ROB PEARCE

I was born in Leicester, but lived my formative years in the rural village of Stock in Essex. A happier childhood you could not have wished for. Myself and my brother, Ian were brought up in an environment of curiousity, learning, art and music. Imagination and creativity were greatly encouraged, our early love of music being initially classical, as both our parents enjoyed opera, this probably accounted for my appreciation of melody and drama, but on the first encounter with rock music, we found something new and exciting.
Further encouraged by our parents, we became musicians and formed a band together, The Chains. This was an adventurous covers band, playing songs of that period, everything from The Beach Boys to The Who! As I heard more of the rock music of that time, I found something I related to better.In common with a lot of musicians, earlier, I was greatly influenced by Buddy Holly and The Crickets, even now it still sounds as fresh as ever.Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochrane, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, were among many of my favourite artists of the time.
When The Beatles arrived on the scene, myself (I was playing and writing by this time) and many other composers and musicians realised that popular music could move away from traditional structures and that they could afford to experiment. This encouraged the birth of so called progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Genesis, The Nice etc. It was also at this time, that keyboards became significant. Up until this period, guitar had always been the main feature and, although common in jazz and big-bands, few people had used a keyboard in the context of rock music.
Although this 'classic-rock' style was my favourite, I did enjoy other forms of music. Little Feat were a band I enjoyed immensely, particularly when I was playing bass, and also the early Stevie Wonder albums Inner Visions etc. More recently, I have also enjoyed music from Clannad and Enya, but, and this may surprise you, Prodigy who I know have the same influences as me!
Some years later, I moved to Southend on Sea. There was a thriving music community in Southend, and I met more and more musicians, all professional and many were session players. I also found work in the music industry, first with amplifier manufacturer 'Trace Elliot' and later as a manager of' 'Monkey Business', a successful musical equipment retailer. By now I owned a keyboard set up (Korg and Moog synthesisers) and found this improved my composing considerably and only wished I had been able to start out on keyboards instead of guitar. Formal piano training in my younger days would have served me so much better, as my fingers would have developed correctly. Organ and synthesiser parts are fine, but my piano skills are certainly diminished by the lack of training in the formative years This pretty much concludes my music history, as the next period became the formation of 'Chalice' . Additional information can be found on the Chronicle page.
I have two further hobbies, firstly I have always had an interest in astronomy. Growing up in the country, where there were no street lights for miles, allowed a wonderful view of the night sky, all the constellations were known to me, and the milky way was a glowing silver band across the sky during the summer months. For those of you who have never seen this, I recommend a visit to a rural location to experience this natural wonder. The fascination, fed by watching the early Patrick Moore 'Sky at Night' programmes, never went away, and eventually led to purchasing a telescope and later building my own observatory. I specialised in making drawings of planet observations and astro-photography, taking photographs of galaxies, nebulae and the planets. I even wrote an article on this subject for a Patrick Moore book (The Modern Astronomer) and spent some time in the Middle - East as a consultant astronomer, being made a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS) in the process.
Finally - Indian Cuisine! In common with most musicians, I love it!  This led to cooking my own dishes, chopping ingredients, stir frying spices, accompanied by a cold beer on the work top - total joy. If any of you feel so inclined, I recommend the purchase of Pat Chapman's books. You won't go wrong. I might even get round to posting some info on this site.