBC MAIDA VALE STUDIOS, where he played on many BBC broadcasts for NIGHT RIDE and the BBC morning show, pre-recordings. On these sessions the BBC sometimes added string sections, in which sat the many top, mainly Jewish, London Session Contractors (fixers), playing their Violins and it wasn't long before they booked him to play on their Recording Sessions at EMI,DECCA, PHILIPS, POLYDOR, CTS and OLYMPIC STUDIOS.

By Christmas 1966, Martin Kershaw had become one of the top 6 session guitarists in London at the age of 22, where over the next 45 years, he was to play on more Recording Sessions and with more Recording & Film Stars, than any other Guitarist in the World. From his 45 Session Diaries, it has been estimated that he played on more than 100,000 recorded tracks, for Record, Radio, TV, Cinema Film and Radio & TV Commercials. In 1972, he joined the infamous JACK PARNELL ORCHESTRA for LORD GRADE at ATV, BOREHAMWOOD, HERTFORDSHIRE, where he recorded, Guitar, Banjo & Ukulele on all 122 MUPPET SHOWS between 1976 and 1980, plus 1,100 other shows.

The list of famous stars for whom he played is endless and there are far too many stars to name on these pages. However they do include TOM JONES, ELTON JOHN, SHIRLEY BASSEY, BING CROSBY, BOB HOPE, SAMMY DAVIS Jnr, ENGLEBERT HUMPERDINCK, DORIS DAY, JULIE ANDREWS, LINDA RONSTADT, ELLA FITZGERALD, MEL TORME, BUDDY GRECO, FRANK SINATRA, LOUIS ARMSTRONG, CHET BAKER, ANDY WILLIAMS, RAQUEL WELCH, PETER USTINOV, PAUL WILLIAMS, CONNIE FRANCIS, TWIGGY, LORETTA SWITT, CONNIE FRANCIS, GENE KELLY, PAUL SIMON, ART GARFUNKEL, BROOKE SHIELDS, PETER SELLERS, DIANA ROSS, ROY ROGERS, BUDDY RICH, CHRISTOPHER REEVE, HELEN REDDY, KENNY RODGERS, THE BEATLES, JAMES LAST ORCHESTRA, BERNADETTE PETERS, DOLLY PARTON, VINCENT PRICE, JULIET PROWSE, RUDOLF NUREYEV, ANNE MURRAY, ZERO MOSTELL, ROGER MOORE, GEORGE SHEARING, MILES DAVIS, DUDLEY MOORE, LIZA MINELLI, SPIKE MILLIGAN, MELISSA MANCHESTER, CHERYL LADD, DAME CLEO LAINE, MICHAEL JACKSON, SIR PAUL NcCARTNEY, JOHN LENNON, KRIS KRISTOPHERSON, ROGER MILLER, GLADYS KNIGHT, DANNY KAYE, GLENDA JACKSON, LENA HORNE, DEBBIE HARRY, DIZZY GILESPIE, CRYSTAL GAYLE, PHYLLIS DILLER, JOHN DENVER, SIR CLIFF RICHARD, DALE EVANS, BRUCE FORSYTH, RITA COOLIDGE, ALICE COOPER, JAMES COBURN, JUDY COLLINS, PETULA CLARKE, LULU, JOHNNY CASH, JOHN CLEESE, LYNDA CARTER, GEORGE BURNS, TERESA BREWER, CANDICE BERGEN, HARRY BELAFONTE, JOAN BAEZ, PEARL BAILEY, CHARLES AZNAVOURS & ETHEL MERMAN.

This list should suffice but there are 1,300 more famous names who he has played for and you should undergo your own research, in order to find them. His wonderful, creative playing is evident on tracks such as "YOU SEXY THING" by HOT CHOCOLATE, "DANCE YOURSELF DIZZY" by LIQUID GOLD and "KUNG FU FIGHTING" by CARL DOUGLAS. MARTIN KERSHAW began composing in 1973 and has built up a catologue of more than 850 titles on the PRS rigister, which are mainly tracks for Television Music. He wrote the DUTCH NUMBER ONE "FIESTA NUDA" for IMCA MARINA in the 1970's and also "I BELIEVE IN YOU" with JESSE GREEN, circa 1974, which also went straight up to to NUMER ONE in 7 countries.

At 68 years old, Martin Kershaw has retired from playing the guitar and now runs his own digital record company PACIFIC PARADISE, on which he is now releasing his whole back catologue of 350 tracks, before Christmas, this year. MARTIN KERSHAW has also written 100 "Strange but True" SHORT STORIES, about his fun times in the studios which "friends" on facebook can read. The book comes out in September 2012 for Christmas 2012 and is a hot tip to become a worldwide best seller, having covered the most prolific and comical events of his 50 year career.