ERC'S NEW JINGLE WRITTEN BY FORMER STUDENT

Jack Parker studied for his HND in Music at East Riding College’s St James Centre in Hull before transferring to Hull University to complete his studies and get a degree in just 1 year. Now he’s a full-time musician and the composer of ERC’s latest radio jingle! Opportunity does seem to be knocking for the very-talented Jack Parker! A former member of The Westwood Sessions, where he honed his skills, playing at Beverley Folk Festival and Festival of Christmas amongst others, this year he played the prestigious Cambridge Folk Festival as well as Beverley Fringe and has become a bit of a fixture at Costa del Folk in Portugal. He’s released one EP, ‘Wild’, to critical acclaim and has a new band who will debut at Kardomah94 on December 8th. But the opportunity to write the jingle came completely out of the blue. Jack said: “I got a call from Howard Young at the award-winning Engine7 Audio Production Studio in Willerby who said ERC were looking for a jingle. I sent off a few demos, which I recorded in my own home studio, went for a meeting with East Riding College - ERC - who chose the one they liked and gave me the final spec and that, apart from Howard adding the voice-over, was it! 

“Now it’s being played on radio stations all over the place! I’ve not done anything commercial before, but this has opened my eyes to a whole new world!”

Jack honed his recording skills in the small recording studio at ERC. He has nothing but praise for his tutors there, Adam Dowd and Martin Jones who were “amazing - they know so much about music, the local music scene and about singing. After I’d finished my HND, they encouraged me to go to Hull University to expand my musical horizons there - which I did.

“Walking in on the first day straight into the third year and a group of people who knew each other really well was daunting, especially when faced with a row of Macs when I had grown up with PCs and a recording studio which used Pro Tools when I was used to Cubase. And their mixing desk is twice the size of the one in Abbey Road Studios! But I learnt to work with musicians I’d only just met and got the chance to study world music with indigenous instruments. I was very chuffed when I came out with a 2:1.”

As well as gigging and writing, Jack is also doing some teaching. He has private pupils within a 20- mile radius of his home in Bridlington and is also helping out at his old school, Bridlington School. But being able to promote the college which gave him such ‘massive grounding’ in skills and confidence makes Jack very happy. You can follow Jack on www.jack-parker.co.uk, Facebook: @JackParkerOfficial and Twitter: @jackparker

East Riding College has an open day coming up on Thursday 8th November from 4pm - 7pm. Why not pop along to find out more! www.eastridingcollege.ac.uk/visit