the Blues | Peter Golding

Peter, born in London has been playing harp for many years since his teenage days in the 27th Willesden Boy Scout troop and then at youth clubs and events. His interest started with the 12 hole Chromatic Harmonica (with the button on the side to also play the half notes like the black notes on the piano). His enthusiasm for New Orleans and contemporary jazz also led him to take up the guitar and he was fortunate enough to receive lessons from the renowned British guitarist Ike Isaacs who also explained chords and music charts.

Paris: Peter then adventured to Paris with his artist pal Mike Kay after giving up a secure position in the clothing world as a factory manager and found himself living in the now infamous Left Bank Beat Hotel and experiencing the freedoms of the French Anglo American scene and its creative atmosphere of the 60s which has had a lasting influence on his life and music.

He met up with other Brit musicians and started busking the streets on guitar and harmonica with Robin Page a Canadian Painter and they formed a formidable duo playing the French Cafe’s, Cinema Queues, River Boats and the Champs Elysees (..even for the police when taken to prison one night !!). Then with Mike on Lambretta Scooters he set off from Paris on an epic journey across Europe and the Middle East which ended up 20,000km later in Jerusalem!! PG busked on the way in the South of France as well as a Greek gypsy wedding and on various radio stations including Turkey and Jordan and on TV in Beirut.

London: These adventurous days had set the scene and back in London his love of the blues and rock n roll developed and he also began playing the 10 hole diatonic harmonica or Blues Harp (Mouth Organ ) with its particular note bending character as an alternative mode of expression to the Chromatic. It was the Troubadour Club and then the UFO Club hippie scene that further captivated his enthusiasm.

American Influences: In the 1980s/90s he went on various USA Blues Cruises and to Harmonica Festivals such as Buckeye and Spah as an enthusiast of a wide range of American music. With his particular passion for the harmonica he met like minded players in the growing harmonica fraternity as well as the original masters of harmonica customising Joe Filisko and Richard Sleigh.