Even though there is new music coming out at a rapid pace many still yearn for the old-school sound of classic rock. There are a few artists who have kept that sound alive. PG Naylor who resides in the land down under of Australia, has done just that. PG whose beginning in the music scene was doing surfing instrumentals graduated to cranking out covers by Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and others. He would record two originals for the leading record label at the time Festival Records, but they unfortunately were not released.
“As the demographic for our gigs is largely from the same era as the band we go over very well – people love hearing the songs they listened to as teenagers! But surprisingly we get a great reaction from younger audiences too who seem to enjoy the beat of the 60s! And my songs seem to be able to cross over well from 60s audiences to much younger age groups so that, to me, is very satisfying.”
PG was influenced by such artists like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly but more so by the Beatles and the Kinks. He played with a band called The Quiet Ones which was formed in Hornsby, Sydney in 1964. They performed at all sorts of venues like dances, surf clubs, rugby clubs etc. The band lasted till 1970 then they went their own way. It was not until 2007 that they decided to unite and perform to raise funds for charities. The most important charity they have worked most with is the Bo Children’s Hospital in Sierra Leone, Africa. It is a poor area that over the years the band managed to raise $50,000 to help them as well as other charities.
Their involvement originated with the bass player who was a member of the Rotary Club in Sydney and another member who was a doctor from Sierra Leone. The doctor is the one who founded the hospital. The Rotary Club decided to sponsor the hospital and the band took it from there. Eventually, PG would release his first EP entitled “60’s Refugee” which featured such notable tracks like, “Fly”, “60’s Refugee” and “Law ‘Bidin Man”.
During his continued musical journey two of his tracks “Sanctuary” and “Hollywood Road” became semi-finalists in songwriting competitions. The first one for the 2019 International Songwriting Competition, based in Nashville, USA and the other “Hollywood Road” for the 2020 Voyager International Songwriting Competition based in Melbourne, Australia.
“I was blown away. I always thought the songs were rather good but often what you think and what the critics think are on different planes. But to reach the semifinals in both competitions was confirmation for me that my writing was on the right track.
Currently, PG has a new single out entitled “Something for Nothing” which is beginning to gather attention. He received the inspiration for the track by someone in the studio mentioning about receiving subsidy payments from the government during Covid and how it was nice to get, “something for nothing”. From there the idea was born for the track.
Presently, for the remaining months of 2021 PG is working on five or six songs that he hopes develop into two or three good ones to record and release later in the year. If you are searching for that old style 60’s rock look into PG Naylor, you won’t be disappointed.
Website – http://www.pgnaylor.com/