Martin Orford
“As a keyboard player, my earlier influences came from the bands I listened to, like Genesis, and Rick Wakeman’s solo albums. But early on in my intentions to be in a band, I got my hands on a live IQ recording and heard what I thought was a really impressive keyboard
performance. Of course it was Martin Orford. As a result I became familiar with some of the early IQ albums like Tales From The Lush Attic and The Wake. I went to see IQ a few times and was always impressed by how calm Martin was behind those keyboards and how in control he seemed to be.
“Martin is underrated. On stage he’s quite a quiet personality; he’s not jumping around like an idiot. He usually had the keyboards between him and the audience, so you would only see the top of his head and the cap peeking over the top. I would often watch him closely and his hands would be gliding almost casually across the keyboards, which didn’t give away the complexity of what he was sometimes playing.
“He was also part of Jadis, and we went on the Lurv Ambassadors tour together with Shadowland in the early 90s. We spent a lot of time chatting on that tour, philosophising about the world of progressive rock and keyboards.
“He wrote some great music and had a fantastic ability to hear great chord progressions and melodies. He was probably the glue that helped to structure the music, whether IQ or Jadis. We eventually worked together as NO – Nolan Orford – and did a track together called Quantum Leap for a SI Music compilation. I wrote it and then got Martin to do the soloing.
“Martin has had an influence on me and that makes him an icon for me. I remember having long conversations with him leading up to him walking away from music. I always thought it was a shame when he said he was stopping. But he didn’t feel he needed to do music, and he has interests outside music which are very important to him as well. Every now and then though he sneaks back into live keyboard playing.
“I’d certainly stack him up against some of the best keyboard players out there. He did a great job with backing vocals too, always blending so well with what was going on around him.”