ALL'S FORGOTTEN (1984 CASSETTE DEMO)
(Composed, arranged, performed and produced by Mark Lilley Copyright © ℗ 1984)
MARK LILLEY Moog Rogue / Roland SH101 / Yamaha MK100 / Drum programming (age 13)
SALLYANN KIRBY Vocals (age 13)
KEN COOK Sound Engineer / Mixing / Tascam 144 Multitrack

Memoirs of a synthesizer whizkid...

In 1984 monophonic sequencers cost the earth and polyphonic sequencers were only a figment of our New Romantic imagination, I played everything by hand. I studied the piano and composed music from the age of 6, I don't know how or why I was given this awesome gift but it saved my life and became my life too.

Between school homework, painting artwork on our 'Lucian Ercolani' Ercol drop-leaf dining table for John Flamsteed School's art-block walls, kissing girls behind the old school bikesheds, swing jumping competitions and climbing trees on Kilburn park, wearing New Romantic make-up, walking along trainlines holding hands with my first girlfriend, jumping Bottle Brook at lunchtime, catching the 125 bus to Derby searching for rare 12" Depeche Mode and Yazoo records, family holidays to Tenby, playing tennis during the 6 weeks school holidays on John Flamsteed School tennis courts, I studied the piano from the age of six and began prolifically composing a vast body of work using then pioneering but now coveted vintage analogue synthesizers/sequencers/drum machines and engineering/producing/recording them on my Fostex Multitrack Studio.

I became a paid composer at the age of 14 and was commissioned to write the soundtrack for Estate Agent's promotional films showcasing their client's homes using Betamax and VHS video. During my lifetime on planet Earth I've amassed a vast body of work, material that will never see the light of day in my professional composer's canon, so here are some cassette demos from that magical era for posterity, written, composed, arranged and produced by me during my happy childhood - surrounded by love, my family and best friends and recorded in my beloved bedroom studio at Dale View Gardens, Kilburn, Derbyshire.

MARK LILLEY cassette transfer 1

ALL'S FORGOTTEN (1984 CASSETTE DEMO)

ENOUGH'S ENOUGH (1984 CASSETTE DEMO)
(Composed, arranged, performed and produced by Mark Lilley Copyright © ℗ 1984)
MARK LILLEY Moog Rogue / Roland SH101 / Yamaha MK100 / Drum programming / A/D Conversion (age 13)
SALLYANN KIRBY Vocals (age 13)
KEN COOK Sound Engineer / Mixing / Tascam 144 Multitrack

Memoirs of a synthesizer whizkid...

I'd just turned 13 and now a global teenager, we were living under the threat of imminent nuclear attack and World War 3, so I composed a political song about human rights and the arms race in the key of Eb Minor.

In 1984 monophonic sequencers cost the earth and polyphonic sequencers were only a figment of our New Romantic imagination, I played everything by hand. I studied the piano and composed music from the age of 6, I don't know how or why I was given this awesome gift but it saved my life and became my life too.

Between school homework, painting artwork on our 'Lucian Ercolani' Ercol drop-leaf dining table for John Flamsteed School's art-block walls, kissing girls behind the old school bikesheds, swing jumping competitions and climbing trees on Kilburn park, wearing New Romantic make-up, walking along trainlines holding hands with my first girlfriend, jumping Bottle Brook at lunchtime, catching the 125 bus to Derby searching for rare 12" Depeche Mode and Yazoo records, family holidays to Tenby, playing tennis during the 6 weeks school holidays on John Flamsteed School tennis courts, I studied the piano from the age of six and began prolifically composing a vast body of work using then pioneering but now coveted vintage analogue synthesizers/sequencers/drum machines and engineering/producing/recording them on my Fostex Multitrack Studio.

I became a paid composer at the age of 14 and was commissioned to write the soundtrack for Estate Agent's promotional films showcasing their client's homes using Betamax and VHS video. During my lifetime on planet Earth I've amassed a vast body of work, material that will never see the light of day in my professional composer's canon, so here are some cassette demos from that magical era for posterity, written, composed, arranged and produced by me during my happy childhood - surrounded by love, my family and best friends and recorded in my beloved bedroom studio at Dale View Gardens, Kilburn, Derbyshire.

ENOUGH'S ENOUGH (1984 CASSETTE DEMO)

SHEER DELIGHT (1984 CASSETTE DEMO)
(Composed, arranged, performed and produced by Mark Lilley Copyright © ℗ 1984)
MARK LILLEY Moog Rogue / Roland SH101 / Yamaha MK100 / Drum programming / A/D Conversion (age 13)
SALLYANN KIRBY Vocals (age 13)
KEN COOK Answering vocals / Sound Engineer / Mixing / Tascam 144 Multitrack

Memoirs of a synthesizer whizkid...

My sweet wide-blue-eyed teenage virgin ballad called 'Sheer Delight' featuring an inimitable Mark Lilley key change and two of my best lifelong friends - Sallyann and Ken Cook.

I wanted to be the boy behind the music and not the boy stood precariously in-front of it, so my school friend Sallyann stepped into the lead singer's eighties shoes and we promptly recorded three of my songs, engineered by Derbyshire's first synthesizer legend Ken Cook on his groundbreaking world's first four-track portastudio TASCAM 144.  

