Leo of Progplanet in Denmark kindly asked to interview me recently about both Caerllysi music and my own past. We spent three hours talking and downing a few beers in the process.

The interview has now ended up as more of a biography which I will hopefully add to as life moves on, it's clearly headed so you can skip bits you are not interested in.

Leo is one hell of a guy.

Will

Tell us about Will Mackie, would you please, Will?

THE EARLY DAYS
I have been in love with music since 1963 and The Beatles. When The Beatles came out I was overjoyed. At an early age I learned to play the piano, my music teacher wanted me to play Beethoven and other classical music, but I was hooked on The Beatles and other popular bands who could write songs with lovely melodies, thankful, that very kind lady agreed to let me play popular music at my lessons and I owe her so much. It was a great time to grow up, with more experimental bands appearing in the mid to late sixties such as Pink Floyd and Hendrix they started to create really interesting musical sounds.

FIRST BAND
At about 14 or 15 years old my gigs were played locally in the Cardiff area, I played in pubs and clubs with some pals, the band was called Bias 2, one member Neil Patterson, was a little older and had more experience playing in bands than the rest of us.

TARQUIN AND HEAVY ROCK
Straight after Bias 2 around 1972/73 came Tarquin, at the time we played Budgie, and Man ruled South Wales playing regular gigs as both the main act and supporting the likes of Trapeze, Stray and Supertramp. I played Hammond Organ, which was brand new, a rare thing in those days; my parents went into to debt to buy it for me.  I repaid them back the cost a little each month, at least I hope I did? They were so kind, if only you know then, when you are so young, you do not understand nor can you value the struggle others make for you. As we progressed we, went from playing covers of pop classics to a heavy rock set, which again were our own versions, and they were different being mainly Uriah Heep, Deep Purple and Focus material, but we were even heavier sounding when we played their music (at least in my distant distorted dreams we were !!!!) plus we played a composition of our own, including a track called Beethoven's Third Leg, which is a heavy Hammond chord piece in the tradition of ELP, it was a very fast piece and would be too hard for me to play now, the track was taking the mick out of classical music with its title, one day I will record it by playing it at half speed or even slower so Antony (Karfagen) can record it for me properly. 

TEENAGE LIFE AND JOHN SLOMAN
At 16/17 life as a teenager in the world we lived in then was so special, no pressure, just enjoying every day. I did, however, have to choose between my two passions playing football and music. I was actually a "half-tidy"  football player in Cardiff playing for the Schools and Youth set up but I often missed extra practice because of my music commitments. Around that time I was lucky enough to briefly meet John Sloman, who was a few years younger than me and a local Grangetown lad like myself who also loved Heavy Rock. John sang for us on one occasion when our vocalist was in hospital, I was so proud of him when he went on to be the lead singer for Lonestar and my then heroes Uriah Heep, playing the 10th anniversary tour with them, to see John sharing the same stage as my musical idol Ken Hensley was something very special and whilst the musical marriage did not last very long, and I know is not considered a success by most parties, nothing can take away the pride I felt for him fronting my favourite band of all time. I still think John has a special voice and his last album Dark Matter is proof that he is also one hell of a songwriter and storyteller.

THE WASTED REHEARSING YEARS
After Tarquin I spent a few years with a very talented guitarist and such a kind person, Kevin Hurford, where we continued on the heavy progressive rock theme of Tarquin. We rehearsed several times a week, at weekends we played for 5/6 hours at a time, at the beginning it was so exciting and, luckily, we had free use of a church hall. We even had a female vocalist for a short time. The name of the band kept changing, outside of Kevin and Dick, our drummer, we went through four bass players and a few different singers. We played what were rehearsal gigs in the hall for the church free of charge. The bassists all seemed to want to play rock and roll so eventually moved on, just as we were ready to let loose live to the outside world. This then became a really frustrating time. One of the bassists played for a while in Racing Cars, he borrowed a tape of early Tarquin supporting Supertramp to learn the bass lines of some of the songs. If he reads this and still has the tape I would love to hear it again. There's no reason why he should have kept it but the twilight zones out there so you never know?

MEETING JANE AND STARTING ADULT LIFE
During the Tarquin days I was lucky enough to meet Jane, the most important person in my life. We met at a concert we played on New Years Eve 1971/72. She also loves the music and supported me as I spent lots of my spare time and our money pursuing the music we loved. Luckily she took me for better and for worse and we bought a small terraced house in Llantrisant, I sold my group instruments and the money helped towards our deposit. Some two years later we then moved to Pencoed. I bought a new Bentley piano and continued to write music, though I was no longer playing in a group. Richard, Jane's younger brother, went everywhere with us during those days as we enjoyed lots of live concerts in Cardiff and Bristol seeing bands like Camel, Uriah Heep,  ELP, King Crimson, Greenslade, Argent and so on it was a golden era for music. The three of us would continue with our love of music and eventually decades later finally create Caerllysi Music.

