About Martin
Martin discovered his musical abilities at an early age during piano lessons with his Cub Scout Leader whilst living in Harwich, Essex. At the age of 12, Martin and his family moved to Desborough, Northamptonshire and owing to the lack of piano tuition in the area, he soon lost interest in the instrument. However, he maintained a keen interest in music through listening to his parents' old LPs, which consisted mainly of 50's & 60's Rock 'N' Roll compilations, plus The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Eagles and The Shadows.

Among the old LPs was a record that changed everything - The Shadows Silver Album. Martin recalls, "There was something about the twangy sound of the guitars that instantly attracted me". Inside the LP cover was a large picture of a beautiful Fender Stratocaster electric guitar and from that day forward Martin's dream was to own one. Knowing he'd never be able to save enough pocket money he instead dusted off a cheap acoustic guitar that was given to him by a family friend back in Essex, tied a piece of string around it as a strap and pretended to play it while listening to the distinctive sounds of The Shadows.

Around this time, Martin's mum had met singer/guitarist Trevor Lunnon at the local club and after hearing of Martin's interest in the guitar, he offered to tune it up and show him a few chords. Martin was invited along to Trevor's band practise and was introduced to the other guitarist, Steve Richards:

"I walked into the room and Steve was playing 'House of The Rising Sun' on his electric guitar. I remember it to this day because it had such an impact on me - I just had to find out what he was doing."

For Martin's 12th birthday, he received a new acoustic guitar, so Trevor & Steve volunteered to help him play it. Once a week Martin went to Steve Richard's house with Trevor to learn their set list. The songs were a mixture of Country and Rock 'N' Roll, which suited Martin's musical taste at that time:

"Every evening after school I used to go up into my bedroom to play the guitar. I played for hours on end to improve my technique. Whether it was a change of chord shape, playing in time, getting faster, learning a lick, it was a very long process, but all I wanted to do was recreate the sounds I heard on my LPs. I had no computer or internet at the time, so it was just a case of playing the record over and over until I eventually got it. I didn't need motivating at all because I wouldn't sleep until it sounded right."

After a year of solid practice and learning the basics, Martin borrowed an electric guitar from Steve, which opened up a whole new world of possibilities:

"The long-term loan of Steve's electric guitar changed a lot for me because I could bend the strings, something that was near impossible on the guitar I used previously. So it presented more challenges and even more techniques to practice! The guitar was a copy of a Fender Stratocaster, which looked like the one inside the Shadows' LP, so I was in my element. I finally had the tools for the job".

Now he had the right guitar, Martin began working out songs by The Shadows, a very slow process indeed - replaying records constantly and working out the right notes on the fretboard. It seemed an endless task, but Martin eventually worked out and memorised all of the Shadows' greatest hits by ear.

At the age of 14, two years after beginning to play, Martin joined Trevor & Steve to play at his Mum's 40th birthday party. This would be Martin's first public performance and a huge obstacle to overcome for a shy teenage boy.

With this first performance over and with much positive feedback, Martin found the confidence to continue playing live, so joined Trevor and Steve to form local trio 'Sidewinder'. He gained much valuable experience with them through playing live on the Northamptonshire & Leicestershire club circuits. At 17 Martin then joined a local original band 'Rickandan' and covers band 'Big Deal'. After 3 years playing with these bands and a spell as bass player for Status Quo tribute 'State The Quo', Martin's tastes increasingly changed in the direction of guitarists such as Brian May, Gary Moore, Mark Knopfler, Santana, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Hendrix, so he then developed a 3-hour solo act to play exactly the styles he wanted to.

In March 2003 Martin taught himself the Grade 5 'Rockschool' guitar syllabus and passed with a distinction. Later that year, he was accepted into The Guitar Institute and relocated to London to attend their diploma course in Popular Music Performance:

"Before studying at The Guitar Institute I knew which notes sounded good together but I didn't fully appreciate scales, arpeggios or intricate chords - I had been completely reliant on using my ears. Nevertheless I don't for a moment regret any of the painstaking apprenticeship I went through in the earlier years. The Institute gave me a thorough understanding of music by also teaching me much about the many and various styles and techniques.

Martin graduated from The Guitar Institute in 2004 with a distinction and earned the Institute's title "Top Guitar Performer 2004" then moved back to Northamptonshire to form Martin Tomkins Guitar Tuition, offering quality guitar tuition to other aspiring guitarists from his own premises in Desborough.

In 2005 Martin entered 'Riffathon Live', a performance competition where he made it through to the final and then won 1st prize after performing Led Zeppelin's classic 'Rock And Roll' before judges Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Brian May (Queen) and Dan Hawkins (The Darkness).

Jimmy Page presented Martin with his prize, a 1957 Reissue Gibson Les Paul saying, "Without a doubt, this guy came in and he actually played it better than I could have done".