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Billy Thompson

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Date of Birth (Extract)
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Date of Birth (Extract)
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Released: 25 Sep 2010
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General Info

  • Genre: Jazz / Other / Rock

    Location Bala, North Wales, UK

    Profile Views: 21936

    Last Login: 05/05/2011

    Member Since 09/10/2006

    Website http://www.billythompson.co.uk

    Record Label Thompsound Music

    Type of Label Indie

  • Bio

    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ...... .... .... ..Available on iTunes with ..Billy Thompson Gypsy Style LIVE.. Click on the iTunes logo to go straight to Billy Thompson Gypsy Style LIVE on the iTunes store..... .... .... ..Also on iTunes with ..Amledd..... Click on the iTunes logo to go straight to Amledd on the iTunes store..... .. .... ..Footage of me in various bands on the ..Amledd YouTube Channel...... Hello,.... I'm a classically trained improvising violinist and perform many styles of music ranging from Gypsy Jazz through to Modern Jazz and Techno, singer/songwriter accompaniment through to full-on Rock..... ..Amledd.. features all original music written by my partner Rhian Williams and myself. The band features some of the best musicians in the UK. They are namely ..Dave Elwyn Edwards.. on guitar, ..Dave 'Taif' Ball.. on fretless Bass and ..Steve Roberts.. on Drums..... I've played many styles of music over the 10 years or so that I have been a professional musician and have played on all sorts of stages with all sorts of bands. I've been an integral member of ..Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia.. since 1998 and in 2008 we got to perform in Japan. I recently became involved with ..Mike Westbroook's Glad Day.. which performs around the UK at various venues and is well worth looking out for. A while back I recorded with ..Manfred Mann.. for a Jazz/Funk/Rock project of his..... Other notable highlights have included the recording and touring with ..Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia.. including 2 headlining weeks at Ronnie Scott's, being the main support for Tom Jones with the ..Amigos.. in front of 25,000 in Pontyprydd, ..Brecon Jazz Festival.. under my own name, going to the ..Django Rheinhardt.. festival at Samois-sur-Seine and playing with some of the World's best manouche guitarists there. Frieking ravers out on two occasions performing with DJs at the huge Synergie events, headlining the ..Faenol Festival.. with Meic Stevens, performing with ..Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra.. at St David's Hall, performing with gypsy maestro Lollo Meier at ..Le Quecumbar.. and performing at the ..North Wales International Guitar Festival.. in 2007 with Gary Potter, Robin Nolan and Andreas Oberg. The summer of 2009 saw the ..National Eisteddfod of Wales.. come to my new home town of Bala in North Wales in which I performed 19 gigs in 7 days in various different guises including leading the orchestra in the Cymanfa Ganu to a residency with ..Billy Thompson Gypsy Style.., improvising in the Arts tent taking inspiration from the paintings, a video with ..Gai Toms.. and performing with ..Amledd....... As good as MySpace is I very much urge y'all to check out my long running web page which is at ..billythompson.co.uk... Here there are full details of all the main projects that I have been involved with since 1997 including Amledd, Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia (Barbara and I are not related by the way), Billy Thompson Gypsy Style, The Amigos, Meic Stevens and others together with photos, videos, sound files, biographies, a shop, press page and extensive links page..... On one occasion whilst touring Europe with ..Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia.. we shared the same bill as ..Jean-Luc Ponty.. in Budapest, Hungary. Jean-Luc has always been a great influence on me. At the time I was trying to get a deal on the ..Zeta Midi Violin.. and Jean-Luc was Zeta's main endorsee at the time so I asked him to have a listen to me. The top man that he is meant that he did indeed listen to me and helped me secure a superb deal on a Zeta violin. I am also endorsed by ..Carlo Giodano Violins.. who make superb Electric Violins at a very reasonable price and also by ..The Swipe.. which is an excellent string cleaning product that helps preserve the life of strings for all string instruments..... I've added a couple of video clips below of Billy in action. The first is a video filmed in Ronnie Scott's club London back in 2001 the second time that Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia headlined there featuring Billy. The second video is from the 2005 Faenol gig Billy did with Meic Stevens a'r Band..... Twice a year I run courses in 'Improvisation on the Violin' for the ..Benslow Music Trust... There are plans to do more of these elsewhere around the UK so either check back here for details or go to the gigs page on my web-site ..billythompson.co.uk....... Since joining Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia back in 1998 I have also got into sound recording... With help from the Prince's Trust I got my first studio set-up with Digidesign's 001 system at the core. This has grown into me now having the ability to produce a whole album all by myself - Recorded, Mixed, Mastered, the lot. My label is called ..Thompsound Music.. and produced Meic Stevens' ..'Ysbryd Solva'.. album back in 2001 amongst other projects..... ..Amledd's.. album was recorded using Digidesign's 002 system mainly at our home studio set-up in the attic. The beauty of Digidesign's Pro Tools came into its own with this album as for the drums I took my hard drive and drummer (Steve Roberts) to Jon Hiseman's ..Temple Music.. studio in Sutton, Surrey. I plugged my hard drive into his all singing all dancing Digidesign HD system and did all the drums there... Brilliant. Also of amusement/note was the violin solo to track 4 of the album, 'Pistyll'. I did this in my hotel room in Erfürt, Germany whilst on tour with Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia November of 2005 using an MBox! Have a listen on ..Amledd's MySpace page....... I'm off to do some practise now... Keep smiling....... ..Ronnie Scott's 1...... .. .. .. .. .. .. ........Add to My Profile...... ..Y Brawd Houdini, w. Meic Stevens, Faenol 2005...... .. .. .. .. .. .. ........Add to My Profile...... ..Billy 1...... .. .. .. .. .. .. ........Add to My Profile......

