Wednesday 26 October 2011

Where it began .......

Hi Guys , this is me Georgette , ive just turned 23 . My passion is singing and songwriting .
Although i had done a couple of music bits and bobs when i was in my teens , i had'nt really started taking it seriously until recently...... i've always had a love for singing but life and the universe as they say got in the way !

Singing is in my genes ... my Grandad was Ronnie Hilton , a famous and successful singer /songwriter ..
apart from his many chart hits and a number 1 ... and his Leeds United Athems he is well loved with children .... remember the song a "mouse lived in a windmill in old Amersterdam " ? Well thats my Grandad ! He had a beautiful crooning voice .
I know my singing has come from him because when my Mum sings she sounds like a strangled cat .... and i dont think my singing is that bad !!!


Songwriting - the start ... how strange it begins !

I started writing songs after a fight with my sister Sophia , when i was about 13 !!! It was called Sophia ,Sophia .. (come back ) The song was about fighting with my sister and writting to an Agony Aunt for advice ( oh how naive i was !!! ) , but never getting a reply to my letter
..
The song got a grant from Leeds Breeze for it to be developed with other young musicians ( all of whom had never met ) and funding was granted for it to be recorded in a studio - by then i was about 14 - it was a pretty cool thing to do at that age ! 9 years ago recording in studio wasnt as accessible as it is now .

We rehearsed in a magistrates living room ! A magistrates had befriended my sister one day when she got lost on the way back from high school - apparently the magistrate was very impressed with her polite manner ( WHAT !!!!!!!!!)

We called the band Endorsed.The violinist was a proffesional musician and had to fill in at the last minute as our young violinist moved down south during the project ... the Roland piano was played by a 16 year old boy and the bass was played by Jenny (15 ) i am still friends with Jenny today ....

The music score was arranged by Colin Nicholson - Remember the Pop Idol finalist Garath Gates .?.. well Colin was his piano teacher ... he made me feel very at ease going through the music and getting down scored . Garath Gates was all the rage then .so i felt pretty cool .lol
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Heres a photo of the song being mixed in the studio ..



My sister was her usual annoying self that day and managed to get hold of what she thought were just ornament handcuffs on the wall of the studio and decided to put them on my Mums wrist .. my mum was gabbing so wasnt paying attention to what Sophia was doing ....... when she realised what had happened she tried to get them off .... the owner of the studio made the revelation that there were no keys for the handcuffs !!..... and he spent hours trying every screwdriver he had to wrench them off my mums wrist.
UNLIKELY TALE YOU MAY THINK ? HERES THE PROOF !!

Just one more wrist to go !



Sophia - once again touching the studio ornaments she should'nt be touching ! lol

Heres the orignal version i wrote .. recorded on the computor with a music programme
( i think it came as a free sample music programme cd in a breakfast cereal )
and
keyboard ... dont laugh !



oh yes i heard that sniggering !
When the song was taken to the project another verse was added - Sophia sang her reply ..
my sister is a pretty good singer with a very strong voice ....(did i really say that ? ) she was about 12 years old ..
she also did some harmonies and the last note is Sophs !
we have very different voices as you will hear..
heres the song after the studio ..

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The Dimming of the Day ...
At 14 I entered "Young Musician of the Year " ofcourse i didn't stand a cat in hells chance of getting passed the first round - hey but its all experince right ???? I did though then get offered to do a drama and singing project for a few days - which i did enjoy ...

This was the song i sang for the audition of Young Musician of the year - i was about 14 years old when this was recorded ..... if you listen carefully you will notice a rather bunged up lass - i didnt know then but every time i had dairy it made my nose bung up !! i have since combatted that with cutting the dairy out and using Vocalzone ... and viola no more nasal !

The song is called Dimming of the Day - its a beautiful song .. and it was quite difficult to sing .
the guitarist is a good friend of the family - Julie Strothers who also coached me with song.
Year - 2002 - Georgette Hill (14 years)



My Mum loves listening to this on headphones - she says she finds it really soothing and relaxing. She still listens to it now !!
...
An Afternoon with Lucie Silvas.
At 16 and now doing my A levels - one of which was music which i just couldnt get to grips with , my songwriting though was in full swing ...


Mum heard a competition on Radio Aire for a songwriter ... The winner would have their song critique by the very succesful singer and songwriter Lucie Slivas - she wrote masses of hit songs for pop stars .. and was a singer herself ....... mum knew i loved her music and unbeknown to me .. enter me in it !!! .................. and Yep i won ! It was a real shock , mum phoned my school and they brought me home to go to the Radio Station ! I tell ya ... i was a popular lass that day ! haha ..

Did i panic though ... i tell ya guys i had masses of songs - but they were either in my head or scribbled on crunched up pieces of paper sprawled all over a messy bedroom !!! and in less then an hour i had to produce one of them ......... well folks that seemed impossible !

However i am not a girl to fail at the first hurdle and when i jumped in a taxi with mum to Radio Aire , i actually wrote a song in the back in less then 10 minutes ! Yep i was presenting a song to THE LUCIE SILVAS that had taken less than 10 minutes to write and written in the back of a taxi ..... how i got away with that i dont know ! lol ..

I could'nt believe it when Lucie loved the song ( her guitarist that was there played while i sang it to her on air ) and said that it was very mature songwriting for my age and that it was so good that she really couldn't say anything was wrong with it .... Lucie did give me some terrific advice -- and i still remember it .- Always start your verses lower than the chorus - if you don't your song cannot build up to the chorus and it ends up getting higher and higher and harder to sing ...

Lucie sang my song " i might have lost you "
on the radio , and wow ...... what a voice ! she was a tiny little thing with a huge voice that turned my song ( id written in the taxi there lol ) into something that sounded like a chart hit on the radio ...... i was mesmerised by her skill and the beauty of her voice ........ totally awesome and a moment i shall never forget ........ thanks Lucie !

You can hear some of Lucies amazing music - just click HERE
I still play Lucie's Cds that she gave me and she was so kind and approachable ..

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