Solo Work - Gary Mullins - Professional Guitarist

What a Weekend – Frankie Valli, Richard Shelton, Waddesdon Manor

October 12, 2015PermalinkBye Bye Baby, Denmark Street Big Band, Gigs, Jazz, Live Work, Solo Workaylesbury, baby, band, big, bye, club, dean, denmark, express, film, four, frankie, guitar, jazz, london, manor, pizza, seasons, solo, street, themes, valli, waddeson Leave a comment

This weekend has been a really varied, interesting and fun set of gigs, covering over 700 miles!

On Friday I was in Whitley Bay with Bye Bye Baby – a Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons tribute show. This took place at the Playhouse where we played to 500 people, and had many of them dancing in the aisles!

This is a great production – incredible music, faithfully recreated by myself and my colleagues. It’s loads of fun and I really look forward to these gigs, partly because I get to play my Gibson double neck!

I also take my Gibson Les Paul Gold Top as a back up, and I needed it this time as I snapped the high E on the six string on the double neck!

600 miles later, and I was in central London with the Denmark Street Big Band for the Richard Sheltpn album review show at the Pizza Express Jazz Club on Dean Street, London.

Amongst some original tunes arranged specifically for the big band, we also played a lot of Sinatra classics. My highlight of the gig was an instrumental performance of Under My Skin, where bass and tenor sax were largely playing together, and they were incredible!

Richard was great too – entertaining the crowd with great stories and anecdotes, and his voice is fantastic too. I particularly enjoyed his duos with pianist Ben who was loving it!

The weekend got wrapped up with a solo performance at Waddesdon Manor, playing during Afternoon Tea. This is a bit of a slog (4.5hrs!!) but it’s wonderful to share my arrangements and performances of tunes like Li’l Darlin’, Pure Imagination, Misty and more!

Like the big band gig the night before, I played my Gibson ES175, which was exquisite! I used the AER Compact 60, and have started using a little bit more gain on the first channel with the guitar which has been great – it gives the guitar more presence and sounds really full.

Needless to say, the food was great, and it was really busy! You should check it out – one more week to go – next Sunday is my last slot, 12:00-16:30.

The coming weekend is going to be just as hectic, with a workshop from Clive Carroll at the Aylesbury Music Centre to facilitate, a gig with Rollacoaster and the final Waddesdon Manor performance. Before then, prep and practice! Bring it on!

Christmas at Cliveden House

December 30, 2014PermalinkBig Mama Funk, Gigs, Jazz, Jazz Juice, Solo Workband, berks, big, bucks, cliveden, function, funk, guitar, herts, house, jazz, juice, london, mama, oxford, party, solo, trio Leave a comment

Christmas has been a pretty hectic time for gigs this year, with a performance on Christmas Day, and 3 on Boxing Day. Still, with them all being at Cliveden House it made for a very special couple of days.

In her regular attire, Cliveden is spectacular, but during Christmas she is even more resplendent in no small part due to the Christmas trees, and general extra decoration throughout the place.

It has been quite busy there this year, and myself and my musical colleagues have worked hard to provide the best quality jazz music possible in our time there. We’ve received a great number of positive comments, and hope to hear back from the business cards that have been handed out.

It’s now time for a quick rest before another clutch of New Year gigs, and then back into some sort of routine!

I wish you all the best for the New Year, and hope to grace a stage alongside, or in front of you sooner rather than later!

Live on Radio Blackfrog

November 18, 2014PermalinkLive Work, Solo Work175, acoustic, aylesbury, blackfrog, bucks, electric, gary, gibson, guitar, internet, jazz, london, martin, mullins, radio, solo, taylor, thame, theatre, work Leave a comment

On Sunday 15th November I had the privilege to be interviewed on Radio Blackfrog – Thame’s internet radio station. I also performed a few tunes and talk about a couple of my favourite songs and a few stories from my musical life so far!

If you missed it, you can catch up with the link here… http://www.radioblackfrog.co.uk/catch-up.html

Variety is the Spice of Life

June 21, 2014PermalinkGigs, Jazz, Live Work, Solo Work175, 60, acoustic, aer, band, chicheley, compact, es175, gibson, guitarist, hall, hotels, jazz, juice, quartet, severe, wedding Leave a comment

Over the last few weeks I have been doing a great deal of different types of work, each with different responsibilities. It has been a real thrill too, because I feel like I’ve succeeded in doing a good job with each of the challenges in front of me – particularly with the time I’ve had to prepare – and that gives me the sort of buzz I am looking for.

Since playing in Grease at the New Theatre in Oxford, I’ve spent quite a bit of time with the Denmark Street Big Band, playing three gigs with two of them being a bit of a trek, including ventures to Inverness (at the castle where Madonna got married), and to Great Yarmouth to play in a Big Band festival. All three gigs were fantastic fun with material ranging from Glenn Miller to Sinatra, Buble, and Basie, as well as two shows dedicated to the work of Bobby Darin.

I had the privilege to be able to play solo at my brother’s wedding, and also as a special part of his wedding speech, a solo gig for Team GB Triathlete, plus a jazz performance with my quartet to relaunch a stately home/hotel for DeVere Hotels.

Things are fairly relentless at the moment with final rehearsals on Monday for this year’s Live at the Rose event, as well as an Irish-themed recording session coming up where I need to get the mandolin out. Coupled with new ukulele and bass students it’s a very busy time!

Second Time Around – Cut Video

June 10, 2011PermalinkArrangements, Jazz, Live Work, Solo Work Leave a comment

So this is the current cut of the Waddesdon video. I’m playing an arrangement of ‘Second Time Around’ by Jimmy Van Heusen.

I’ll be putting this on my Solo guitar website soon, and also updating the audio for a clean version with no wind or aircraft sounds – I will miss the singing birds though!

MAD About Waddesdon Festival Promo

June 4, 2011PermalinkArrangements, Jazz, Live Work, Solo Work Leave a comment

Today was great fun, and very rock and roll! I spent the morning shooting some video with BucksTV to promote the MAD About Waddesdon Music Arts and Drama event. It’s happening over the weekend of the 25th and 26th of June this year.

Today was great because I was out on my own – as a solo guitarist – and playing tunes that I’ve written/arranged myself, or worked on, with a view to trying to sound like guys like Martin Taylor and Clive Carroll. I played one tune in particular called, ‘The Second Time Around’, which was written by Jimmy Van Heusen – a great jazz writer!

I had three performances shot in different parts of the grounds of Waddesdon Manor. The first was the most rock and roll – I was on the portico above the the main entrance to the Manor, Brian May-style! The others were shot in front of the Manor from different locations, and it was great. I think the playing came out well too, so I’m really pleased about that!

I’ll be playing at the Manor on the Sunday – two sets. It’ll be great to see you down there. You can expect a mix of Blues, Jazz and Folk. Should be interesting! Check the photos out! I’ll post the video when it’s done.