Take A Trip With Tim Ambler Through Classic Rock

British singer-song writer Tim Ambler has enjoyed a career that has seen him play sold out shows of 5,000 people in Dublin supporting Mike Oldfield, writing smash hit songs for winners of The Voice, and befriend Chinese star Lijian.

We sat down with Tim at the Hilton Shenzhen Shekou Nanhai, where he is in the middle of a six month residence, to discuss his career so far, what people can expect from his performances, and his exciting new weekly night, Ruby Tuesdays.

What can our readers expect from a Tim Ambler set?

The idea is to try to make it a relaxing, soothing experience for people after a day’s work. It’s mellow. It’s romantic. It’s laidback. I’ve got a repertoire of about 500 songs from the Sixties right up to the present day. I play stuff as recent as Hozier and John Legend andas early as Johnny Cash and Elvis, and there’s a heck of a lot in between. You could describe it as a journey through five decades of popular classic songs.

You mention the likes of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. Were these artists a big influence on your own music?

My influences are the acoustic guitar based singer songwriters like Paul Simon, Dylan, Cat Stevens, James Taylor. I just went into their songs, studied how they were written, how they played guitar. The piano side of it, I basically listened to a lot of early Elton John and Billy Joel records, and emulated what they were doing and developed my own style as the years went by.

From what I understand, it was a style you started to develop when you moved from London to Dublin. How important was your time in Ireland to your development as a musician?

I lived in Ireland for ten years. That’s actually where my career began. In London, I was doing law as my main job, and music as a hobby. Music was like a compulsion and law was just a job, and when I realized I could probably make a living out of the compulsion, I quit the job. I took off to Ireland, where I had a girlfriend at the time, and said, “How about I come and visit you for two weeks?” and ended up staying for ten years.

At that time there was a huge demand for gigs. It led to a distribution deal with Sony and two albums. I played some big venues in Ireland. The biggest concert I did was as the support act for Mike Oldfield when he played the Point Theatre.  I played in front of 5,000 people. That was my proudest moment and the scariest one too.

So what led you from performing from Dublin to the Hilton Shenzhen Shekou Nanhai?

After Ireland, I had a project with a French poet. We were put together by a music publisher, who said one of my songshad a very French style melody. We got some fairly high level publisher involved and did a whole album.We went on the road doing a show. She was so clever with the words. She a made a show out of the collaboration, where I would perform in French.

It was that point that I got a call from agent who asked if I would like to go perform in a five star hotel in Japan. It was actually the Hilton in Osaka. So it all started with the Hilton.Ever since then I’ve performed all over Asia.

It’s clear that you have written a great deal of songs over the years. Can our readers expect to hear any of your original music during your set?

Sometimes people will ask, “Can we here some of your own songs?” and so often I put a couple of those in. A singer called Mateusz Ziolko performed one of my songs Only Iand won The Voice in Poland. The most successful song I co-wrotewould be one sung by Francesco Baccini, who was a superstar in Italy. He put Italian lyrics to my song Whatever Will Be for his hit Quand ‘e che mi dicisi.

You have been performing in China for a number of years now. Did you happen to learn any Chinese songs in that time?

I don’t speak Chinese, but I do perform one song in Chinese, because the writer is a friend of mine called Lijian. He wrote a song called Chuan Qi and somehow, the queen of pop in Hong Kong, Wang Fei, heard it. She called Lijian and asked if she could sing his song on the Spring Festival gala watched by 1 billion people. In those 3 minutes his life changed forever.

Lijian and I met in Beijing in 2008 and have been friends for 10 years.It took quite a long time to learn. I had to get someone to write out the pinyin for me. So I sing that song and the Chinese guests do really appreciate that.

The classic rock of the Sixties has clearly had an influence on your music. Can our readers expect to feel the same influences during your set?

Yes, in fact, there is a concept I like to use called Ruby Tuesday, named after The Rolling Stones song. Naturally, it’s on a Tuesday and we create a very warm, cozy, inviting atmosphere with red lights and red candles. I bill it as a night of the great songs of the Sixties and Seventies.

You can catch Tim in the Lobby Lounge at the Hilton Shenzhen Shekou Nanhai each evening from 8pm. Head down on a Tuesday for Ruby Tuesdays to hear classics from the sixties and seventies, and on a Wednesday when you can enjoy 20% off your bill.

Place Name: Hilton Shenzhen Shekou Nanhai 深圳蛇口希尔顿南海酒店

Place Address: 1177 Wanghai Rd, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 深圳市南山区望海路1177号

Place Phone: [phone]

Email:  [e-mail]

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