Recorded four years before leaving for Barnsley College of Art & Design, but first I briefly studied art with my good friends Jo Pye and Andrew Doughty at Southeast Derbyshire College Ilkeston campus.  I spent the first half of my week painting with Jo & Andrew and the latter half at the Heanor campus studying music on my own.  I arrogantly concluded the music lecturers couldn't teach me anything I didn't already know,  poets are born and not made - so I packed my bags and set sale for South Yorkshire to seek my fortune and start an Art-School Band.

In 1984 monophonic sequencers cost the earth and polyphonic sequencers were only a figment of our New Romantic imagination, so I played everything by hand.  I studied the piano and composed music from the age of 6, I don't know how or why I was given this awesome gift but it saved my life and became my life too.

Between school homework, painting artwork on our 'Lucian Ercolani' Ercol drop-leaf dining table for John Flamsteed School's art-block walls, kissing girls behind the old school bikesheds, swing jumping competitions and climbing trees on Kilburn park, wearing New Romantic make-up, walking along trainlines holding hands with my first girlfriend, jumping Bottle Brook at lunchtime, catching the 125 bus to Derby searching for rare 12" Depeche Mode and Yazoo records, family holidays to Tenby, playing tennis during the 6 weeks school holidays on John Flamsteed School tennis courts, I studied the piano from the age of eight and began prolifically composing a vast body of work using then pioneering but now coveted vintage analogue synthesizers/sequencers/drum machines and engineering/producing/recording them on my Fostex Multitrack Studio.

I became a paid composer at the age of 14 and was commissioned to write the soundtrack for Estate Agent's promotional films showcasing their client's homes using Betamax and VHS video.  During my lifetime on planet Earth I've amassed a vast body of work, material that will never see the light of day in my professional composer's canon, so here are some cassette demos from that magical era for posterity, written, composed, arranged and produced by me during my happy childhood - surrounded by love, my family and best friends and recorded in my beloved bedroom studio at Dale View Gardens, Kilburn, Derbyshire.

SHEER DELIGHT (1984 CASSETTE DEMO)

LIL'S IN DERBY (1985 CASSETTE DEMO)
(Composed, arranged, performed and produced by Mark Lilley Copyright © ℗ 1985)
MARK LILLEY Moog Rogue / Roland SH101 / KORG POLY 800 / Drum programming / Fostex X15 Multitrack / Sound Engineer / Mixing / A/D Conversion (age 14)
ANDREW DOUGHTY Lyrics / Voiceover (age 14)
MARK LILLEY Lyrics / Vocals (age 14)

Memoirs of a synthesizer whizkid...

Boys will be boys.  The legendary analogue ROLAND SH101 Synthesizer had a 100 step monophonic sequencer with which I created the synthesized snare and kick drum pattern, I then augmented the rhythm with additional sounds from my MOOG ROGUE, these were all bounced onto track one.  I manually played the bassline on the MOOG ROGUE and polyphonic melody on the KORG POLY 800 then bounced them onto track two.  Then my best friend Andrew Doughty delivered his hilarious voiceover on track three whilst I adjusted the varispeed creating the comical vocal effect, leaving track four to record my 'out of tune' vocals.

Recorded four years before leaving for Barnsley College of Art & Design, but first I briefly studied art with my good friends Jo Pye and Andrew Doughty at Southeast Derbyshire College Ilkeston campus. I spent the first half of my week painting with Jo & Andrew and the latter half at the Heanor campus studying music on my own. I arrogantly concluded the music lecturers couldn't teach me anything I didn't already know, poets are born and not made - so I packed my bags and set sale for South Yorkshire to seek my fortune and form an Art-School band.

In 1984 monophonic sequencers cost the earth and polyphonic sequencers were only a figment of our New Romantic imagination, I played everything by hand. I studied the piano and composed music from the age of 6, I don't know how or why I was given this awesome gift but it saved my life and became my life too.

Between school homework, painting artwork on our 'Lucian Ercolani' Ercol drop-leaf dining table for John Flamsteed School's art-block walls, kissing girls behind the old school bikesheds, swing jumping competitions and climbing trees on Kilburn park, wearing New Romantic make-up, walking along trainlines holding hands with my first girlfriend, jumping Bottle Brook at lunchtime, catching the 125 bus to Derby searching for rare 12" Depeche Mode and Yazoo records, family holidays to Tenby, playing tennis during the 6 weeks school holidays on John Flamsteed School tennis courts, I studied the piano from the age of six and began prolifically composing a vast body of work using then pioneering but now coveted vintage analogue synthesizers/sequencers/drum machines and engineering/producing/recording them on my Fostex Multitrack Studio.

I became a paid composer at the age of 14 and was commissioned to write the soundtrack for Estate Agent's promotional films showcasing their client's homes using Betamax and VHS video. During my lifetime on planet Earth I've amassed a vast body of work, material that will never see the light of day in my professional composer's canon, so here are some cassette demos from that magical era for posterity, written, composed, arranged and produced by me during my happy childhood - surrounded by love, my family and best friends and recorded in my beloved bedroom studio at Dale View Gardens, Kilburn, Derbyshire.

MARK LILLEY cassette transfer 4

LIL'S IN DERBY (1985 CASSETTE DEMO)

SONGWRITER / COMPOSER / ARTIST
Songwriter meets orchestral composer meets synthesizer nerd playing acoustic guitar and painting with gouache.