John T. Sinclair Dip.CAH PNLP

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JOHN SINCLAIR  {MUSICAL HISTORY}

John Sinclair has been a touring musician since the age of 15, perhaps most noticably having spent most of his last 17 years on the road as keyboard player for Ozzy Osbourne {from1986 to 2003}. 

Now aged 54, he started learning classical piano at the age of 5 and in his own words "should have some idea about what I'm doing by now!".

After making a solo album at the age of 19 with the now defunct Penny Farthing record label he went on to play with many bands including The Heavy Metal Kids on Mickey Most's RAK record label, Status Quo and Suzy Quatro and after being voted among the top 10 rock keyboard players in the UK, moved to Los Angeles in 1976 with a band called Lion.

Apart from recording the Lion album, he went on to undertake session work with Jefferson Starship, Eddy Money, Rex Smith, The Outlaws, and The Babies, and in 1980 recorded the pilot, movie soundtrack and played on The Black Album, for the now infamous Spinal Tap.

In 1981 he joined veteran heavy rock band Uriah Heep and as well 5 years of extensive world touring recorded 3 albums namely “Abominog”, “Head First” and “Equator”.

In 1986 he joined Ozzy’s band and toured and recorded with him until 2003 apart from a brief stint with the Cult in the early 90's, during which time he toured worldwide and appeared on their 1993 "Live at the Marquee" album.

His recording and co-writing credits with Ozzy include "No Rest for the Wicked"{1987}, "No More Tears"{1990} and the more recent Japanese "Live at the Budokan" CD/DVD {2002}.

He finally quit the road in July 2003 to settle in the Highlands and act a bit more like a man of 50!!

He has an old schoolhouse where he writes and records on a Pro Tools direct-to-disk system.

He also has an extensive back catalogue of material of all styles, and is currently working on the completion of two new stage musicals.

CURRENT WORK:

Having overcome his own personal demons of depression and compulsive drug/alcohol use, he is now a qualified hypnotherapist {having attained Diploma level in Clinical and Advanced Hypnotherapy}.
As he made tremendous gains himself as a recipient of hypnotic therapy it seemed a natural direction for him to take, and nowadays his time is spent equally divided between musical projects, drug and alcohol awareness and helping private clients with a variety of issues.
He works from his home, an old schoolhouse above the village of Foyers, on the scenic south side of Loch Ness.

Among his work projects have been:

Informal presentations to youngsters who are keen on entering the music business, in other words "the real story".

Promoting drug and alcohol awareness and harm reduction with BLAST! drug project in Inverness.

Promoting drug and alcohol awareness in Scottish schools.

Working for Moray Youth Justice with reoffending youngsters in the Elgin area {promoting motivation through music}, with a firm belief that encouragement is more effective than punishment.

Working with Careers Scotland as a regular member of the Rock School team.
{Rock School is a series of summer workshops, each designed to organise young musicians into bands, work through the rehearsal period, and finally stage a rock concert.}

As a meeting facilitator for SMART Recovery, which is a relatively new model of group therapy that is rapidly gaining popularity as an alternative option to the more traditional models of recovery from addictions, such as AA and other 12 step groups.

His own "Motivation  Through Music" workshops.

Recording projects at home where he has a Pro Tools studio, the mechanics of which he also teaches either at home or on location with a scaled down portable set up.

John can be contacted at:
sinclair212@btinternet.com

Life Skills Through Music

Since retiring from the professional rock music business in 2003, I have been working with the young clients of Moray Youth Justice, the Highland Carers, the Highland Homeless Trust, Inverness Youth Action Team, the Wild2 project in Glenlivet , the participants at the Careers Scotland Summer Rock School projects and have facilitated many of my own workshops. As such, I have seen first hand the transformation that takes place when young people are given an objective and are actively encouraged.

As a qualified therapist, I am naturally interested in the human condition, and particularly interested in what happens around the adolescent stage of development. This appears to be the time when our awareness of limitations, combined with external criticism and {perhaps most significantly} negative self talk kicks in hardest.

It is my experience that once established, for many this resulting low sense of self can be difficult to shake off once established. Encouragement and support can work though.
One of the most significant conclusions I have arrived at is the fact that everyone has something to offer in one way or another, it merely needs to be explored.
Most of us love music of one type or another, be it Celine Dion or Black Sabbath, so music is not only a universal language, but also a great motivational platform.

TO SUMMARISE {and to go one step further}, I have never known a compulsive drug or alcohol user with high self-esteem. It naturally follows that any process that enhances the feeling of having “something to offer” will surely reflect positively in reducing the ever-increasing reliance on drugs and alcohol {an effect I have personally witnessed}.

I am a firm believer that encouragement and support are more effective than prohibition and punishment. These “youngsters of today” did not land en masse in a flying saucer from an evil planet. They were born into an increasingly cold and indifferent world, thus being easily driven {and often resorting} to making irrational choices to establish some sense of self-worth. This is then aggravated {in my opinion} by flawed thinking in our society that spends too much time and money devising new ways to restrict and punish, and too little providing platforms for creativity and self expression. 

In a nutshell, I aim to provide a musical environment that enhances these essential life skills:

Motivation. Communication. Determination. Self-worth.

{John Sinclair Dip. CAH PNLP Cert. Hyp. {NGH} M. NCH {Lic.} {June 2008}

John can be contacted at: sinclair212@btinternet.com