Music in Prisons - The Irene Taylor Trust

Information for Ex-Prisoners / Testimonials

My name is Gary and I work as a Construction Manager for a Labour supply Company. I’m 48 years old.

I come from a working class background and lived on a council overspill estate. I left school in 1976 (with no qualifications to speak of!), and mainly spent the next 12 years or so working on a building site, firstly as a labourer, then a bricklayer and then as a small demolitions sub-contractor. I was also in a few nondescript punk rock bands and music, as the saying goes ‘was my first love’…

The next phase of my life is one I take no pride in whatsoever; in early 1988 I was convicted of murder after getting drunk and killing a person in a drunken brawl. I was consequently sent to prison to serve a life sentence.

After about 18 month’s time served, I was shipped to Wormwood scrubs and managed to get a guitar for myself, but I was only playing on my own. Then I met a person who went on to become an inspiration and a good friend of mine her name is Sara. She was teaching music to inmates in the Education Dept. Once I had heard about this I joined the music class. By this time I was really missing music and so the opportunity to take part again was a blessing. In my nearly 4 years at ‘the Scrubs’ I took music theory exams and got some grounding in music theory. I took part in many live shows, both music and drama based and was able to meet and play with many famous musicians and composers. I always managed to keep up my guitar playing and went on to reside in many HMP establishments, at this time, my old music mentor Sara’ was co-ordinating ‘Music in Prisons’. We had kept in touch over the years and I was fortunate to be able to take part in one of the prison projects while I was residing at HMP Bullingdon in about 2002. At that moment in time, the sentence had begun to get to me and things were looking a bit bleak, but I can now look back on those days with real fondness and working with MIP was like ‘the calm in the middle of a storm’. Looking back, I realise I had begun to develop into a better man, with far more belief in myself and this reaped benefits because I was also able to act as a mentor to other inmates and work with young people on the outside, helping them (hopefully) turn away from a potential life of crime.

I was released in January 2006 and at first found it hard to settle back into a society that had moved on in the 18 years that I was inside. So I got in touch with Sara and was invited to take part in a project at Brixton and two more at Holloway Prison in my new capacity as an ex-offender. I was then able to utilise my experiences to the full enabling me to act as a far better mentor and give hope to prisoners who could identify with me and vice versa. From this new perspective I could see the true benefit of what Music in Prisons does for serving inmates who often have nothing else in their lives. Over the course of each project, which lasts just one week, I could see a real change in people and the optimism that it inspired.

Towards the end of 2006 I took part, with other members of Music in Prisons, in a live performance at ‘The Spitz’ in Spitalfields to showcase the work that had been done at Brixton and Holloway This year I again worked on a project in Holloway Prison and will continue to work with Sara and Music in Prisons for as long as they will have me.

From the beginning I have felt a strong need to put something back onto society and through my work with Music in Prisons I have been able to do this in some small way.

I remember saying to Sara one day back in about 1990 that my guitar would get me through my sentence, and although that was a bit optimistic it certainly played a big part. I still have my passion for music and play every now and again with a group of friends, albeit just for fun.

Music in Prisons - The Irene Taylor Trust