Tim Scott's Biography

Biography
Bald On The Inside Biography

Aged 15 having set his heart on electric guitar, Tim Begged borrowed and stole, selling everything of value he owned to buy his first instrument, even selling the electric bass he'd been playing for the past year.

The day he purchased his first guitar it remained in his hands for 11 hours not even putting it down to eat! The next day was trickier with his fingers so sore he only managed 2 hours.

Within a few months he'd mastered a large number of chords and started recording him self playing basic blues backing and then jamming over it in order to develop his fledgling lead playing.

Taking G.C.S.E. music only severed to entrench his passion for the subject but most of all; composition was what drove him with his course work attaining full marks towards his final over all mark of a C grade, only let down by his severe difficulty with written work due to dyslexia.

Leaving School at 16 he attained a place at Salford collage of music to sit A-level Music and Communication Studies alongside a two year B-Tec in Band Musicianship. This was the first time he had experienced any formal one-to-one guitar tuition under the watchful guidance of jazz guitarist Les Bolger.

After completing the first year Tim was forced to leave due to his severe difficulty in keeping up with the written work due again to his dyslexia. Although this was a fantasic year of learning helping him a great deal; exposing him to everything from arrangement, sight singing and opera training as well as master classes by Bill Backer who was famed for writing the single 'I'd like to teach the world to sing' and Dire Straights Rhythm guitarist David Knopfler.

On leaving Salford, Tim aged 17, went knocking on doors and gained a one years Youth Training Scheme apprenticeship at the award winning L.B.S recording studios and music production house; experiencing all areas of commercial audio recording.

He was taught many things at that time by in house producer, song writer and session guitarist Martin Abbott. Sadly he left during this time which gave Tim the opportunity to play session guitar on his first network TV commercial but crucially cut short his apprenticeship.

Around this time he had joined a band called Single Point which claimed the runner-up prize of a days recording time at Courtyard Studios in a local Battle of the Bands competition. As part of the prize the finished track also received numerous plays on local radio station Imagine FM.

Determined to become a more accomplished guitarist he worked part time in local bars so he could practice during the day. During this time he started performing solo instrumental blues/rock guitar improvisation alongside the old style free and easy organ, drums and Compare that performed in The Five Ways Pub where he worked.

On almost every occasion he performed it was received to a rapturous response and sometimes a standing ovation with punters who watched him still remembering his amazing playing to this day.

While working in bars he continued to develop his session career playing on more radio and TV commercials and jingles.

At age 21 he applied to study on the first full time professional level guitar performer's course to run outside of America. The course was held by The Guitar Institute then based in Acton, London; headed up by then director Alan Limbrick who had studied at M.I.T. and gone on to lecture there for several years before moving back to England and founding the Guitar Institute.

Tim passed the purely practical based entrance exam with ease, but was stuck when it came to finding the money to fund his place and time in London. Determined to attend he approached various chartable bodies for a grant but to no avail, also approaching the local press with some publicity stunts to highlight his plight which where all rejected. In the end he was able to borrow the money from his family and was very generously let a room in his Aunts Wandsworth home.

The course was one of the greatest experiences of his career, setting the level of playing he wished to attain. The teachers included Shaun Baxter; who happened to be recording his fantastic seminal album 'Jazz Metal' during this time. Dave Kilminster (now of Pink Floyd – Roger Waters Tour) joined their teaching team about half way through the course regularly jamming with Tim inside and outside of Lecture time.

Other teachers included: Blues/Funk by Iain Scott, Rob Burns (Dave Gilmore - solo project studio bass sessions), Country by Lee Hodgson (Albert Lee and columns in Guitar Techniques and Guitarist magazines), Top 40 by Max Milligan (UK singer songwriter Jayne Taylor - Liberty X, Beverly Craven, Sugababes), Terry Gregory, Jazz Improvisation, Sight Reading by Barry Langton, Rhythm section workshops by Nick Beggs (Kajagoogoo sessions – Michael Bolton).

With master classes by: Jazz Guitarist - Adrian Ingram (Nigel Kennedy), Steve Howe (Yes), session guitarist Doug Boyle (Robert Plant Band) and Brinsley Schwarz (Chandlers Guitar Shop – Repairs). The final show was judged by: Instrumental Guitarist - Hank Marvin (Cliff Richard), Session Drummer - John Cambridge (David Bowie).

Leaving in June 1992 having attained a practical Diploma in modern guitar techniques and improvisation he moved back to Manchester and started teaching a few students privately. By August he spotted an opportunity and moved to Brighton to join a band with a drummer he had met in London at Drum Tech (Drum sister school to the guitar Institute).

