Young Thame Musician On Track For Music Award

ONE OF Thame’s most talented young musicians has reached the semi-finals in this year’s BBC Young Folk Awards.
15 year-old Wilber Sears, a pupil at Lord Williams’s school in Thame, has reached the top 12 in the competition and will take part in the semi-finals to find the top six on December 1, in Blackpool.
Wilber, who lives in Wellington Street, plays music in many other genres apart from Folk, including Rock and Jazz. His current band, The Shorehead flyover, he describes as: “Psychadelic punk rock with a hint of Blues.”

For the competition, Wilber played his own guitar composition, ‘Nobody’s Grave’, and the Stephan Grossman’s ‘Vestapol’.

Wilber told ThameNews.Net that getting as far as he has in the Young Folk Awards has really boosted his confidence for the next round, although, as one of the youngest competitors in the competition, he has no idea what the competition will be like.
His big hero and influence is the legendary guitarist, John Rembourn – one of the great guitarists, including Django Rheinhard, whose music was introduced to Wilber by his dad.

If he gets to the final, Wilber, who also plays banjo, will be invited to play at all the big, national folk festivals next year, including Towersey.
The eventual winner will receive a mini Grammy award and get to play live on the Mike Harding Folk programme on BBC Radio Two.

You can listen to Wilber play by visiting his My Space on: http://www.myspace.com/wilbermusic