Simon Mayor (born 1953) is an English

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

ist,

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

player, guitarist, composer and humorist. He is noted for a series of instrumental albums featuring the mandolin, live performances with his partner

Hilary James Hilary James is a British musician. A vocalist and multi-instrumentalist she plays guitar, double bass, mandobass Mandobass is the largest (and least common) member of the mandolin family, sometimes used as the bass instrument in mandolin or ...

and his groups The

Mandolinquents The Mandolinquents (also known as Simon Mayor's Mandolinquents) is a British musical quartet. It was formed by its core members Simon Mayor (mandolin, violin, guitar) and Hilary James (mandobass, vocals). In the present line up, which has been ...

and Slim Panatella & the Mellow Virginians, and (with Hilary James) for writing and performing for children. He has produced a series of instructional books and DVDs for the mandolin, and is also a regular columnist for ''Acoustic'' magazine, along with Martin Taylor,

Doyle Dykes Doyle Dykes (born May 23, 1954) is an American country acoustic guitarist from Jacksonville, Florida. He is influenced by a wide variety of musical styles and musicians such as Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Duane Eddy, to the Beatles and U2. Cited ...

Gordon Giltrap Gordon Giltrap, MBE (born 6 April 1948) is an English guitarist and composer. His music crosses several genres. He has been described as "one of the most revered guitarists of his generation", and has drawn praise from fellow musicians including ...

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and Julie Ellison.

Career

Mayor cites fiddler and mandolinist

Dave Swarbrick David Cyril Eric Swarbrick (5 April 1941 – 3 June 2016) was an English folk musician and singer-songwriter. His style has been copied or developed by almost every British and many world folk violin players who have followed him. He was ...

as a teenage musical influence, after being taught to sing in tonic sol-fa by his father when very young. With his solo debut ''The Mandolin Album'' in 1990 he embarked on a series of recordings with the stated aim of giving the mandolin a uniquely

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

voice. The CD was made Recording of the Week on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

. His mix of original and traditional material alongside classical pieces has been noted by

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(Recording of the Week), '' Q'', ''

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

'', ''Living Tradition'' (Scotland) and ''

Sing Out! ''Sing Out!'' was a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that was published from May 1950 through spring 2014. It was originally based in New York City, with a national circulation of approximately 10,000 by 1960. Background ''Sing Out ...

'' (U.S). In May 2000 he entered the UK's Classical Artist Top Ten with ''Mandolin Moods'', a 'best of' release of his own compositions and classical works on Universal Records. His touring schedule has included the Rudolstadt International Folk Festival, Shetland Folk Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival, The Stephen Leacock Humour Festival (Canada), Cheltenham Literature Festival (England),

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

(Scotland), The Classical Mandolin Society of America and others. He leads Britain's first modern mandolin quartet, the

. The quartet emerged from a 1997 line up, The Mandolin All-stars with multi-instrumentalists

and

Chris Leslie Christopher Michael Leslie (born 28 June 1972) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley from 1997 to 2005 and Nottingham East from 2010 to 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, he defected to form ...

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, and longtime musical partner,

. The Mandolinquents now includes the classical guitarist Gerald Garcia, multi-instrumentalist Richard Collins, and James on mandobass and vocals. He played swing fiddle on the album for the show ''

Five Guys Named Moe ''Five Guys Named Moe'' is a musical with a book by Clarke Peters and lyrics and music by Louis Jordan and others. The musical is based on an earlier musical short of the same name by Louis Jordan from 1943. It had its UK debut at the Cotteslo ...

'', and plays fiddle with his occasional trio Slim Panatella & the Mellow Virginians. Mayor and James have also written satirical and topical songs for BBC news programmes including ''

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...

''. An admirer of fellow Yorkshireman the late

Jake Thackray John Philip "Jake" Thackray (27 February 1938 – 24 December 2002) was an English singer-songwriter, poet, humourist and journalist. Best known in the late 1960s and early 1970s for his topical comedy songs performed on British television, hi ...

, Mayor occasionally performs a special programme of Thackray's songs.

Youth audience

Mayor tours regularly with James. The duo have worked extensively with young people, mostly in theatres and schools, and have written over fifty children's songs, many for their own ''Musical Mystery Tour'' children's CDs, and the ''Musical Mystery Tour'' songbook, which was published by

Faber Music Faber Music is a British sheet music publisher best known for contemporary classical music. It also publishes music tutor books, and in 2005 acquired popular music publisher International Music Publications. Faber Music has close relations to th ...

. Their work had featured widely on the BBC. For six years, they were regular hosts of BBC School Radio's ''The Song Tree''. They also wrote for, and on occasion presented, BBC's '' Play School'', ''The Listening Corner'' and ''Play Days''. In addition, Mayor worked as multi-instrumental session musician for other BBC radio programmes ''Singing Together'', ''Music Workshop'' and ''Time and Tune''. Their songs have been used extensively in education, including English language teaching courses for Danish schoolchildren. In 2011, Top That! Publishing published ''I'm A Parrot'' and ''Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!'', two children's illustrated rhyming story books, using the lyrics from two Mayor/James songs, and with drawings by Hilary James. Alongside their other websites, they set up Childrensmusic.co.uk in 1999.

Albums

Solo

*''The Mandolin Album'' (1990) *''The Second Mandolin Album'' (1991) *''Winter With Mandolins'' (1992) *''The English Mandolin'' (1995) *''New Celtic Mandolin'' (1998) *''Music From A Small Island'' (2006) *''The Art of Mandolin'' (2014) *''Carolan - Fantasias on themes by Turlough O'Carolan'' (2023)

With Hilary James

*''Duos'' - live - (2001) *''Lullabies With Mandolins'' (2004) *''When Summer comes Again'' (2021)

Mandolinquents

*''Mandolinquents'' (1997) *''Dance Of The Comedians'' - live - (2007)

Musical Mystery Tour series

(with Hilary James - for children) *''Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!'' (2000) *''Up In A Big Balloon'' (2000) *''A Big Surprise'' (2000) *''Snowmen & Kings'' (2000) *''Midsummer Market'' (2000)

As featured musician with Hilary James

*''Burning Sun'' (1993) *''Love Lust & Loss'' (1996) *''Bluesy'' (1999) *''Laughing With The Moon'' (2004) *''English Sketches'' (2011) *''You Don't Know'' (2015)

Miscellaneous

*''The Working Party'' (1993) *''Slim Panatella & the Mellow Virginians'' (1994) *''Mandolin Moods'' (2000) compilation issued by Universal Records

Books

*''The Mandolin Tutor'' (1995) *''New Celtic Mandolin'' (1998) *''The New Mandolin'' (2000) *''Mastering The Mandolin'' (2003) *''Great Tunes For Mandolin (vol 1)'' (2015) *''Great Tunes For Mandolin (vol 2)'' (2015) *''Great Traditional Tunes For Guitar'' (2015) *''Of Death And A Banana Skin'' (2018)

DVDs

*''Mandolin Essentials'' (1997) *''New Celtic Mandolin'' (1997)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayor, Simon 1953 births Living people British composers British mandolinists