Jacqui Forest-Jones
My mother was a professional keyboard player first playing piano and moving on to the electric organ. During the 1970’s and 80’s she played in workingmen’s clubs all over South East Wales. I used to regularly go to the clubs with her and sit watching the drummer really wanting to learn to play. When I started work I bought my first drum kit and set about learning to play using what I’d learned in the clubs. Living in London, I teamed up with an organist looking for a drummer to play in the huge bingo halls that were around in the 70’s. We used to play music and support the professional singers who used to perform during the bingo intervals! I left London and came home to Wales where I teamed up with an organist friend and a male singer. We played in various clubs for entertainment, backing the visiting artists and playing for the sequence dancing that was very popular in the clubs. I also worked occasionally with my mother when she needed a drummer. In one of the clubs I met a professional singer who asked me if I would travel the clubs with her and perform with her as part of her act. We spent the next 12 years as a double act – me drumming, her singing, using the resident organist, working in the clubs of South Wales, Bristol, Northern England and Scotland. On one of our visits to Scotland my mother joined us as our organist. Our double act split up when my teaching job became too demanding and singers were using backing tracks instead of live musicians. I then got involved in the school musical productions where many of the staff and I helped out by playing the music for the school shows. I then played as drummer with a local choir before joining a local ladies harmony group as a drummer working with the MD who is also their pianist. We have made several CDs and have performed all over Great Britain.