STUCK IN THE SYSTEM
Then I had a long period of mild self-destruction. I felt kind of trapped in the system, I had made a wrong choice after leaving school by joining the Civil Service! I only applied for the job because it said in the advert must be able to work with the opposite sex !!!! So that's the job I wanted, and true to its description, the job was full of females. They were very kind to me but even at 16/17 years of age I felt a bit of a loner in this big machine called the Civil Service. I am, and always have been, an oddball of a person, I try and hide it by saying I have my own character. Only other people can tell you the truth of this !!!

CAERLLYSI
In 1986 we moved back to Cardiff and bought Caerllysi. It was a special house to us from day one. We had watched it being built. Jane used to play in the field that the house was built on as a child.
The name in Welsh means 'house on a hill-a fortress'.

 
DECISION TIME
By the late 1980's I was totally sick of the Civil Service and they were sick of me I think !!! Eventually I decided to move on. During this period I immersed myself in alcohol and developed another unhealthy interest in gambling and struggled to keep a grip on things. Luckily with some help from a force greater than myself I was allowed to come out the other side a better and happier person.  I will not bore you with the details as I am not into sharing something personally special and trying to preach to others, all I will say is it was a spiritual rather than a religious thing.  I was lucky I was looked after and allowed to be once again the free spirit I had been as a young person and so badly needed and wanted to be once again.

A NEW BEGINNING
With the help of Jane we set up our own family accountancy business in 1994 and over the years have been lucky enough to meet so many superb people who it has been and still is a privilege to work with. Richard as usual has been there in the background providing us with the technical brilliance he posses with computers to keep the show on the road and allow us to cope with the changes in technology. Jane's niece Helen also works with us and we try and work in a relaxed environment it does get stressful at times but every job does.

Having my own piano, I continued to compose music through the 1990s and thanks again to Richard showing me how to use studio software, and helping with putting together a set of electric keyboards, that I started to collect around about the turn of the millennium. I was able to multi-track record some of my keyboard tunes developed over many years, that was a big step forward and it was then I felt that I wanted to give something back to the music, you know? It had given me so much enjoyment throughout my life. The least I could do was to try and put something back. That's when we started Caerllysi Music. At first we only wanted to sell cds. Then we found out that it was a great opportunity to try and help new progressive bands and the genre in general. Try and help one another, you know? Make the genre bigger, more known to the world. Help new bands have more confidence, which we all need sometimes, I think. I have been so lucky, to have been in touch and talked with so many great people over the years, they have been so good to Caerllysi Music and me. The likes of Hansi Cross, Eric Norlander, Brett Kull (Echolyn), Steve and Julie Babb (Glass Hammer), all has been so kind to us. You know, that's another reason why I wanted to give something back. The kindness I've meet, has been outstanding.

Tell us about Caerllysi Music

Even though we moved from Caerllysi to Groesfaen last year we have kept the name Caerllysi, it is at the moment the 4 of us. Jane, my wife, is our Secretary, she organises the packing, runs the shop, takes care of the shipping and make sure it's done to her very high standard, she takes great care and pride in her work. Richard does the nuts and bolts all the web site and technology stuff, he knows all we need to know about computers and software, he also is the most knowledgeable listener of progressive rock I know. Colin, who is a very dear friend helps to review cds and along with Richard decides which band reflects the music Caerllysi is all about, and finally myself, I contact the bands that I feel we want to help promote directly, where possible, sometimes I have to go via distributors it is very time consuming but there's no shortcut and along the way I meet some amazing people
 

How do you see progressive music these days?

Progressive music generally seems to be a full of really good people who care very much about their music. It's the kind of music where you can give a great amount of yourself to the benefit of your fellow man. Its played for the love of the music not necessarily for the money !!!. You won't find that kind of spirit in most other forms of music, I know, I'm continually surprised by the comments we get on our site, people are actually very excited how we manage to find all this incredible music available here at Caerllysi, they tell us the most amazing things sometimes of the pleasure in discovering all this new music that they never thought existed, we get some really kind feedback from them, which I'm very proud of. I think we should all work closer together, both with the established artists and the newcomers, for one thing only, the love of progressive music.
Help spread the word, that there's hope for this amazing genre.
We should enjoy it and stick together.

Future plans for Caerllysi Music

Now Richard is here with us in our new home in Groesfaen we can start to move Caerllysi Music onwards. We have plans which, some may happen and some may not, only time will tell. First is to have our own record label in 2007, with the initial release being the Hoggwash project.  For CM to put on some gigs at The Point here in Cardiff followed by a one day progressive Rock Festival in 2008 that would be nice. Also, we have looked at arranging some kind of competition for new bands and give the winners a chance to maybe record it on our label. On the subject of Hoggwash, we hope to complete and release the first cd in the near future before the summer of 2007, it is now a working collaboration with Anthony of Karfagen. He has excited me more than any other musician I have met since a young Ken Hensley in the early Heep days. Also, Per Malmberg of Salva is another talented guy that we want to help as much as we can. Anyone can send us their music and if we feel it falls within the purpose of Caerllysi Music we will do all we can to help.  Already we have introduced several bands to music distributors with great success, that's very pleasing.

Well, Will, it's been great talking to you. Thanks for taking the time.

Hope we can do it again, sometime in the near future.

Thanks Leo. It's been great talking and hopefully we will meet next summer.

Sure Will, looking foreword to it, very much.

THANKS AGAIN TO LEO.