ABOUT IAN GRIFFIN

Britain's award winning keyboard player

In the late 1990s Ian appeared on HTV's 'Friday Night Live' with his band Casual Affair.   Ian was the musical director and was involved in all the auditions with the producer, playing keyboards for the contestants for what was the first X Factor type of show ever to appear on television.   The only difference to the latest version was that just the studio celebrity judges decided the results.   One of the judges was Hughie Green (right) who earlier had his own show called Opportunity Knocks.

During the live show Ian played his keyboards while wearing headphones to receive cues from the programme's director - rather like Harry Stoneham in the Terry Wogan show.

The series ran for several weeks to reveal the talent of Welsh vocalists.

Ian is regarded as one of the best musical accompanists in show business with the natural gift of perfect pitch, which is something that many musicians' would crave for.

In the world of organs and keyboards, Ian presents his own one-man shows with the second half based on requests from the audience.  He has made several CD's for middle of the road music lovers.

Going back to his younger days, Ian appeared live on BBC 1 TV Crackerjack Young Entertainers at the age of 12 and was voted back a second time by the studio audience.

Six years later the readers of Keyboards & Music Player magazine voted Ian as the best player under the age of 18.

The magazine produced a 'Spring in Spain Keyboard Festival' and Ian appeared on Spanish television.

In the years that followed Ian produced Keyboard Music Festivals for Pontin's and Martyn Leisure Holidays, including Andy Oakley as compare and presenter.   Now Ian loves doing stage shows with Andy Oakley at venues throughout the UK.   Andy never fails to make Ian laugh along with the audience making every show a tonic. It is a case of 'wysiwyg' - what you see is what you get - a live music show that is refreshing and so contrasting to anything else in show business, with live music making all the difference.

All the emotions are there

In his solo appearances Ian goes through all the emotions and in one number explains to the audience the title of a tune which is based on a little blind girl who asks her daddy 'What Colour Is The Wind'.  Here's the answer in music:

TRAILER - one of Ian's CD albums: