Jason Titley

I was always around music from a very early age. My Dad, Bill Titley, was an active musician on the London scene back in the 60's (kicking around with the likes of the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart). My parents bought me a small banjo with a plectrum on a string so I wouldn't lose it (good tip!), and also various things to hit. My Dad was rehearsing with his new band out in the Black Mountains in Wales in the early 70's and his drummer Andy (he had a glass eye) let me set up a cardboard drum kit next to his and I would play along with the rehearsals. On my 5th birthday I got my first drum kit, a very old Premier. I couldn't even reach the pedals so I tied blocks of wood to my shoes - my Mum says I used to drive her mad by playing the Beatles Sgt. Peppers over and over. I can still play it beat for beat! Over the next few years I would play in bands with my Dad. I have memories of hippy festivals and playing on stages where the first few rows of the audience were naked women dancing around. During the late Seventies and Eighties I went to Acland Burghley School in Tuffnell Park, North London. Here I took piano grades and did 'O Level Music, playing percussion under the skillful hand of Charles Evans, my Music teacher. Whilst at Burghley, I played keyboards in a band called "High Voltage". We played all sorts of stuff, starting the set with "Hawaii Five 'O'!" I recently was contacted by another member of that band through Friends Reunited. Around this time I won a scholarship to attend Pimlico School of Music - this involved me attending on Saturdays for the day learning theory and percussion. This led to me playing in orchestras for a while, playing some large venues such as the Queen Elisabeth Hall. It was after this that I decided I wanted to play music my way and not have to play it from a score, recreating it the way the composer wrote it. I wanted to play Rock and Roll! So I did I joined a three piece (can't remember the name) playing drums. I remember thinking we were going to be the next big thing, we were young and full of it! Eventually, after leaving school and working in Maci D's for a while, I legged it from London to move to Totnes with my Dad. This is where I discovered Bluegrass and the double bass and spent the next two and a half years playing in the "Buffalo Bluegrass Band" Next I moved to Cheltenham and went back into playing drums in another three piece (can't remember the name). During this time I bought my Martin D28 guitar. After moving to Tewkesbury into a lovely quiet bedsit in a little village, I locked myself away for a year learning guitar and started a Bluegrass band in Worcester with Liam Finch, a great and original banjo player who taught me a lot about arranging music and also how to drink! We called the band "Four Play" but quickly changed it to "Natural Hazard" and took on board Brad Johnson, a mandolin player from America living in Britain in Birmingham. With Micky Morris and Mick Shaler we proceeded to have a great few years playing festivals and pubs, eating, smoking and drinking - great times that will live with me all my days. OK, moving on (I didn't realise how much I've done!). From Tewkesbury I moved to Bath after being head hunted at work. This gave me the chance to play with Leon Hunt, a banjo player I had been jamming with for a while at festivals. After a few months we decided to start "The Daily Planet" and with Domonic Harrison playing bass, Jamie Matthews on harmonica, and Mike Pryor on mandolin, we started gigging with Didmarton Festival being our first notable triumph. The Planet continued with two tours of the US, European tours and festivals including Cambridge, Shetland, Jersey, Bergen and Telluride in Colorado. Two albums later and many TV/Radio appearances, we decided in 2000 to knock it on the head and two years later they re-formed and I decided to do my own thing and started Rabbi John, again I see them every now and then. To bring it all up to date I am now living in the Cotswolds with my wife Sarah and our little girl Florence, and jolly nice it is too! So what next? watch this space...