User talk:Eppie61

Billy Hardwicke was born in Hackney London UK 1961. Musician,Singer songwriter, producer,Video Maker.

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At 17 he joined local band 'Monkey Business,' a mixed race Reggae band where he played keyboards. The band split in 1981. During the 1980's he began writing and recording songs on 4 track at home. He took his songs to a small management company run by Horace Trobridge from the 1970's band 'DARTS'. Horace later went on to put Billy in touch with his fellow band members Griff and Rita who were managing 'The Mint Julips'. They liked Billy's song 'Prime of Life' and went on to record it with London Records, Unfortunately the band were dropped before the song could be released.

In the late 1980's Billy started producing tracks with fellow musician Pat Watson, they were soon to team up with singer songwriter Sam Edwards, writing and producing collaborations. During the early 1990's he teamed up with fellow musician Jeff Patterson from the band monkey Business to form The Living Funk playing in a local Jazz Funk club and creating there own Party nights at different venues.

The mid 1990's Billy played in other bands and later got back together with Pat and Sam to work on Sams EP. In 1997 he teamed up with long standing friend and fellow musician and actor Mark Farmer and started writing songs. They decided to form a band and pulled in Pat Watson to play bass and Steve Claridge to play drums. Billy would play electric guitar and sing and Mark would play acoustic and do backing vocals. LITTLEHOUSE was born... Littlehouse were a pop rock band with a distinct Beatles flavour, the songs were catchy with strong melodies. The band played the London circuit and would always flll the venues. At there first ever gig they were approached by Andrew Maurice, a young entrepreneur looking to manage a band. Andrew would later help them get some time in a good studio where they recorded three songs in the hope that they would attract record company interest. Littlehouse carried on playing venues around London but split in 2001.

During 2002 Billy got back with Pat Watson and began working on a garage version of the 1980's classic 'cant believe it's over'. Through the early 2000's Billy co wrote several tracks with Tony Risveglia, a friend from the 1980's. Billy and Pat watson later recorded one of these tracks with part time singer Lynsey Macerlean. In 2003 Billy put music to one side and went to waltham Forest college to study Art for two years.In 2005 he Studied at the University of East London but left before he finished his degree. It was late in 2006 he decided to record an album, it was to be titled THE GOODBYE LOOK. The album comprised of new and old songs written by Billy and one co written with Mark Farmer and one cover version. All but two were recorded in Billy's home studio using Logic.He wanted to do an album on his own and so all the singing was done by him as well as programming and playing instruments apart from a couple where Pat played bass and Mark played guitar. THE GOODBYE LOOK was a success in Billy's eyes, it had not reaped in millions but it had acclaim from many music websites and people in the industry.

In early 2008 Billy went back to his Monkey Business roots and started working on a track with his daughter Cara,on one of his old songs called Since I Met You' recorded in a lovers rock style. This patten continued when he teamed up with friend James Penn to do a cover version of Nora Jones 'Don't Know Why'. In 2010 Billy advertised for a video maker to make a music video for his song 'Close My Eyes' from his album purely to get more exposure. he was contacted by Ed Pond who went on to make a great video. He also made two more after that.

Being a Londoner and quite proud Billy found the gun and knife crime plague that seemed to be taking over his borough was affecting him.To many kids were being caught up in gang culture. So he decided to pull in James and Steven Penn to co write an anti Gun and Knife crime track KNIFE EDGE a raw gritty track with true accounts of gun and knife violence. Billy thought the track was so good it deserved a video but this time he would make it himself During August 2011 in Hackney, the riots kicked off, Billy was there with his video camera and got some strong footage. He later wrote a track about the riots with James Penn and Pat Watson, FLASHPOINT At the end of 2011 Billy once again teamed up with brothers James And Steve Penn to write a track about current government cuts and it's possible effects on the people of the Uk 'IT'S GETTING HARD Once again Billy creates another video and produces a track......Billy Hardwicke is currently working on other projects and can be found on facebook. References can be found via Myspace and Internet search engines. Videos for Billy Hardwicke can be found on You Tube.