Name

Stan Matthew Tunstall-Otterburn

The early years

The author of this site, Stan Tunstall-Otterburn, admits to have been born in Sunderland some time in the past and considers himself a tribute to the embalmer's skills. He fondly remembers the days when the forerunners of surround-sound, digital entertainment systems were called gramophones, the only food processor his mother ever needed was a table fork and Technical & Information Distribution Administrators were called Librarians!

Stan has been tapping his feet, hands and any other loose appendages to the musical beat since he was five years old. He studied music to A-level, when the exams actually meant something, and today is a man of letters – several of which still need replies.

The Musical Beginnings

Stan started playing the piano at the age of five and despite the efforts of his parents to encourage a career in bomb disposal to lessen the noise, he likes the sounds he makes and may yet progress to using more than one finger of each hand.

At the age of 11, an overly keen music teacher introduced him to the viola which he played as though the strings were still inside the cat. A year later, and thanks to the encouragement of a new teacher, he secured a place in the school brass band which led him to the Sunderland International Concert Band playing the Flugelhorn.

The SICB was granted special permission to join the Northern Brass Band League, despite most of the players being around 14 at the time. Within their first 18 months of active competitions they had played their way to the second section. There followed tours of Norway, Holland, Germany, Austria, America and Canada before many of the players had left school.

School Band 1967 (left) and The Sunderland International Concert Band prior to their 1968 US Tour

Evolution continued and as the inevitable "Guitar Stage" was reached the next six months were spent learning over 200 chords. This was due to the fact that pocket money was being spent heavily on women and beer and no allowance had been made to purchase a capo!

The Life Opera goes on...

Starting with the folk revival of the sixties and continuing to the present day Stan, who is an habitual whistler, started jotting down snippets of tunes and songs. Some of these were tried out around local folk clubs or as possibilities during practice sessions but many were filed away simply because they didn't sound right at the time or they were proving difficult to complete.

The Later Years

Life progressed, and by the time the male menopause was reached, Stan was now living in Durham, and had joined a group of local Morris dancers. This meant another learning frenzy of steps and sticking moves with help from the then squire Ron Straughan. Stan didn't know it at the time until a member of the public told him how lucky he was to be taught by the man who had modestly admitted to being ranked 3rd in the country.

This, together with many hours of battle with an accordion and of course the addition of other obligatory folk instruments; tambourines, sleigh bells, siren whistle, knackers (short lengths of ox ribs to the easily embarrassed, but the correct name nevertheless!) meant that eventually Stan's travel bag could double as a tent on weekend trips. His ability to form an affinity with the watching crowds and an uncanny knack of extracting money from them for various charities also meant that he was the likely candidate for the Fool!

A qualification he has proved worthy of since he has just taken possession of a bodhran and spent some time in putting on what he prefers to call a true celtic design... 

Left :Raising funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care. The Fool must be congenial to all - otherwise how else do you get money?

Centre :The Raving Loony "Rock and Roll" Party candidate for Sedgefield tries to out-weird Stan. (He lost twice that day!)

Right :Attracting the crowds. Musicians from Palatine Ladies, Durham Rams, Durham Duffers (guesting for Rams) and Otterbourne.

A few years ago Stan was forced to take a sabbatical due to leg and ankle problems. Although his doctors suspected the problem was initially caused by hours of pounding up and down on everything from tarmac to cobbled market places,  it meant  a long period of resting up joints.  It did prove helpful in a way and allowed him to resurrect years of scribbling's, tidy up ideas and compose several new tunes. The need to be out and at 'em however became too much of a temptation.

In order to ease back into the routine he was given an opportunity most men would kill for.. be an animal with a group of ladies!

This was with the Lasses and Lads of Tyne Bridge Morris (left) and your man (right), sweating under 8 square metres of heavy material as their animal, a true eye-catcher as a 2.4m high dragon.   The sun was blazing on that particular day at Whitby Folk Festival and Stan lost about 6Kg in weight.  It was a sad occasion to leave this really friendly bunch as the ankle trouble returned.

Once again temptation threw him another offer he couldn't refuse.  Honorary Fool with a University side squired by  his friend Matthew Keegan-Phipps.  "No strain", he said... "you've just got to keep the crowds amused and collect for charity..."   Just like a fool, Stan actually believed him.   By the time Mayday came around the following year, he was once again in the fray after dragging himself out of bed at 4am to satisfy the curiosity of a local TV news crew.

04:30 on a May Day morning and over 150 people are waiting for the appearance of the Duffers, including a TV crew and reporter.

Now the hard bit. Staying alert so as not to hit any heads.

Extra support from University musicians. There's a TV crew there - Hello Mum!

Stan shares a toast to the sunrise with the reporter - just seconds before the side grabbed her and ran off to the river for the "Ceremonial Dip".

By this time some of the students were also performing for the Otterbourne side (which was  also becoming known as the Lancre Morris Men) but the old trouble re-appeared and Stan decided to disband the side for a while to rest up.  At the end of the term, the members did their last performance.  One year led to two and now Stan is on the recruiting road again and looking for new members.  If you want to take up colours and give it a go, drop us a line from the contact page.

What has happened in the meantime is that Stan has put many of his tunes onto CD.  This brought about the formation of the Pixelators, a virtual folk band.  A really good sound card is a must and then the players can take on life.  Hours of sampling actual instruments and converting them for use on the PC meant, that to the casual listener, they were hearing a real band.  Unfortunately Stan took the joke too far and several people still ask how the members are doing.  See the CD section for samples and ask yourself could a bucket of water sound like crashing waves.   Hmmm!

What about the future?  Stan's only wish is that the next few decades are as enjoyable as the last and that the transition between composing and decomposing go un-noticed.  Especially by him.