Diana Stone, a little bit about me.

[Diana Stone]

I am Transgender and came out around 1990, I now live full time and I married.In the last 20 years I have made a living from music.  I did a lot of other stuff before that. I am semi retired now. I have a very wide circle of friends mostly involved in music. I don't know many TG people though in my social circle.

I am  a performing composer and musician playing Piano Violin & Guitar, synths and other stuff. I was a founder member of Rock/Roots band Elephant Shelf and also the Delta Ladies. I composes in a variety of styles from pop to rock to Jazz and and classical music .I am  also expert in multi-media recording and music production.

Glass Cage is the name that My solo projects use.

I have been playing various instruments since I was about 15. I started on Harmonica, because it looked easy and it was cheap. I didn't get on that well with it though. I had always enjoyed the Piano but where I was living it was not possible for the family to have one frustratingly. We tried to get my Grandmas old piano, but sadly we lived in an upstairs flat and could not get it in. I made do with something called a reed organ, which was a bit like a harmonium with an electric blower. I did learn some basic things on it though. I also had a guitar which I made serious efforts with too. One instrument I had always really liked was the Violin and I started playing that too. It was very difficult to start with and I gave up for a year or so, but for some reason I thought I would have another go at it and started again.

Fast forward a few years and I had been messing about with second hand tape machines and making recordings by bouncing sound from one tape recorder to another. I had a fairly stable job and at that point the Mk1 Teac Portastudio first appeared. Well I had to have one. By this time I had started to build up an interesting collection of Instruments keyboards guitars and so forth. I had rarely played live though. I was a bit of a techie and when I discovered you could create something called an mp3 file and put it on your website, there was no holding me back. I have a lot of music on the web. Everything from completed tracks to demos. The material spans roughly from about 1995 till the present.It covers a lot of musical genres as I have always been diverse in my musical tastes. I am still exploring musically and trying to learn something new along the way. Time passed and having assumed that I would not be doing anything much live ever, in 2004 I was invited to join a band. I have carried on with my personal musical out pourings till now, but have also played around 2200 odd gigs as well. That's something I never thought would happen. Its funny how life takes you in different directions than you expect.

[Carolyn Marie]

Thank you for that fascinating intro, @Diana Stone.  I enjoyed reading about your musical exploits.  I learned a bit of accordion at age 10 but dropped it after a couple of years.  I didn't pick up another instrument until I retired, and then learned to play the banjo.  I hope you post more in our various forums.  You seem like a good writer.

 

HUGS

 

Carolyn Marie

[Colleen Henderson]

3 hours ago, Diana Stone said:

Fast forward a few years and I had been messing about with second hand tape machines and making recordings by bouncing sound from one tape recorder to another.

Welcome, Diana! That's how I started as well - experimenting with tape recorders from about age 15 (circa 1956) and discovering that covering the "erase" head enabled me to overdub sounds. I took up the ukulele first and then switched to guitar but never had the self-discipline to learn music. Later, I had a recorder with "sound-on-sound", and eventually I started playing around with two recorders and a mixer.

 

Unlike you, I didn't become an accomplished musician. At age 40, I had an opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream of working in radio. That allowed me access to sophisticated studio equipment, and I won many awards for my commercials. Meanwhile, the guitar languished until just over two years ago, when I took up digital editing to create my own .mp3 music as a hobby. Much to my surprise, those efforts developed a local fan base. I've even been asked to perform live, but I only record and am really not much of a player.

[Diana Stone]

I was very lucky. At the age of 16/17 I worked for a year at a venue which was also a cinema in London so I trained as a projectionist but also helped out when bands were playing there so I learnt a bit about live sound. I got to see some great performers really close up from the side of the stage. That really started my love affair with music 🎶  

[Colleen Henderson]

Diana, where in the UK do you reside? I've visited only once, spending a week in Wolverhampton with an old friend and taking a day trip to London. However, I'm a devotee of BBC's "Escape To The Country" and have learned quite a lot about the various areas' topography and history.

[Diana Stone]

I used to live in central London near the Thames until 2018 in a very small apartment, then I moved to Bedford which is about 50 miles north of London. I live on its western edge so I can walk into open countryside in about 5 minutes. 

[Diana Stone]

Autumn in the neighbourhood. 

[Colleen Henderson]

Since I first discovered "Escape To The Country", I've surely thought "I'd want to live there" at least a hundred times. Even now, I would not be able to settle upon one area. The Yorkshire Dales, East Anglia, the southwest peninsula, Wales, the Scottish Highlands...they all appeal to me.

 

Being a fan of the James Herriott books, my wife introduced me to the original "All Creatures Great And Small" TV series. Now, when I get a slight cold, I often tell her I have "stagnation o' lung".

[Diana Stone]

I was in Church in Sharnbrook with a Folk band I play in making a video last Sunday. Great fun but a very long day and rather cold in the church as we had to turn the heating off between takes as it was a bit noisy.

 

[Jani]

Well, that sounds like fun.  Despite the cold.  You look great!

[Astrid]

On 11/8/2022 at 3:53 PM, Colleen Henderson said:

Even now, I would not be able to settle upon one area. The Yorkshire Dales, East Anglia, the southwest peninsula, Wales, the Scottish Highlands...

 

Hehe.  I know, so many gorgeous locales, so little time.  But we've found our personal favorite, and have returned several times: Uig, on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.  At first glance, it's windswept with white sand beaches that are often barren, and it tends to be windy and cool.  But then it reveals its magic: a wonderful tidal estuary where you can take hours-long walks; hidden lakes; heather; the smell of peat fires; cozy cottages and celidhs (social gatherings of neighbors with Gaelic folk music stretching into the night).  We're hooked 🎶💃🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[Charlize]

I haven't been across the pond since 1964.  I remember freezing in the hotel as i didn't have enough coins to pay the heater.  I certainly wasn't as lovely as you are in a velvet gown.  Perhaps someday i'll make it back , but i'm blessed now to live in the country farming sheep.

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

[Colleen Henderson]

2 hours ago, Astrid said:

At first glance, it's windswept with white sand beaches that are often barren, and it tends to be windy and cool.  But then it reveals its magic: a wonderful tidal estuary where you can take hours-long walks; hidden lakes; heather; the smell of peat fires; cozy cottages and celidhs (social gatherings of neighbors with Gaelic folk music stretching into the night). 

That sounds lovely. Scotland is a sort of ancestral home for me. My maternal grandparents emigrated from Paisley in Renfrewshire.