Born in 1948 in Kent, Gordon Giltrap has established an accomplished career as a guitarist, achieving popular success in the 70s with the release of Perilous Journey and playing alongside heavyweights such as Brian May, Rick Wakeman, Midge Ure, Martin Taylor and Cliff Richard, in the West End musical Heathcliff. The hard-working musician, who will be playing at the Manoel Theatre on May 6, speaks to Teodor Reljic about his career
When did you first discover that music was your calling and how did you proceed? Were you encouraged to pursue it by your parents and your peers? When I was eight, a boy down the road showed me his acoustic guitar. I just strummed it and knew that I wanted to make that sound. My parents bought me a plastic guitar with four strings and Elvis on the headstock. My mum bought me my first guitar when I was 12 and I spent a lot of time trying to work out what to do with two extra strings! I was certainly encouraged by my mother but not so much by my father - in fact it was an ongoing battle to convince him I had a real talent for music. He understood in the end...Bless him!
Why were you drawn to the acoustic guitar in particular? It wasn't necessarily the acoustic guitar to start with, it was any guitar, I just loved the look and sound of it. It was only in my late teens that I felt that the acoustic guitar was my real calling.
How did it feel like to achieve mainstream fame once Perilous Journey was released, and how do you look on those days now? It was totally unexpected, and I really couldn't take it seriously, especially being cast in the role of a rock/pop star. My heart always was and always will be in the acoustic guitar, it was and will remain my last love. As good as those early albums were, I feel that the music I have written since then has more depth and substance to it. I wasn't really a happy person during that heady rock star period. It was probably because my personal life was on a rocky footing.
How do you go about composing a song? Have you got any specific rituals or starting-points that you keep coming back to? No rituals at all, I just play the guitar until a melodic idea appears and then I try to follow where it leads. I basically try to sing where I think the next section should come, and then before I know it, I have a completed piece. Having said this, it can take me months to complete a tune, I agonise over minute details!
Some of your work was inspired by William Blake and The Pre-Raphelites. Could you talk a bit about the way literature and painting can influence music, and the way this transfer from one artform to another happens? For me, music should create images, and should have colour to it, so it's obvious that the visual arts should be related to the aural arts. It has been this way for as far back as I can remember, but it really all started to come together with my 1976 album Visionary.
On a related note, what seems to be a reliable source of inspiration to you these days? Are there any particular musicians that you keep coming back to? My problem is that most of my time is spent writing music, and in all honesty, finding the time to listen is a luxury and like most people, I listen to music in the car. I still have a great fondness for the music that influenced me in those early days, particularly the early music of Bert Jansch, and I'm delighted to say that Bert is still a good personal friend, in fact he attended my 60th birthday celebrations recently. It was a joy to see him there.
Is there anything about Malta that you're specifically looking forward to experiencing, apart from the concert? My wife and I rarely travel abroad so this is a wonderful opportunity to visit an island which was awarded the George Cross by King George Vl in April of 1942. We hope to be able to take in some of that history in particular and of the island in general.
Any comments?
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When I was eight, a boy down the road showed me his acoustic guitar. I just strummed it and knew that I wanted to make that sound. My parents bought me a plastic guitar with four strings and Elvis on the headstock. My mum bought me my first guitar when I was 12 and I spent a lot of time trying to work out what to do with two extra strings! I was certainly encouraged by my mother but not so much by my father - in fact it was an ongoing battle to convince him I had a real talent for music. He understood in the end...Bless him!