Geoff Ashford
Geoff Ashford is a British musician.
He was born and went to school in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England and it was at school he became interested in music and playing MusicAL INSTRUMENTS. He was always involved in any musical projects and played cornet in the school brass band.
His guitar playing started when he was fourteen and his first group consisted of close friends. After a few months of rehearsing they played at least five nights a week in pubs, clubs and at youth club dances.
Geoff turned professional when he was eighteen and his first taste of life on the road was a trip to Germany, working on the Star Palast circuit. In Germany he played with some great English bands and some great German bands including the Phantom Brothers. Geoff had started song writing by this time and the group was offered a recording contract with C.B.S. under the direction of Irving Martin.
After a chance conversation with a London agent he was offered a sixteen week season on the Cunard ship the Q.E.2. and visited numerous places whilst playing on the ship, but probably the most important were the trips to New York where Geoff met some great artists and publishers who gave him help and sound advice that would prove invaluable to him in the years to come.
Back in England he was offered a job as lead guitar/vocalist working at the prestigious Ritz Ballroom in Manchester, and spent the next year or so there before moving to another Mecca ballroom, The Golden Palms in Blackburn. On the strength of some of his songs the band was offered a recording contract with DECCA and Geoff was signed as a writer to Micky Most's company RAK. A single was released "Wish A Little Love" produced by hitmaker Jack Baverstock and arranged by Del Newman who's work with Cat Stevens and Neil Sedaka had earnt him a great deal of respect. Members of the band were Gill Mitchell, who later sang with the Ray McVae orchestra, and also spent many years with Freddy Star's band. Sandra Stevens, who found fame with the Brotherhood Of Man and Mike Harrison, who worked with Alvin Stardust's band The Heartbeats.
His next recording contract was with Warner Brothers with old friend Irving Martin as producer, along with a writing contract with ATV Music under the direction of Tony Hiller, who wrote the Eurovision winner "Save Your Kisses For Me". A single was released "Charmer" which was considered an airplay hit. The B side "Buddy Sang Peggy Sue" was later released in the States.
After a year or so of writing and recording he felt it was time to get back on the road and joined a popular showband Black Onyx. In the following years the band worked very hard in the major cabaret venues, sometimes doing ten or fourteen shows a week. During this time Geoff wrote very little but the band was offered a record deal with PYE Records, but the tracks were never released.
The next real change came when he decided to work as a solo performer and start writing again. Geoff has said he spent some happy times touring the clubs around Yorkshire and his songs were starting to once again be recorded and released. International folk group, The Spinners recorded "Hold Out Your Hand", a song he had written with another writer, Marie Copley. Also Stan Richards who played Seth Armstrong in the TV. soap Emmerdale Farm, recorded "Grandads Motto" with The Brighouse And Rastrick Brass Band.
His country career began whilst recording a demo at a local studio. During a break he played a country song he had written to the studio owner Bill Clark, who was for many years George Hamilton IV's musical director. Bill suggested he contact Tony Goodacre, an established country artist who was setting up a publishing company. After initial meetings Tony and Geoff became great friends and in the subsequent years Tony not only recorded numerous Geoff Ashford songs but also placed them with many other established artists. With Tony's company Sylvantone, Geoff’s songs made many country music airplay charts around the world and his song "Rags To Riches" won the TDK Award as best country song in an international song competition. He was invited to sing the song on various TV programmes and was guest on numerous radio shows. Geoff worked as a solo artist, singing and playing his songs and he played at some of the major venues and festivals including Wembley. A song he co wrote with Tony was featured on Dutch radio and TV and was used to promote one of the best country festivals in the world “The Florallia Festival at Ousterhaut”.
In the mid nineties Geoff was offered a very lucrative contract to write theme music for television and he spent the next few years in his studio working on instrumentals and themes for various projects. His theme tunes proved to be more successful than he could have hoped for and his music appeared in many programmes in Britain and Europe. A low budget cartoon series made in French for the Canadian market, was subsequently dubbed in other languages and was featured around the world.
In 2002 Geoff put together an album of his favourite unrecorded songs, mainly to send round the trade, but the album was picked up by lots of local radio stations and one track "High And Low" received extensive airplay.
In the spring of 2003 he released a country album "Shades Of Country" containing fourteen new songs, again he was very lucky in securing many local and internet radio plays around the world. Some of the songs were featured on the Vitaminic Music site and his song "The Lasting Kind" was number one in ten countries. “Our Kind Of Country” an album written with David Harris came out in 2004, again featuring fourteen new songs including “Sweet Anna”, a Cajun song which proved popular with the radio stations.
Over the last five or so years Geoff has ceased live performances but has carried on writing music and songs. Sylvantone Records have continued to release products containing his work and his theme music is still being used on T.V.