Gordon Hulbert is one of a highly rare breed of musicians whose career spans an almost limitless range of musical styles and activities.

A relatively late starter, Gordon took up piano, violin and viola at the age of 12. By the age of 15 he had grade 8 in all three and had won the ABRSM prize for the highest mark in general musicianship out of all entrants worldwide. He was often asked to assist in teaching the students at his own schools, giving him an early insight into his later life’s career path. He taught himself electric and acoustic guitar and bass guitar, fronting his own band Asphyxia as their lead guitar and vocalist before joining Sheffield heavy rock band Excalibur as rhythm guitarist just before his A levels, abandoning his exams to tour with them. Coming to his senses, he re-took the requisite A levels for music college and moved to London.

As a young violinist/violist studying at the Royal College of Music and the London College of Music, Gordon performed with various London-based orchestras. As the son of a preacher man he played pipe organ and piano regularly in church until he developed a taste for “the devil’s music”. As a bass guitarist in his 20s Gordon played in various African and reggae bands in London’s thriving African scene (most notably at the famous Africa Centre and Bass Clef venues). As a sessioning recording musician during the 80s and 90s Gordon variously performed on electronic keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, percussion and backing vocals and by 1997 had set up his own recording studio Sun Productions in Notting Hill, which is still running.

Gordon’s credits cover almost all known popular styles – from the world of funk and soul – such seminal acts as Chaka Khan, The Temptations, Alexander O’Neal, Heatwave, Imagination and Odyssey. From around the world Salif Keita, Hugh Masekela, Lui Sola and Unnati Dasgupta. From the world of EDM, acts such as Stonebridge, Fedde Le Grande and Tiesto have used his production skills. Gigs that required his classical training included Russell Watson and Willy Russell, the latter being orchestration and thematic development of music Willy had written for his feature film ‘Dancing Thru’ The Dark’. Alongside Bill Laswell, Gordon later co-produced the soundtrack to Moving The Mountain – a BBC documentary by Michael Apted and Trudy Styler about the Tien An Mien Square massacre, composed by the celebrated Chinese composer and novelist Liu Sola. The world of rock and pop has found Gordon working with legends such as Burt Bacharach, Sandie Shaw, Mort Shuman (Brill building resident and writer of 25 songs for Elvis, ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’ and ‘Teenager In Love’ amongst many others) and Suzie Quatro, as well as more leftfield acts such as Imogen Heap and Psapp. UK-based pop acts such as Anastacia, Gabrielle, Tony Hadley, Alison Limerick, Angie Brown, Anita Kelsey and Kenny Thomas have all used Gordon’s keyboard skills.

In the late 80s Gordon became interested in music production through his work as in-house studio engineer with Deon Estus (bassist with Wham! and George Michael) and started to make a name for himself as a producer/writer/multi-instrumentalist. Coming through Deon’s studio were artists such as Sandie Shaw, Soul II Soul, Mark Nevin, Mort Shuman and Chaka Khan and this gave G a broad base of experience and built a reputation which brought artists from all over the UK to work with him.

“This really is uplifting and would make a perfect last track of the night” ***** Sure Player – DJ Magazine

Throughout the 90s Gordon built up his production skills while also playing live. For 8 years he was the musical director of The Original Songwriters in West London – a showcase night to London’s recording industry which helped launch acts such as Tori Amos, Gabrielle, Anastacia, D-Ream and Imogen Heap among many others. The Original Songwriters instilled in its musicians a tremendous work ethic and developed in them the ability to learn many songs in an incredibly short length of time – the culmination of which for Gordon was learning Suzi Quatro‘s set by tapping on his knees whilst listening to a cassette on a plane to Berlin, where his first gig with her was in front of a crowd of 30,000!

Joining Alison Limerick‘s band in 1995 and playing Saturday Night Live performing her hit single ‘Where Love Lives’, coincided with Gordon’s developing interest in electronic dance music and he started producing house music and other electronic music of the time. His clientele over the next 10 years included some of dance music’s seminal labels, including XL, Black Hole, Armada, Spinnin’ Records, Defected, ZTT, Universal Jazz and all the majors.

“…driving mix weaving in and out of Kelsey’s emotive vocal” ***** Top Tune – International DJ Magazine.

As part of his work for major publishers including Universal, EMI and Sony, Gordon has also written and produced a large collection of production music for national and international TV, feature films and theatre productions. As previously mentioned, Willy Russell’s “Dancing Thru The Dark” and Michael Apted & Trudy Stylers’ “Moving The Mountain” were a couple of the highlights. Moving The Mountain featured music originally written for the dance production June Snow, commissioned by The Hong Kong Contemporary Dance Theatre, composed by the celebrated Chinese composer and novelist Lui Sola, but ultimately banned a few weeks before the Hong Kong premiere in 1997 due to Britain’s withdrawal from the territory. G’s ‘library’ production work has provided music for all the major cable and terrestrial TV channels world-wide.

Gordon continues to play live and produce music in his London studio. As his reputation has grown and through his work as a musical director, he’s gradually amassed a number of piano students. Students include some of his peers from bands he already plays in. Gordon has discovered a deep love and a talent for teaching and has been revisiting this side of his work – a decision which paid dividends during the recent years of Covid and the subsequent ‘lockdowns’, which decimated live bands and the world they inhabit. During this time G quickly adapted and went online with his clientele, building up a healthy number of students, which he has kept on as things have relaxed.

Now having moved to Hastings, Gordon is very selective about accepting live work, but continues to play with a handful of acts that he’s loyal to and has made friends with. He continues as a producer both in his London and Hastings studios – mainly for his own projects, but also for a select few long-standing studio clients, some of whom have been coming to him for 25+ years. He is developing a couple of contemporary jazz projects, Eat Logic (who first played at The Crypt in Hastings in 2015 and headlined Hastings Jazz Festival in 2017) and Algorisms – a more acoustic based Nu Jazz outfit who released their first single ‘Georgia On My Mind’ in 2020. Both projects are part of his various collaborations with Alison Limerick and Algorisms are currently working on their début album.

Gordon is available as a guest lecturer in contemporary classical, musicology, jazz and popular music and teaches piano, theory and harmony in Hastings and London.