Alan Peppett

Alan and Jill Peppett lived at Byways, Goodacres Lane, Lacey Green

Jill Peppett represented the Sports and Social Club on the Village Hall Committee in 1989 and 1990.

Hallmark 1996. Allan Peppett of Byways advertised his Chiltern Music Services, keyboard and guitar lessons in Hallmark

Hallmark January 1995. Clem Browns Meets Alan Peppett

You can be involved in music just for fun and a personal interest, or you can be in it for a living. Our villages boast many singers and players who fit the role of the enthusiastic amateur, but only a few who make music their professional business. I have just met one who is truly single-minded about it all he is Lacey Green's versatile maestro, Alan Peppett.

Drawn to music in his early teens, Alan started with piano lessons and went on to master the guitar. Soon he formed a small band for jazz and pop, with himself as lead guitar. An amusing milestone was reached in 1962 when he took his group to a London talent competition organised by a music magazine. In all there were 30 bands and these included the Rolling Stones, who were little known at the time, and in the event, they failed to qualify because they did not conform to the rules in respect of the test-piece and its presentation.

On the other hand, Alan's band won against the odds and the prize was a recording test at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London, assessed by band expert Norrie Paramor. That was as far as it went, at least for the time being. Alan had not focused on a pop music career, and indeed his activities were part time, for he had a job with Parker Knoll the furniture makers. Local engagements continued but he saw 1970 as a turning point, for he decided on keyboards instead of guitar and was recruited into a dance band, playing synthesisers and other new equipment.

In 1975 Alan formed his own band and this was well booked for a couple of years. But this was the time of the disco, and band gigs became fewer. Everyone found that readily available discos were a good deal cheaper than bands to hire. Alan took to playing the organ, striving for interest and variety of effect possible through the multi-layered sounds of modern instruments.

Having packed in a lot of spare-time teaching for more than 20 years, Alan found that redundancy from his Wycombe job provided the opportunity to teach full-time, covering both keyboards and guitar (bearing in mind the upsurge of interest in the latter). Proving very much to his liking, this has kept him well occupied and led to ways of diversifying.

For example, he now supplies instruments for students, sets up computer/keyboard sound systems, and assists with schools music and exams, including set-pieces for training. Alan can also offer studio facilities for students to produce their own music tapes. A new departure is to run courses on MIDI equipment (it means Musical Instrument Digital Interface) which can yield a great variety of sonic mixtures and can even be linked with lighting control. If there is a further opening for his expertise, I'm sure Alan Peppett will find it!