Ricky Wilson: "I was by far the most flamboyant violin player"
Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson remembers his school days – when he first learned the benefits of stealing the limelight...
"Our school used to put on a Bands' Night; if you had a band, you could play. I remember getting a taste for it then, and it’s been the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do since.
It wasn't just Bands' Night at our school. I remember there was a choir competition: I was the conductor and won the Conductor’s Trophy. I was the only one who couldn’t read music, so I concentrated more on my trousers and the flamboyance of my arm movements, which won it for me.
I learned the violin in the same way. There were four of us, but I was by far the worst. There was a Christmas competition and someone put washing-up liquid on my bow so that it wouldn’t make a noise when it scraped across the strings. Again, although I wasn’t playing I was by far the most flamboyant player. So of course I was supposed to be a frontman.
Unfortunately I never really had a talent for playing musical instruments. I think I liked the idea of being the guy at the front wearing the sunglasses more.
But then you need to surround yourself with people
who are really good at the other things. So you scour the playground for a
rumour about someone who could play guitar or someone from another school that
could play drums, and then friendships are forged in garages, in spare rooms
and in attics. Friendships that you don’t realise are going to last for 10, 15,
20 years – the rest of your life really."
The Don't Stop The Music Instrument Amnesty launches on Monday 8th September and runs until Friday 17th October 2014.
