Welcome to Zapp Royce's world.
Zapp's musical journey started with his first ever instrument being a euphonium, which he tried at
primary school whilst living in Wales, but after about three months gave it
up, that was really the only time he had any music lessons. His brother started to
have piano lessons, so he used his brothers piano tutorials, taught himself to play the piano.
The style was classical, which he found very restricting although he has been told that
a lot of classical musicians were very good at improvising.
He eventually bought a guitar, at the age of about 14 used to sit in his
bedroom, listening to Never Mind the Bollocks, by the Sex Pistols thinking that
they were the best thing since sliced bread, thrash his guitar knowing only
the bar chord & of course the chords to House of the Rising Sun, then he
and a few of his mates from school formed a band, called themselves the Migraines.
Their first real gig was in Lifton church hall (in Devon) with Josh Joshua McCrae's
band Inconvenience, there were fights going on in the back of the hall amongst
the local chavs.
Terry Hodge who was in the third band . Unfortunately, lost his brother as he made his way
home, he was hit by a lorry, for some reason he was walking on the left hand
side of the road even though there was a pavement on the right had side of the road.
A few years later Josh Joshua McCrae later got a job with Roger Taylor from Queen playing drums
for Rogers band The Cross, he is now the main engineer for Queen, has just
finished working on their latest album.
Josh introduced Roger to one of Zapp's best friends
Debbie Leng, who was also at the same school.
Queen were making a video
hired some model's one of which was Debbie, Josh introduced Debbie to Roger
they ended up having three children together.
Josh sold Zapp his old drum kit & a very ropey surfboard, which again Zapp only really messed about with,
but Zapp's collection of musical instruments was gradually growing, well the band
fell apart they all left school went their separate ways.
It wasn't until Zapp was 24 when he bought a saxophone, which was when Zapp got back
into music again but this time he decided to learn all his scales, so he spent roughly a
year practising around five hours a day, he would learn a song and then
play it to death in the London underground system, (get chased around by the cops)
normally a Charlie Parker tune or Take Five, make a few quid in the process.
Well after about a year two friends and Zapp formed a band called The
Big E, they went to South East Asia to record the album Mightier Than Mike, which
is available on itunes,The Big E on itunes
Mightier Than Mike on Amazon.co.uk & all the other good download sites.
The whole experience took around two years from start
to finish, they are currently talking to Hollywood about making a film about the story as the whole episode
warrants a film being about the whole adventure.
Anyhow eventually the band split up and the three
lads went their separate ways.
Living in Amsterdam, Zapp carried on playing and learning the saxophone he
lived mainly on busking, but did do a couple of theatre performances both of
which got write ups in the local press. Eventually he moved back to London.
Soon discovered that Norton, Stone had started working together again they
managed to get a twenty thousand pound deal with Virgin records although
it came to nothing. Soon after Norton set up Trinity Records / S.O.U.R. records
Sound of the Underground Records, started producing records like
Sour-cream volume one,
S.O.U.R NU SKOOL FLAVA with 1.(Elementz of NOIZE) 2.This Style (DJ Krust Relick) Shy FX. 3. Mid Town Method
(level ii) (DJ Trace) 4. Stick Up! (MC DET) 5. Mass Hysteria (Shapeshifter)
6. Hit The Deck (Elementz of Noize) 7. Let Me Be (L. Double mix) (Elizabeth
Troy) 8.The Way it Goes Down! (DJ Kane) 10. Funkindem Up! (Shy FX) 11 The Difference(Skyskraper)
T Power - the self evident truth of an intuitive mind Intellect 1. Circle 2.square.3
trapezium 4. octogon 5. triangle 6. indigo. 7.silver. 8 turquoise.9.amber
One of the most successful was ORIGINAL NUTTAH UK Apachi with Shy FX on SOUR 1994
Stone & Norton eventually went their separate ways, Stone set up Meltdown in
Brighton a Drum & Bass club which started of in the and then moved into The Beach.
He now runs Digital in Newcastle and Brighton.
During this time Zapp had been working in mainly sales jobs in London he worked for
Stirling Audio System and Syco systems a high end studio supplier where he
met Andy Gray Andy Grays Myspace profile
who did the music for Big Brother with Paul Oakenfold amongst other things.
Zapp introduced Andy to a good friend called Kirsten Price and he made a few
tracks with her which I believe were probably some of her first recordings
ZappRoyce on Soundclick
Have a listen to "Don't Get Left Behind" just for historical
reasons only.(she also did a track with Josh Joshua McCrae with her friend Joanna
called "Get out of London" (It's a great track by Josh) this is also on Soundclick which is a kind of
SOUND GALLERY for random songs which Zapp recorded or was somehow involved with - with various friends from the past.
Kirsten now has a record deal in America and is doing very well, unfortunately they have lost touch
or she just decides to ignore Zapp I'm not sure which but they were great friends & used to hang out in various venues
in Camden Town & Islington
Kirsten Price on Myspace
After Stirling Audio Systems & Syco Systems Zapp got a job for an American company distributing Audio equipment
& soon became the Managing Director.
Soon after resigning from the job, Zapp moved to West Sussex, after about a year or so joined
a band called Fat Lounge, they played Acid Jazz at local Venues in Brighton like the
Sussex Arts Club, The Freebutt, and Stars & Stripes, they only recorded three songs which are
available on itunes Fat Lounge on Itunes
Fat Lounge on
Amazon.oc.uk
While in Sussex Zapp also worked with Joseph Plant & recorded saxophone on Josephs song Teleporter.
So after roughly twenty years of meddling with music Zapp continues to record songs in his spare time.
In May 2007 Zapp was diagnosed with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma which is cancer of the Lymphatic system & spent four months on
intensive Chemo Therapy this happened two years after running his own property refurbishment business, he has now decided that is time to get
back into music again & is now starting up a new band & doing some djing.