Andrew Giddings

Andrew 'Andy' Giddings (born July 10, 1963 in Pembury, Kent) is an English keyboardist and was a member of Jethro Tull from 1991 to 2007.

Early life

Andrew had two rabbits when he was four years old. He says that he never noticed them very much until the day they died. A day after the rabbits died Andrew was walking by a piano in his dining room when he reached up and pressed down two of the keys. He noticed that playing the two notes together produced a sad sound. To help him feel better about the rabbits, his mother signed him up for piano lessons.

Musical career

At first Giddings hated the piano lessons but within two or three years of lessons he was beginning to give public performances. His first ever musical performance in a group was with two of his schoolmates playing on a borrowed drum kit and something that resembled a guitar. At the age of fifteen he joined a local group called "Diamond T" led by Del Bates. This gave Andy his first taste of being paid for playing music.It also enabled him to develop his keyboard skills,while playing in a working "dance Music" band . By the time he graduated from school Andy found himself a nine to five job at a music store.

A couple of years later he found himself involved with a band called Black Cat which he described as being terrible. The band found itself involved with musical acts of the day such as Mike Berry, Tommy Bruce and Jet Harris. He found mild success in England as a session musician and then embarked on a tour with Eric Burdon. Giddings remained part of Burdon's band for approx 5 years before more extensive touring, recording and television appearances with other artists.

He auditioned for a British pop outfit called "The Cutting Crew" and became the group's fifth member for about 36 hours before being replaced by someone with much better equipment.

Jethro Tull

Andrew Giddings joined Jethro Tull in 1991, succeeding Martin Allcock. He plays on the albums, "Catfish Rising", "Roots to Branches", "Jethro Tull In Concert", "J-Tull Dot Com", "Living with the Past", "The Jethro Tull Christmas Album" and "Aqualung Live".He no longer plays in the band and was replaced by John O'Hara. He was the longest serving keyboardist for the group ever.

Post-Tull

Andrew Giddings currently writes and records music under the alias FFANDANGO.

External links

* [http://www.myspace.com/andrewgiddingsmusic Giddings's Myspace page]
* [http://www.jethrotull.com Jethro Tull official website]