  • Members

    Many and varied... Depends on the project... .... My latest project is called ..Billy Thompson Gypsy Style.. and I've just released a live album which is the first project to come from the now finished studio here in Bala, North Wales. Billy Thompson Gypsy Style features the lead and rhythm guitar work of Andy Mackenzie, rhythm from Phil Gardiner and Eryl Jones (also on mandolin) and bass from Dave Turner..... Billy Thompson Gypsy Style LIVE is now available throughout Wales, direct from my web-site ..www.billythompson.co.uk/shop.html.. and from iTunes. .... In ..Amledd.. there is Rhian Williams (voice), Dave Elwyn Edwards (guitar), Dave 'Taif' Ball (fretless bass) and Steve Roberts (Drums).... In ..Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia.. we've got Barbara Thompson on tenor, alto and soprano Saxes (we aren't related by the way), Peter Lemer (Keyboards/Programming), Dave 'Taif' Ball (fretless Bass) and Jon Hiseman (Drums). Take a look at a brand new video from the 2005 tour of Germany - the track is called ..Close to the Edge....... Details of all other bands on my ..web-site......... .. .... ..Footage of me in various bands on the ..Amledd YouTube Channel...... Future projects include a rock Blues album, a Thompson/Lemer Quartet album and an experimental electronic album..... My 'Top Friends' section consists of people I've worked with over the years that have a MySpace... And some buddies....... I haven't worked with David Oistrakh but I did my dissertation on him in music college cos he's ace.

  • Influences

    Stephane Grappelli, Jean-Luc Ponty, Didier Lockwood, Stuff Smith, L. Shankar and Shakti, Nigel Kennedy, The Turtle Island String Quartet, Dona Lee Croft (my technique teacher), Rob Thompson (my brother), Russell Thompson (my late uncle), Alan Thompson (my late father), Denise Thompson (my mum), Rhian Thompson (my wife), David Oistrakh, Diversion, Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, The Wonder Stuff, Mike Scott, The Levellers, Keith Tippett, Barbara Thompson, Jon Hiseman, Peter Lemer, Mike and Kate Westbrook, Roger Waters, Bach, Shostakovich, Ravel, Dorati, Zappa, Matthew Herbert, Allan Holdsworth, Orbital, Squarepusher, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Django Rheinhardt, Birélli Lagrène and pretty much anything else played/written from the soul..... P.S. Almost forgot Ned's Atomic Dustbin for a moment there...

  • Sounds Like

    Having carried on studying classically under the guru of violin technique Dona Lee Croft for a year after graduating from Music college and having my mind freed further by the likes of Keith Tippett, Barbara Thompson, Jon Hiseman and Peter Lemer, I like to feel that I now have the chops to play whatever I like... I try not to let my influences dictate how I play and pride myself in sounding like ME whether I'm playing in a Jazz, Rock, Singer/Songwriter, Techno, Gypsy setting or whatever... When I'm improvising I'm playing from my soul adding to the overall sound of the music being performed.

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