JAY STAPLEY
Guitarist . Singer . Composer . Producer
Jay
Stapley arrived in London 1979 and began doing session works.
Soon
followed were the inevitable bar and club gigs around town most notably
with leading vocalist Ian Hunt and his band ‘The Living Daylights’, a
name given long before the arrival of the James Bond film!
Jay’s
recognition as a top-flight player was early in his career and in 1987 Jay
replaced Eric Clapton as guitarist with Roger
Waters in his
‘KAOS’ tour
and album works.
The
KAOS project featured lead band members Roger Waters, Andy Fairweather-Low,
Mel Collins (sax), Paul Carrack (vocals), Katie Kissoon and Vicky Brown
(vocals) plus of course Jay Stapley at the forefront on lead guitars.
KAOS
tour took Jay on a national tour of the United States and Canada to many
famed venues including Madison Square Gardens. The climax of the tour was
two consecutive nights at Wembley Arena.
The
big tours proved good training ground for Jay and soon Jay was found in
the band of Mike Oldfield on
lead guitars for his reworking of the legendary ‘Tubular
Bells’ which
culminated in a live broadcast from Edinburgh Castle to millions and a
concert at The Royal Albert Hall.
One of the largest markets for live concerts is in Germany and the biggest selling band there Westernhagen were playing the biggest of sports stadiums.
Jay was now hugely in demand and an offer from the million selling German band ‘Westernhagen’ was hard to refuse.
Jay
continues to present day working with the band including most recently as
album producer.
Jay
was also sponsored by ‘Roland’ music electronics giant to demonstrate
some of their products.
Jay
has, when time permitted, lectured at The London Guitar Institute.
Other
artists to have benefited from Jay's guitar playing have been Kirsty
McColl, Roger Chapman, Suede and what Jay refers to as the highpoint of
his career a recording with ‘The Chuckle Bothers’!
Film
and television credits include:
·
Withnail
And I
·
How
To Get Ahead In Advertising
·
Hale
And Pace
·
The
Duty Men
·
When
The Wind Blows
Sessions
for advertising include:
·
McDonalds
·
Cadbury’s
·
Mars
·
T.W.A.
·
Pernod
·
Lee
Jeans
·
Martini
Jay has produced and released four CD albums of his own compositions with WEA Records.
Through
all this Jay continued to work with vocalist and guitarist Ian Hunt
playing a blend of classic country rock and blues songs.
The pair finally recorded their works together on the 1995 album ‘Heading South’ which in addition was recorded at Jay’s new recording studio.
Ten years later in 2005 and Ian is recording his second album with both Jay on guitars and in the production chair. The album was released in 2007.
Jay
is also runs his own business marketing digital audio technology.
Picture of Jay drawn by celebrated artist, Gerald Scarfe.
Jay is looking forward to discovering new audiences as he performs songs and tunes using both acoustic and electric guitars. Essentially Jay's new works are a solo venture primarily allowing Jay to offer a side of him that previous front men have kept under lock and key!
Forthcoming events will find Jay enjoying audiences in more intimate settings than he has been used to such as folk clubs, village halls and arts centres. If the event dictates the requirement for additional accompaniment then Jay will use colleagues for bass, percussion works etc.
Jay has his own MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/jaystapley
Visit him to hear some new sounds for 2008
NEW ALBUM AVAILABLE FROM MARCH 2008.