LEONARD COHEN

FAMILY TIES with Newcastle singer-songwriter Simon Taylor

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48 year old Simon Taylor is a singer songwriter based in Newcastle.

“But, cliche alert, music seems to make me younger every day – mentally anyway.”

Is music in your family?

Yes, my Grandad played piano beautifully in his council house in Longbenton. Classics like Debussy and Ravel. He was a genius really, he was brilliant at science as well, entirely self-taught.

That musical side was passed on to my Mum who also plays piano. I used to love listening to her play as a young boy, maybe a connection was made right back then. On my father’s side my Gran sung at Hexham Abbey and I notice I probably get a bit of my voice from her when I go into my falsetto – er not very often.

Finally, my brother has taken after my Mum and Grandad and is a very well-regarded classical/ jazz piano improviser who plays concerts at venues across the UK and also in Europe. A much more skilled musician than me.

When was the first time you picked up a guitar?

I really got the idea of playing guitar at the age of nineteen when I was on holiday in Benidorm with my girlfriend of the time. I saw a flamenco teacher in a little plaza teaching a student and the image absolutely resonated with me and practically stopped me in my tracks.

I must have decided not long after to learn guitar because I got my first acoustic for my birthday two months later. It might well have been my ex-girlfriend’s lovely father who bought it – I forget. He gave me some early lessons anyway.

I kind of messed about with it for a couple of years from the age of 20 but then it was leaning against the wall of my bedroom for two years, untouched. The decision to then pick it up again at the age of 24 was one of the best I ever made. Almost immediately I realised I could compose melodies and that was how the whole songwriting thing started for me.

What studios have you used or do you record at home?

I have recorded at home, (I made two e.ps around Covid times this way), but decided I was probably better off personally working with a skilled producer on my projects in future. Recently these have included Lisa Murphy and John Martindale at Blank Studios and Ziad Jabero at Chilli Studios. I absolutely love recording and have also recorded at Loft Music Studios in Newcastle and the Old Church Studios in Thropton, Northumberland which were both also excellent.

What is your latest release?

I’m releasing a single whose title is inspired by my recent difficult domestic troubles called Bad Vibes Boulevard. A curator described it recently as ‘alt-pop’, maybe it is, I don’t know. I recorded it with Ziad Jabero at Chilli Studios he also played electric and 12 string guitar on it so I was very lucky to have his assistance there. It’s out on Wednesday 1st July.

When are your next gigs?

I have a couple of gigs coming up but they may have passed by the time this goes to press. The next one after that is an exciting one for me as it will be my first gig with a band performing my music in over eight years. It hasn’t been announced yet so I’d better keep schtum but we’ve been rehearsing at First Avenue Studios and are close to ready for that.

It’s been very gratifying to hear my songs live with added instrumentation as most of them were designed to be performed so we’ll see where that particular avenue of my life leads.

For more news/music/photos contact the official website >> http://www.simontaylormusic.com

Alikivi   May 2026

HOME SWEDE HOME – with singer & songwriter Alan Barker

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Originally from Middlesbrough, for the past 12 years 71 year old Alan has lived in Sweden with his wife Jude.

‘After school I went to train as a school teacher at Durham University then spent my first seven years in the workplace as a teacher then in business for several years in and around the Northeast.’ explained Alan.

‘The first business was an up market private health and fitness Centre in Yarm. It was called Gym and Tonic. My second business was a construction company renovating properties and building new houses’.

When did you first pick up a guitar?

‘When I was 12 year old and sang my first song at the school folk club. It was Bob Dylans Blowing in the Wind. Like everyone else at the time I joined a band at 16 and played a few gigs around the Teesside area particularly Redcar pubs. It didn’t last. We didn’t get a record deal. But I really did enjoy it.’

Was music in your family, did anyone play an instrument?

‘Yes, my mother. She played a mean piano but she had to have her arms twisted too actually do it. She was a musical one. Most family and friend’s parties ended up around the piano with her playing the hits of the day. So, I guess I got my performing bug from her and from her brother. My uncle was a professional singer all his working life.’

‘Fast forward five decades and songwriting has taken over. There was a song in me called Running Man. I wrote it quickly and we recorded it. Since then, I’ve just kept writing.’

‘Jude and I became involved with a professional football club In Sweden and formed a refugee team called The Mighty Cosmos. The original members of this team had all escaped the 2003 and still ongoing genocide with Sudan and Darfur and had an amazing story to tell.’

‘Over two years, they told me their personal stories and every line in Running Man was a part of one of those stories.

One night at the height of the refugee migration across Europe I saw the Hungarian foreign minister say we will build a fence and send them back and that became a line in the middle eight part of the song. The rest of the song came very quickly.’

Alan’s song has received radio airplay in Sweden and he has been interviewed on several radio stations across northern Sweden.

‘Songwriting came to me late, but I’ve really enjoyed it. I think the early protest singer songwriters of the 60s and 70s especially Dylan, Roy Harper, Tom Paxton, Loundon Wainright along with the amazing Leonard Cohen have influenced the way I write.’

‘There’s a rich pallet of subject matter in the world right now so plenty to go at. I have several songs on Spotify now and a whole load lined up ready to be recorded including an EP of four songs of nostalgia about my home town.’

Songs recorded in Studio 306, Ostersund, Sweden. Produced & engineered by Johan Arveli & Anders Lagroix Kronlund. Available to download on all music platforms.

Tracks include Jamtland County, Monster in the Water, War is Cancelled Today, Darfur Wind, Into the light and Lady Liberty.

Alikivi     March 2026