About John Buckingham

My full name is John Edward Buckingham and I was born in Bedfordshire in the late 1950's.

My first introduction to music was when I sang in Willesborough Church Choir, Ashford, Kent from when I was 7 to 15. I became head choirboy and was responsible for singing all the solos at weddings and other special functions. The highlight of this time was when church choirs from around Kent gathered at Canterbury Cathedral for a festival. The sound of everyone singing in that wonderful building was awesome and will always be with me. I also sang in the school choir and played percussion instruments in the orchestra.

From the ages of 12 to 16 I learned to play the piano and was taught by Ted Solly, my music teacher at school and church choirmaster. Ted taught me classical music which I really hated at the time and my mother would literally bully me into practicing. But without my mother's help none of my music would have been written.

I had become a musician but I needed that spark to ignite my enthusiasm.

At the age of 14 I saw Marc Bolan and T. Rex playing "Jeepster" on Top of the Pops and that did it and I purchased the album “T. Rex” which happened to be Marc Bolan's first attempt at recording and playing the electric guitar. This is still my favourite T. Rex album, Marc Bolan had totally inspired me to write my own songs, in particular with lyrics like this:

The Time of Love is Now by Marc Bolan and T. Rex Light up your face With all the love within you Say your word Make it heard Light up the world With poems from within you Shout it out Have no doubts For the time of love is now

I managed to get a cheap acoustic guitar in a jumble sale for £5 but I really craved for an electric guitar and a friend of the family did a special deal for me on a Hofner electric guitar with a tremolo arm and tape wound strings. I taught myself to play the guitar using the “Play in a Day” book by Bert Weedon . . . but it would be much, much longer than just one day. When I was learning I swore that I would never play the blues so that my style would be different to other guitarists. I also never played along to records afraid of developing someone else’s style. But I have to admit now that this was a big mistake because it took longer to learn the instrument.

At the age of 14 I started to play music with my sister Julia Buckingham (now known as Jules). We performed as a duet at first just playing Beatles songs and other covers. Even then the harmonies we constructed were very unique, our rendition of “She’s Leaving Home” was probably one of our best. We then teamed up with a drummer and friend, Mick Kennedy, and called ourselves Morning Mist. We played wherever we could get a gig and it didn't matter about money, money never mattered to me, it was playing live music that counted.

I joined my first full band “Orpheus” around about 1974 and we played our own material plus covers such as “One of These Nights” by the Eagles and “Caroline” by Status Quo.

When I was 16 I started a 5 year apprenticeship as a compositor (typesetter) which is where I really started to play around with words, writing poems and songs (sometimes during work time!). It was a gruelling but rewarding apprenticeship where I learned everything about the print trade. I was earning peanuts compared to my friends but I reckon that it shaped me as a person and taught me to never give up.

Pipe Dream, my next full band was formed about 1977 with Alan Cork the guitarist from Orpheus. I still think that this was the high point of my musical life, the band were so fresh and young with lots of new ideas. At that time Pipe Dream were listening to the likes of Steve Hillage, Jimmy Hendrix and Camel and our music seemed to reflect that.

When I had finished my apprenticeship, I started to have piano lessons again, this time with a talented female Welsh piano teacher.

I love to play the guitar and piano and singing is very important to me too. But I really class myself as a song writer using whatever medium I can lay my hands on at the time, from a battered old acoustic guitar to a full on computer multi track recording system.

My major influences are:
The Beatles, Deep Purple, T. Rex, Pink Floyd, Man, Nektar, Steve Hillage, Led Zeppelin, Caravan, Camel, The Stranglers and a relatively unknown band Cressida. I have always liked a bit of dance and ambience and I respect the likes of The Prodigy and Boards of Canada.

The songs listed in buckmusic are my diary, the quality isn't that great sometimes but my soul seems to always be there in the recordings. I hope that you can give these songs a chance because I think that there is something for everyone, a different song to match all your moods, although I have to admit they are mostly unfinished.

. . . . ooh and have a look at Early Bands and Buck Memorabilia for a laugh too!

Just to mention that I have created all these songs, organized all these bands and performed loads of gigs while mostly holding down full time jobs.

In 2009 I tried something very different, I was playing guitar and singing backing vocals with an outstanding blues guitarist, Dave Carson. We were an "acoustic act" that went under the band name of Sugar Mama UK here is a small example of our live music: Green Manalishi. We performed quite a few gigs in the Hampshire/Dorset area and also in St. Ives, Cornwall, particularly the St. Ives Music Festival. I also played guitar in an offshoot jazz band, Dave Carson's 4am but I left both bands in October 2009.

In July 2009 I played keyboards in a covers band called Rumbling Spires. We played songs by bands such as T. Rex, The Doors and The Stranglers.

On 21/7/2010 I joined The Hereafter as keyboard player using the name of "Noteslinger". The band had catchy songs and a lot of energy and their music enabled me to experiment with my keyboard playing. I left the band in September 2015 when I went to live in Canterbury, Kent.

I am currently working on my second prog rock album written mainly on the piano, here is a live version of my first prog rock offering "All So Far". I would love to work with any musicians that are interested in this type of music.

In 2019 I formed a covers band based in Salisbury called Uncovered Ground I played keyboards and sang. Unfortunately the band split up just after the Covid epdemic.

Oh yea, I would love to hear from you and I like constructive criticism!

To contact me click here: John Buck

Jane - Riki