Simon Mayor - Career

Career

Mayor cites fiddler and mandolinist Dave Swarbrick as a teenage musical influence, after being taught to sing in Tonic sol-fa by his father when very young. With his solo debut The Mandolin Album in 1990 he embarked on a series of recordings with the stated aim of giving the mandolin a uniquely British voice. The CD was made Recording of the Week on BBC Radio 2. His mix of original and traditional material alongside classical pieces has been noted by BBC World Service (Recording of the Week), Q, Cosmopolitan, Living Tradition (Scotland) and Sing Out! (USA).

In May 2000 he entered the UK's Classical Artist Top Ten with Mandolin Moods, a 'best of' release of his own compositions and classical works on Universal Records.

His touring schedule has included the Rudolstadt International Folk Festival, Shetland Folk Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival, The Stephen Leacock Humour Festival (Canada), Cheltenham Literature Festival (England), Edinburgh Fringe (Scotland), The Classical Mandolin Society of America and others.

He leads Britain's first modern mandolin quartet, the Mandolinquents. The quartet emerged from a 1997 line up, The Mandolin All-stars with multi-instrumentalists Maartin Allcock and Chris Leslie of Fairport Convention, and longtime musical partner, Hilary James. The Mandolinquents now includes the classical guitarist Gerald Garcia, multi-instrumentalist Richard Collins and Hilary James on mandobass and vocals.

He played swing fiddle on the album for the show Five Guys Named Moe, and plays fiddle with his occasional trio Slim Panatella & the Mellow Virginians.

Simon Mayor and Hilary James have also written satirical and topical songs for BBC news programmes including Newsnight. An admirer of fellow Yorkshireman the late Jake Thackray, Mayor occasionally performs a special programme of Thackray's songs.