User:Purekiwimusic

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George Alfred Watson
From the  Emerald Isle to Aotearoa Ã George Watson was a terrifyingly gifted child, born in Ballymena County, Antrim, Northern Ireland, into a large close-knit family, and like all his sisters and brothers was encouraged from a very early age.

Young George Alfred took to music as natural as one’s first breath, blessed with long fingers and dexterity for string instruments, a gifted ear for music with a natural pitch & rhythm, it is said that he plays so many instruments it is hard to tell which is his favourite.

Mostly self-taught, he was a fine athlete, writes interesting poetry, sketching, beach driftwood art, studying different languages, a formidable chess player, and a keen bonsai gardener, this shy private composter, and multi-instrumentalist, performer, researcher, teacher and administrator, has now an extremely varied back ground in all forms of music. Watson moved to New Zealand at age 15 and continued to make music and learn more instruments and compose, eventually worked with many top New Zealand artists, Sung in all the big city town hall’s throughout New Zealand, toured Australia ,settled in Perth, Western Australia had a few original songs recorded by ABC, then moved back to Ireland for a tour, then England and Scotland, signed a publishing contract with Chapel Music in London, moved back to New Zealand to support a very successful nation-wide Joan Armatrading tour, and decided to stay for a while and tour himself, but a very serious road accident on the way to a recording session put a stop to that, then went into a sort of retirement from  the live music scene, but still keep active composing songs and instrumentals, was encouraged back once again to live music to form the fabulous Kiwis, with D. R. Ward creating a Celtic - Kiwi type sounds with lots of space, Maestro executive musician,

‘’ they are no fools, who gives what they cannot keep, to gain what they cannot really lose”

A long Journey

Music Started in George's Life at an early stage with the encouragement coming from Family and friends. His First guitar only had 4 strings, full size fiddle and he could hardly get it under his chin, As  described by him in his own words "they are all great Instruments’ but he enjoys playing the piano, 3 in one there, music came looking for him. Music is a Great past time in Ireland, and he started writing up songs with the help of his family members ,singing  was never a problem for him, the only trouble was he was  a lazy singer. He always did his own thing with words and melodies , and being a player of all the Instruments he knew right from the start how it is all going to end. For him It was great growing up in Ballymena Co Antrim Northern Ireland and had a great musical start. HE broke his right wrist when he was only 11 years old but could still play the tin whistle  and the harmonica. His  favorite composer is Bach, and he loves all varieties of music and his all time favorite is all types of Jazz, and believes that to improvise is to be free to express yourself.

Early Years - Memories

I interviewed George in 2013 and we discussed his early years Early Years I do with fond memories remember my little street band, made up tin whistle a biscuit tin top for a drum played with to slim long artist paint brush’s, a hard cardboard  carton from Cameron’s hardware shop in  ballymoney st for a bass with a broom handle and a gut string the spoons, a black throne stick with bottle tops nailed to it, a tambourine, and sometimes a harmonica up Greenvale st along ballymoney st up alexander st down William st and sometimes spring well st, and a round the old school yard and home that was in 1954 or 55?

I was about 9years old always wanted to play the lambag drum and the harp, there are so many Instruments in the world, I was lucky to have access to the radio station’s in Europe at the time when I first heard jazz players like Django Wes Charlie the duke and so many great players that was me. I wanted to play jazz and perhaps combined it with celtic sounds, most of the great jazz musicians then did not have to go to any university to learn to play jazz, but what a great time to be growing up with music, I remember the first time I sat up on a piano seat my feet could not touch the paddles’ but I always remember the first time I heard JS Bach, now there was music, I really respect  all the great classical composers  but I went down a different road.

I had the chance to learn it from a early age but no, when I was young, spending time with the family at the beach, I would sit and look out to the horizon and words would come to me, one I can remember, Go’s ( Sitting down by the sea With lots of sunshine, And memory’s so free, On a Sunday afternoon,)

Ballymena music club? I was never pushed into any type of music, some of the musical school plays were a lot of fun I remember rock and roll, on the radio but I would always tune into the French stations as they were the ones with the jazz. What movies did I watch, were did I watch live music, my first guitar had only 4 strings a BGDA the 2 Es’ were missing, but still got a sound out of it, we  even put a banjo string on, with one of the first fiddles had only 2 strings so we tune them sounds for the drone sound we wanted, having to leave to come to NZ my music and idles went in yet another direction, growing up and around Ballymena there was always inspiration form songs and instrumentals, ,I never go far without my old guitar, I heard a lot of great Irish traditional music, when I was young, and so many of the tunes were handed down from player to player, after school I had a part time job sometimes working with horses in jack bamber  stables in Ballymena going to the Dublin horse show when I was 11 years old was great music and great  fun, on my return I broke my right wrist but still managed to play the harmonica, and some piano. myself and my younger brother would sometimes do the sat night paper run, I liked going into the pubs and clubs with the papers as it gave me a chance to watch and listen to the live music, and wish I was up there playing.

I remember Sammy Barr’s flaminco dance hall being build I would be up there on stage and imagine I was playing to a full house, and Sammy would say keep working at it Georgee you will get there one day.

I remember the gipsy people when they came to town, they would camp on the out skirts of town, and at certain time you could hear them play and sing their style of music around the camp fire they were always happy, but that is the way most music should be.

Early years. Sometimes I would go down along the river, past the old castle up high on the moat hill, pass the big oak and chestnut trees, I would sit by the river and play my harmonica and Tw—tin whistle and look up at slimish mountain, and think to myself one day I will play up there, and years after that I was lucky enough to do so.

One of the first boron drums I played was in a old couriosity shop in Portrush Northern Ireland. I don’t know what the skin was made of, but I do know that it was rather light with a good resonance and tone to my ear anyway. The one I have now is hand made in Ballymena Northern Ireland, and am very happy with the sound and response. It is amazing how advanced some musical Instruments are and how many different makes there are to choose from.

As long as I can remember I have been writing poems, songs, and short stories. I can remember being in Belfast when I was young and Derry a lot of great music came out of those cities in the way of Irish traditional. It all started in the 50’s rock and roll, the 20'S was Boogie Woogie, and the 30's was Swing now everything. Debussy was a great composer also was Erik Satie they all left something for us to enjoy and I shall do my best to do likewise I always wanted to combine Celtic music with western music learning the saxophone was great fun it sounds so good together with the Cello