1. Ed Alleyne-Johnson was born on 1959 and is a British electric violinist and busker.
23 Facts About Ed Alleyne-Johnson
1. 2.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson has been busking since he was a Fine Art student at Oxford University in the early 1980s.
3.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson uses an electric violin he carved with a kitchen knife, a custom pedalboard and portable amplifier.
4.
At the age of five, Ed Alleyne-Johnson's father made him a wooden model of John Lennon's guitar to play.
5.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson learned to play violin at school and joined the Liverpool Schools Symphony Orchestra.
6.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson built his own electric violin at the age of 13 which was made of plywood and pine.
7.
At 16 Ed Alleyne-Johnson's father bought him a bass guitar to enable him to join a school rock band.
8.
On leaving school Ed Alleyne-Johnson was offered a place at Pembroke College, Oxford where he studied fine art.
9.
Whilst at university Ed Alleyne-Johnson started busking and hitchhiked around Europe with friends.
10.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson's guitar was too heavy so he took his grandfather's violin, which he had sprayed purple.
11.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson played the violin on the streets using an amplifier and digital delay equipment.
12.
In 1989 Ed Alleyne-Johnson was invited by a member of the band, New Model Army, to play violin as a session musician on Vagabonds, which was to be a track being recorded for their forthcoming Thunder and Consolation album.
13.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson partially improvised on this track and played violin on two others.
14.
Vagabonds was released as a single in the UK and Ed Alleyne-Johnson was invited to join the band and tour with them, playing violin and keyboards.
15.
At this point Ed Alleyne-Johnson decided to record the Purple Electric Violin Concerto.
16.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson left New Model Army after the recording of their 1993 album, The Love of Hopeless Causes.
17.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson recorded Purple Electric Violin Concerto in 1992, recording all the tracks live with no overdubs or re-mixing.
18.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson promoted the album through a busking tour of UK record shops.
19.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson has released two further albums with his wife Denyze on their own Wingspan Records label.
20.
In July 2008, Ed Alleyne-Johnson performed the Beatles tracks 'Yesterday' and "Eleanor Rigby" in front of 7,000 people at Liverpool's Echo Arena for a Beatles Day charity gig.
21.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson has converted a Roland guitar synth module to work with his 5-string midi violin, and plays violin synth on many of the tracks alongside his more usual style.
22.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson has busked in nearly every major city in Europe and across America.
23.
Ed Alleyne-Johnson sang on two of his albums, Fly Before Dawn and 2020 Vision.