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BIOGRAPHYGill was born in the early 1970..s in Falkirk and brought up in the nearby industrial town of Grangemouth, home to B.P oil refinery and experimental new wave band the Cocteau Twins.At the age of 6 she started playing the piano, continued her musical studies at school in singing, and further studied keyboards at Perth College..s innovative ..Rock music course...
..I graduated from Perth in the early 1990..s and spent much of my early musical career playing with local blues, soul and rock (HM) musicians... Gill recalls,
..I quickly gained respect as a well-liked and competent player with my peers and it was not long before I started getting regular paid gigs. I also started to learn acoustic guitar.....Around this time I collaborated with college singer songwriter Jess King.
Programming sequences on my trusty old ATARI computer, together we wrote some fantastic material recorded and showcased to major record companies by Brian Young of CAVA studios in Glasgow. We also had the fine attribute of having legendary rock drummer Ted McKenna, of the Sensational Alex Harvey band, as our drummer....... Jess ventured off to be an astrophysicist and Gill became musical director for a children..s theatre company, who staged a summer and winter panto at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow.Following her short stint in musical theatre Gill headed south during the winter of 1995 to the Malvern Hills where she joined Irish folk band Bohinta, led by Martin and Aine Furey of the famous Irish musical family...For about 2 years I was their keyboard player and played many prestigious festivals alongside musical greats such as Van Morrison, the Finn brothers, Capercaille and Eliza Carthy. It was a great experience and led me to make many more contacts in the Celtic music world...In 1996 Gill toured Spain with Gaelic singer Mairi MacInnes followed by a fantastic summer tour with Aussie Celtic rockers The Borderers with appearances at the WOMAD and Edinburgh fringe Festivals.During this time she learnt to play the accordion.
(It was all worth the listening pain Marshall Place dudes!)Gill subsequently returned to education to study music composition and music technology at Edinburgh..s Jewel and Esk Valley College and in 1998 gained an Advanced Diploma in Film and Television music before her love of playing live music took her back on the road.
..After a couple of years travelling and perfecting my accordion skills round Scandinavia, I came back to Scotland and landed a role as the lead accordion player for the
BBC topical quiz show .. Caledonian MacBrains,.. hosted by comedians
Fred McCauley and Karen Dunbar.
..My role involved playing popular tunes including heavy rock versions of songs played on accordion!..
It was during this time that Gill developed a flair for song writing. She wrote, recorded and released her first self penned EP .. Only When I Dream.. in the springtime of 2001
with bass player Lorna Thomas whom she met during the old Perth College days.Shortly after this, a chance meeting with Irish songwriter Lorraine Jordan formed the basis of a phenomenal 5-year musical partnership, which was to take the Celtic Duo on 3
consecutive round the world tours. They toured both UK and America and in late 2002/2003 fused with the fantastic Pacific Maori trio Manuhiri to form the basis of the all female world music project Planet Woman...With Planet Woman,.. Gill recalls trips to Europe, Australia and New Zealand,
..Visiting these countries, playing music and collaborating with musicians and cultures from both sides of the globe has undoubtedly been one of the highlights so far in my illustrious musical career... A particular highlight Gill notes was teaching 150 Tasmanian Primary School children to do the Highland Fling!Indeed the Celtic Pacific influence features in the work of Gill..s 2nd Australian released
CD ..Celtic Symphonie.. with one of the tracks ..Dreamtime.. being co ..written with Planet Woman..s Mesepa Eruera. She is working on a re-pressing of the Cd so it can be officially released in the UK.Predominantly, Gill has returned to the Scottish capital, teaching and taking a break from the hectic world of touring, though still heavily involved in the Scottish live music scene including an appearance at 2005 and 2006 Tin the Park with Perthshire based band Killin Thyme...I am currently in pre production working on a 3rd album, to be released in 2008,
playing gigs around Scotland, teaching on a youth music project in Falkirk and lecture in music technology in Edinburgh. I am also scoring music for TV documentaries and am going on tour of Austria , Hungary and Italy with the fantastic Lorraine Jordan during feb / March.....An all about me production © gill hunter 2008
