Jones, Baby Face Willette, and Jimmy McGriff. However, I was waylaid by an advert in Melody Maker for enrolment as a Junior Bandsman in The Army, with an eventual future at Kneller Hall to study Music. I took some of my paintings to the local art college, and The Principal was so impressed that he offered me a place at the college. I left school in the summer when I was 15.
At 12 years old I began 30mins music lessons once a week I reached Grade 6 when I was 15, and passed GCE O-Level in Music.
FUTURE THE WIZRD DPREE TV
At Secondary School I would play the Six-Five Special theme (a pop music program on TV at the time) on harmonica during school assembly occasionally. There was an old upright piano, on which I would pick out chords and melodies. In later years, I visited my mum’s mother’s home each Thursday afternoon. He returned to Southampton in 1995, and continued to play with local bands as well as playing church organs.ĭon Shinn: One Christmas morning when I was 4 or 5, in my Christmas stocking was a little mouth organ. He also worked with Kiki Dee, Engelbert Humperdinck, Stan Tracey, Persian vocalist Parvaneh Farid, and Renaissance. Shinn lived in Norway until the mid-1990s, and played in many local bands and with visiting musicians. In 1969, Shinn left The Echoes and co-founded the band Dada. Shinn also worked as a session musician, playing organ, electric piano and harpsichord on James Taylor’s debut album. Don Shinn continued with a group called “Shinn” and The Echoes. Shinn also recorded with another Southampton band, The MeddyEvils. Shinn was hospitalised with tuberculosis for several months in 1965, but after his recovery formed a new version of The Soul Agents and released A-Minor Explosion’ / ‘Pits of Darkness’. In 1964–65, the band were the regular backing group for singer Rod Stewart. The band recorded three singles for Pye Records. He began in the early Sixties with a local band The Lonely Ones which renamed themselves The Soul Agents. An influence on prog rock and jazz rock, he is known primarily as an organist and pianist, and also plays vibraphone. The Story of Don Shinn | “Hammond Wizard” Don Shinn is an English keyboard player, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and vocalist.