Pete Mallinson (b1956)
BORN at Hill View, Grantham, Peter Mallinson was the son of Wilfred and Joyce had recently moved to Grantham where his father was the Mayor’s officer and caretaker at the Guildhall,
This proved to be a great playground for a young child, especially since there was a piano in the ballroom where Pete would spend hours plonking away tunelessly but the seeds were sown.
After hearing Bert Weedon, Pete had to have a guitar and on his 6th birthday, a second hand Rosetti acoustic (from Wallworks) came his way.
Pete went to the National School then on to Kings where he started to fool around with other musically-minded pupils but never had much patience for academic subjects.
On leaving, he took an apprenticeship at Aveling Barford in 1972 leaving after redundancy in 1981.
It was there that the Brick Wall Band originated in 1977 with Pete on bass, Bry Phillips on drums and Tony Cresswell on guitar. Gradually, people came and people went until the definitive line up – Chris Ireland, Ian Goddard, Martyn Foster, John Murray and Pete.
The band split around 1980 and Pete discovered folk. He was a regular floor singer at the Grantham Folk Club at the George Hotel for many years and forged a long standing alliance with Craig Scott where they frequently performed as a duo as well as playing various instruments with local ceilidh bands.
After Aveling Barford, Pete went through a number of different jobs before joining SKDC on grounds maintenance and since he`d always had an interest in making instruments, took night classes at the Newark school of violin making.
Around 1990, He transferred to Anglian Water until 2008 leaving on health grounds.
During 2005, Something Nasty In The Woodshed got together with the intention of playing a few festivals and once again, Pete was reunited with Craig……Three CDs later the band are still going strong. They went on to make five albums before retiring
After Anglian Water, Pete decided to work on musical instruments full time nd formed Albion Music Services (Almuse for short) and five years on, he has built a thriving little business creating custom-made mandolins and guitars for a worldwide clientele. He has since retiired
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