After five months of trying the band came to pieces so Tim moved back to Manchester and started teaching again. Struggling to make money and retain students he started to hone his skills, he joined another band called Mr. Whiz. but this came to nothing.

By the end of September 1993 he started suffering a breakdown, depression, anxiety attacks, and stress and was unable to work. He couldn't face the few students he had built up, and gave up playing guitar for a year unable to face it, leaving it out of sight in its case.

Over the next four months he saved up enough money from his benefit and birthday and Christmas gifts to buy an RY20 Yamaha drum machine and started composing pieces using the on board bass sequencer sound. This was a great distraction as he couldn't do much due to his illness but still needed to create music finding him self tapping rhythms on anything as the music inside needed to be released.

The first piece of many he composed at this time was The Fair which reflects his dark mood and features on his debut album 'Bald On The Inside'. The way he composed at this time very much suited his very soul as he controlled all the parts just like a classical composer and longed to do comparably intricate work with his guitar.

Several years later the pieces that where formed just on the RY20 were sent to the head office of Yamaha U.K. who were so impressed by the achievement of the compositions considering the limitations of the equipment that they passed them on to Yamaha's international head quarters in Japan.

Now aged 25 he started putting some pieces together with guitar and the RY20 Yamaha drum machine; he borrowed some equipment and made some tracks by bouncing between two DAT recorders through a Mackie desk. As he started his slow recovery he sold duplicated tape copies of his first EP to friends and around the pubs.

Tim spent the next year learning and practicing a solo finger style set of Jazz Standards, Ragtime and Classical as well as Pop with the intention of doing weddings and Hotel lobbies, Restaurants, etc... But when he tried to get started there was not enough work to get the business off the ground.

As he recovered more he started teaching a few private students and with his previous few years experience in reading numerous tabs, although financially fruitless he'd had time to improve his reading skills enough to cope with a tuition business. Presenting students with the material they wanted in a way they could easily understand and enjoy.

Aged 26, getting fully back on his feet, he worked very hard to grow and constantly improve his teaching business; with the number of students and turn over growing with each year.

Tim aged 27, joined a local covers band called 'The Beavers' playing numerous Pub, Club, Festivals, Radio Road - Shows and Private Functions. At some of these gigs he started playing instrumental guitar pieces by the likes of Joe Satriani and Eric Clapton during the half time break; although this caused tensions within the band but he began to clearly see where he wanted to be.

The next year he joined 'The Jason Isaacs' band now; 'A Few Good Men' playing similar gigs and also a Blues covers outfit for good measure, but was soon to drop the Beavers and the Blues band to concentrate on learning a set of solo instrumental guitar covers by the likes of Jeff Beck, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eric Clapton, Toto, Booker T. and the M.G.'s, Hank Marvin, The Ventures, and Eric Johnson to name but a few.

He started buying some basic recording equipment initially to make some backing tracks for the aforementioned covers set but soon realized that it would take as much work to learn and record the covers backing tracks as it would to write and record an album of his own stuff and so the 'Bald On The Inside' project was born.

Continuing on with 'A Few Good Men' for just over a year before coming to the overwhelming realization that his talents for song writing and as part of a song writing band where not a place his talents or soul could exist. No longer could his gift for composing and arranging the very best guitar instrumental music be suppressed. This considered he left song bands for good to concentrate on his growing solo project.

During 2002 Tim was asked to lead a Jackson endorsement clinic by then demonstrator Geoff Beauchamp in conjunction with Dawson's music. Tim performed works by Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Eric Clapton for the event to a fantastic response.

As part payment he took delivery of a brand new custom shop SL2 snake skin finish Jackson sold to him for just the landed cost to the UK distributor. Tim started gathering together the strongest compositional ideas he had, as well as developing some rather interesting new ones. He spent a great deal of time researching what would be the most suitable equipment he could purchase to create the album in the most professional sounding way with out using any outside commercial facilities.

Selecting an ex-demo Yamaha AW4416 professional audio workstation with motor faders and full mix automation; internal processing is 32-bit (except for the EQ stages, which use 54-bit processing) for beautifully clear resolution and reproduction topped off with a couple of very nice mic pre-amps. All based on the famous Yamaha O2R mixer. But with a 16 track 24 bit 48Khz hard disk recorder built in.

He also bought a variety of 19” rack out board including a couple of Lexicon reverbs and a TC electronic multi FX unit used for fold back and mixing. At the same also purchasing a Joe Meek stereo compressor and a BBE 362 sonic maximiser for use laying sounds down and sometimes spinning tracks out, to beef them up or add sparkle.

At this time he carefully selected and purchased a Warwick 4 string bass and wide variety of percussion ranging from: Triangles, Vibraslaps, Tambourines, Bongos, Jam Blocks, Shakers, Cabassa, etc… and also a Roland V-Drum kit, but with full set of Zildjian Crash, Splash and China Trash Cymbals, Ping Ride and Mastersound Hi-Hats.

