Neil Timothy

 

Hi  this is Neil Timothy and this is my musical career so far. I have been singing and playing instruments since i was knee high to a grass hopper, getting tunes out of piano’s, accordians, mouth organ, washboard, organ, and a comb of all things until being introduced to the guitar from brother Reg. My introduction to the stage was at a very early age because every year on holiday at Derbyshire miners holiday camp at Skegness my mam and dad put all the kids into the talent shows

 

. The first group i played in was called Skylight playing guitar, and featuring brother Reg on guitar and vocals, Derick Land on Lead vocals, Mick Furnis on drums and Ronnie Thompson on trumpet, covering mainly Elvis and sixtys. A few years later when i was living in Meden Vale and working at Welbeck colliery Reg met a guy who lived in the village called John Harrison a man with a very good ear for music and they got together for jamming sessions. Before long i was jamming with them too  and working on three part harmony’s .We got a drummer from shirebrook called Pete Meakin and so Acid Rain  was born later to be renamed Kindled Spirit. Pete was later replaced by Rainworth man Cliff Athy who used to wear a different hat for nearly every song .

 

Kindled Spirit gigged for about a year before disbanding doing covers of the likes of the Kinks, Beatles, Status Quo etc. After the adventure of Kindled Spirit I joined a local Band called midnight beat featuring Andy Sewell, Martin Buckby, Maxine (Y’ cant Touch this)and Bob Kirk  who joined about the same time as me. After a short while the band was down to the four Male members and Katzize was born. In Katzize i reverted back to my early roots of the keyboards, Bob on guitar Andy on Bass and Martin on Drums. This later changed to John Hayes on Bass and Scottish Les on Drums. Katzize played mainly covers of pop chart ,Dire Straits etc. playing pubs clubs, RAF and Army bases.

 

While I was dabbling on the keyboards in the late 80s i got into programing  sequencers doing backing music so every time a band member left we could carry on with the sequencer taking over the part. The Band dwindled down to three with Bob John and me calling ourselves Brilliant Disguise. Eventually there was just  Bob and i left and  so we changed our name to The Gimmicks .The Gimmicks played for a good few years until about 1996 until I went solo professionally and Bob formed the boy girl duo Little Sister .

 

I first started my solo career playing Keyboard and Guitar but soon decided just to concentrate on  just the Guitar. I have evolved a great deal since first going solo working very hard on my act  and also being nominated in the Mercury  entertainment Paper for an award. I try to please all my audiences playing something for everyone weather it be middle of the road, motown, instrumentals, or golden oldies etc. which is a comment many people say about me .I have also grown in personality and even tell a few jokes on the way being a good all round entertainer.

 

In between all this I have wrote and produced my own solo album a few years ago and also wrote a couple of albums with John Harrison from Kindled Spirit .Also my wife and roadie Lynn who also made a good navigator until my satellite navigation took over  have appeared as background artistes on TV productions such as Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Peak Practice, Casualty, Diazel and Pascoe, Cutting it, The Dammed United, where the Heart is, Doctors, Shameless, TV ad’s , Grown ups and many more. The latest addition to the music Industry in my family is my youngest Brother fast fingers Mick who plays in Tribute Bands ,also my step daughter Kelly as been following in my footsteps by joining me on my gigs occasionally