Guitarist
Beggars Opera at the Great British Rock Meeting at Speyer 1971. Ricky Gardiner – guitar, Virginia Scott – Mellotron 400, Martin Griffiths -vox and Ray Wilson drums. Not visible are Alan Park- organ and Gordon Sellar – bass. The is a very rare and atmospheric shot taken at dusk by Marcel Huckel. It was truly a memorable day.
Welcome to a rough guide to Beggars Opera the 9th and final line-up (see below) and the creative process involved in the production of the 10 Beggars Opera Progressive Rock albums, released by RGS (Ricky Gardiner Songs )
In 1996, Ricky Gardiner fell ill with SHINGLES and then developed an extremely rare condition known as Electrical Sensitivity. As a result he was unable to do live performance or work on any of the extended symphonic guitar pieces he was creating at the time. His studio had to be totally remapped and was in fact spilt in two working units. One for Ricky and one for Virginia.
Song structures, back tracks and lyrics were created by Virginia Scott and then she recorded vocals and keyboards in her studio . These tracks were then imported into Ricky’s studio and guitars were added. Tom Gardiner drummer sent tracks remotely from his pod and then Ricky produced a mix.
Since Ricky passed away in 2022 it has been very difficult to listen to these tracks, but now we are enjoying Ricky’s incredibly melodically beautiful guitar playing again.
Beggars Opera line-ups from 1970- 2022
1/ Ricky Gardiner, Alan Park, Martin Griffiths, Marshall Erskine & Ray Wilson
2/ Ricky Gardiner, Alan Park, Martin Griffiths, Gordon Sellar, Virginia Scott & Ray Wilson
3/ Ricky Gardiner, Alan Park, Pete Scott, Gordon Sellar & Ray Wilson
4/ Ricky Gardiner, Alan Park, Linnie Patterson, Gordon Sellar & Ray Wilson
5/ Ricky Gardiner, Alan Park, Linnie Patterson, Gordon Sellar & Colin Fairley
6/ Ricky Gardiner, Virginia Scott, Pete Scott & Mike Travis
7/ Ricky Gardiner, Virginia Scott, Pete Scott & Clem Cattini
8/ Alan Park, Gordon Sellar, Linnie Paterson, John Hollywood & Colin Pattenden
9/ Ricky Gardiner, Virginia Scott & Tom Gardiner
Another of Ricky Gardiner’s multi layered melodic guitar compositions from the Beggars Opera’s Get Your Dog off Me Vertigo
There’s an interesting story attached to this track. After Beggars Opera disbanded Ricky Gardiner was a producer for British Lion Music, which was part of the famed British Lion Films, who were at that time working on The Wicker Man starring Christopher Lee. Requiem was scheduled to be include in footage of a graveside scene, but never made it into the film. How spooky is that ! It was very atmospheric watching this take in British Lion’s plush viewing room in Soho at the time !
Beat Club Bremen youtube has uploaded the 1971 Beggars Opera sessions of their legendary track Time Machine
Ricky Gardiner/ guitar, Alan Park / Hammond organ, Virginia Scott/ Mellotron, Martin Griffiths / Vocals, Gordon Sellar/ Bass and Raymond Wilson/ drums, a glorious vintage performance !
Visit Beggars Opera website for more !
Singer Pete Scott joined Beggars Opera in 1973 He was a classically trained and sang blues, having previously been with Savoy Brown on a tour of USA. He has an amazing improvisational ability. This is a rare image of the band at the time, taken at the Legendary Marquee club in London of l/ r Ricky Gardiner, Pete Scott, Raymond Wilson and Gordon Sellar. Pete Scott was to return to Beggars Opera in 1975 and sang on Beggars Opera releases Sagittary and Beggars Can’t be Choosers for Jupiter Records Germany.
Thanks to Russel Leadbetter for his write up in the Herald recently about Beggars Opera in 70’s Glasgow.
“BACK in the November of 1969, the discerning music fan in Glasgow had lots of intriguing concerts to choose from.
David Bowie, Deep Purple, and Fat Mattress – the latter featuring Noel Redding, former bassist with the Jimi Hendrix Experience – all played the Electric Garden on Sauchiehall Street. Such shows were billed as ‘Electric Garden goes Underground every Monday night’.
Jon Hiseman’s Colosseum were at the Maryland Club, in Scott Street, across the road from the Glasgow School of Art. And, down at Burns Howff on West Regent Street, a progressive rock band called Beggars Opera was about to start a residency.
The quintet took over the slot from the popular rock band Stone the Crows (who themselves included Maggie Bell, Jimmy Dewar, and Les Harvey), and were an immediate success. At one point in 1970, a city newspaper reported that there was an hour-long queue outside the venue on a Saturday morning, prior to a Beggars Opera appearance.”
For the full article click on this link: BACK in the November of 1969, the discerning music fan in Glasgow had lots of intriguing concerts to choose from.
For full article:
A rare photograph of Beggars Opera from 1972 which was first uploaded on Beggars Opera 1969/1972 Facebook group by Martin Griffiths, from one of the last Beggars Opera tours of Germany.
Martin Griffiths and Ricky Gardiner
Ricky Gardiner 1948/2022
It is with deep sadness that we annouce the passing of Ricky Gardiner Guitarist Songwriter/ Composer.
Ricky passed away in his sleep ealry in the morning of Friday the 13th of May. He had been suffering from Parkinson PSP for the last 12 years of his life.
We thank you for privacy at this time and welcome donations to https://pspassociation.org.uk to help to raise awareness of this rare condition.
Love and Light
Virginia and all the Gardiner family
Listen to Ricky’s last work ‘Songs For The Electric’ here: https://www.beggarsopera.co.uk
