GuitarMan at gigs

"Entertaining people is my hobby and passion,” says UK based Information Technology (IT) consultant Narius Patel who regularly sings and plays the guitar in local pubs and has even been invited on local radio stations like Milton Keynes FM, 50 miles north of London, where he resides. On Milton Keynes FM he performed Word Up live on the invitation of the disc jockey who had heard him play that song at a pub. His website MKGuitarMan.com indicated that in July 2014 he had already been booked for four performances at the Clocktower pub, Emerson Valley, George Inn and The Crown pub.

Narius Patel: "create a positive perception of the arts"

"I have been playing the guitar and singing for 32 years,” says Narius whose love for rock music drew him to the guitar when a teenager. "I first got up on a stage to sing and play in 1986. In the 80s I taught myself to play on a diet of rock and heavy metal. In the 90s I was lucky enough to floor spot for some of the biggest names in acoustic guitar, including John Renbourn, Bert Jansch and Davey Graham. One of my big influences at that time was the great and relatively unknown guitarist/singer/songwriter Isaac Guillory whose songs I strive to reproduce and to keep alive to this day,” mentions Patel on his website. In his email responses to Parsiana he writes, "I also love listening to Spanish Flamenco and Brazilian music. My favorite songwriters include Guillory, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Billy Joel, Elton John” among many others.
An IT consultant specializing in data warehousing, 47-year-old Patel says he has not received any formal training in music, having taught himself mainly "by ear and from books. I’m always learning.” As a youngster growing up in a Parsi community, he observed "the measure of life success is equated to academic success…because the rewards of academic success more easily translate into financial success.
"While the community acknowledges and enjoys the arts, there is little appreciation that in order to produce successful artistes you need to encourage the arts… How many Parsis encourage their children to learn an instrument? Many do I am sure. Now how many Parsis would be happy for their child to be a full-time professional musician? A few but not as many… though you are thinking of a musician in the classical sense no doubt. Now how many Parsis would be happy for their child to be in a rock band or a pop band struggling to make a name for itself? I think we have lost most of the community at this stage.”
Convinced that to increase the contribution of Parsis to classical and modern arts "we need to encourage participation from an early age and also create a more positive perception of the arts,” Patel refers to the role arts can play for the progress of a community. "The arts should not take a backseat to academic success,” he reiterates. "Our recent history as a community is based around our disproportionately large contribution to both business and politics but we are lesser known for our contribution to the arts other than a few well-known names like Zubin Mehta, Farokh Bulsara (better known as Freddy Mercury, the lead singer of the band Queen).”
After spending eight years in New Zealand, Patel returned with his wife Carrie and three children Yasmina, Sam and Zaine to the UK in 2012 "to be closer to the family,” parents Tehmi and Noshir Patel who, he acknowledges, have "always been supportive” of his passion for music "as they know it is not the main means of income!”