This enthused his idea of being able to effectively paint musical pictures in sound just as a artist creates an image, by selecting the materials necessary but with out direction, creates an image and sells it. This focused his mind and he immediately set about learning to play this variety of instruments whilst beginning to write and record this truly extraordinary debut album.

He worked from as early as 5am in the morning till 9 or 10pm some days in order to learn, write, record, and teach all in the same day with his mind focused on the end goal.

The album took about 10 months to complete with the next task to be CD mastering, sleeve art work, and pressing. The cover photo was taken in a botanical cactus garden on the island of Fuerteventura in the Canneries by a family member. Personal photography was shot on Alderly Edge near Manchester, during a freezing Easter afternoon as the sun was setting by Scott Barlow.

'Bald on The Inside' was mastered at The Cottage Studio near Macclesfield by producer Roger Boden. Once this was done Tim avidly set about selling CD's to friends, relatives and even out of a shoulder bag to strangers in bars and on the street.

Printing posters and flyers he promoted himself by handing them out in the street, and leaving them in Sandwich Bars, Take Away's, and Music Shops. Initially busking the album he booked a few gigs in local bars to a good response but realized he needed to get to a much wider, but most of all, sober audience!

A good will gesture came from Ben Bartlett of Guitarist Magazine in the form of an opportunity to perform at the Birmingham N.E.C. as part of the 2003 guitarist of the year competition by playing a tune from his 'Bald On The Inside' CD to open the competition and one as the judging took place.

The real break came from a good friend Marek Bublik (Drummer and song writer with Litmus) who opened the opportunity to get his CD distributed through the high street chain Borders Music & Book Shops by performing in store to promote the product.

This gave him the leverage required to gain national press attention. The first national reviews of 'Bald On The Inside' featured in Guitarist magazine, with Guitar Techniques and Guitar magazines soon following, all with glowing reports of Tim's unique take on the solo rock/jazz chill-out instrumental guitar album.

Booking shows in Borders stores up and down the country from late 2003 to late 2004 this generated enough sales to send it shooting into their top 200 sellers list on several occasions.

A journalist who was in touch with Tim at this time mentioned his guitar skills to Radio 1 DJ Judge Jules during an interview, and as luck would have it he was looking for a guitar player to collaborate with on an instrumental guitar track for his first solo artist album Proven Worldwide.

The recording took place in early 2005 at Jules London Studio. The initial guitar was laid down in a few hours giving Jules and his engineer Richard Bowl lots of strands to form the final tune from.

About a month later Tim re-recorded the initial guitar that had been finely arranged into the now firm melody of 'Puesta Del Sol' over the more or less final backing at his own Acer Studios and returned the masters in just under 48 hours.

This involved working from 9am to 4pm in the studio, breaking to teach from 4:00pm till 9:30pm, then continuing on in the studio till 5:30am the next morning in order to get the job out the door the next day and achieve the superb performance you hear on the finished album.

At some point in the initial session Tim asked Jules if he would consider having him improvise over his funky set in the back room of Judgement Sunday, Ibiza, much like his Cuban sax player Rocky. He was keen on this idea as he'd never played live with a guitar player before, but his decision was deferred until the season start in Ibiza later that year.

Just before the season commenced Jules offered Tim the option of the weekend of his choice any time during the season to fly out and play alongside him so he chose the Radio 1 weekend. This performance was so well received that he was flown back out to play the closing party in mid September that same year.

Tim was invited back to the Guitar Institute where he studied to take a lecture describing his guitar mash-up exploits and revealing his secrets for playing along side DJ's in the summer term of 2005.

During 2005 Tim commenced the recording of his second album but this time taking much more care in the writing and recording process with the aim to produce an extremely musically creative instrumental guitar album that has cutting edge arrangement and production with catchy melodies as well as extravagant playing.

Unquestionably creating a modern day masterpiece with true mass appeal this could be the perfect cross over album that is loved by the general public, and appreciated by musicians alike.

In 2006 Tim was flown back out to perform alongside Jules this time as part of the extended events of the Radio 1 week. As an alternative to playing live in Ibiza in 2007 Tim and Jules collaborated on another track called 'City Rockers' which he played out in his sets over the summer to a jumpin' response, and which is set for release on Jules second artist album sometime during 2008.

Tim is very busy working in the studio on 'Guitar Mashing' his second solo album project and expects a release date early in 2008. Tim's album will also feature 'Ibiza's Secret Garden' which is the original guitar track that has been reworked by Judge Jules in their latest collaboration 'City Rockers' .


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