Elton John's keyboard player: the job sounds a particularly redundant one, like 'Edwina Currie's spokesperson', or perhaps 'Mike Tyson's bodyguard'. When most people think of Elton John, they imagine him behind a keyboard; in the popular imagination, Elton John is practically welded to his piano. What would such a man want with a keyboard player? In fact he takes two on tour with him, and, in a neat reflection of the old saying about carrying coals, one of the said keyboardsmen even manages to come from Newcastle.

Though you've probably never heard of Mark Taylor, you've undoubtedly heard him, unless your tastes are so uncatholic as to have skilfully avoided The Lords Of The New Church, The Alarm, Sinead O'Connor, and Simple Minds over the past few years. In spite of age-belying, shaggy-haired good looks, and a healthy disregard for the small print of technology, Mark Taylor is the ultimate backroom boy. How come?

"I think it's basically because I got started so late. I'd played in lots of big bands up in Newcastle but realised I was never going to crack it unless I left to go to London. And that was quite late in life, when I was about 27. If I'd come down to London when I was younger it would have been different."

But Taylor doesn't seem to have any regrets about his comparatively late start."I might have enjoyed the common goal, the camaraderie aspect of things. But when you're starting off, you've got all that pushing Transits and freezing your nuts off... I don't know!"

Instead of the above, on his arrival in London, Taylor was lucky enough to secure work with the Lords of the New Church, a band who had already paid most of their dues. "I was with them for a couple of years. I think they were just an amazing group. Then, at one stage, there wasn't much going on so I needed a gig. The Lords were an IRS band, and when The Alarm needed a keyboard player, I said I'd do that. I was with them for about two or three years off and on, not as a full band member, but I was on stage and everything. I did all the tours and all the albums, plus other session work too. It was the same with Simple Minds. Then I was fortunate enough to start working with Elton John on his album at the end of last year."

Given his seemingly consistent 'supporting' role, I venture to ask Taylor whether it bothers him that no matter how much he contributes, on stage or in the studio, there's always a point at which there's the band....

"...and then there's me. But it can be good, too. Like when you see them all arguing in the dressing room!" Taylor clearly feels that having a degree of detachment from the internecine struggles within a band can be a good thing.

CREATING CLASSICS

Taylor's current position with Elton John is clearly an enviable one. I ask for an insight into Elton's working methods.

"He basically just sits and waits for these ideas to pour out, and says 'right, that one's good, that one's good...' and it's just up to you to be as creative as possible, because he's just put down a blinding piano track. I mean, he's an absolutely phenomenal player. It's just beautiful to watch where the songs come from. He sits down, gets some sort of rhythm track going, he's got the lyrics in front of him, and out it comes. The song just pours out of him in no time at all. Astonishing. You get a complete buzz off that because he's made it look so effortless. Ideas come pouring out. Half a dozen of them stick, and you've got a decent track."

Taylor obviously feels privileged to have been part of the latest album The One (released 15th June on Phonogram), and was present through the writing of all the songs — "I literally sat right next to him when he was writing what could be classics to come" — though he didn't take part in the actual songwriting process. The album was recorded at Guillaume Suresnes studio in Paris.

"In the studio we had two little setups. I had my Korg SG1 piano and a DX7 outside the control room, for working out ideas. But in the studio itself I was mainly using the Yamaha SY99. I used that quite extensively. Elton uses the Roland RD1000. He also used the 9ft Yamaha Disklavier Grand — the only one they've got, I think. But he likes the keyboard on the Roland. Everybody was connected via MIDI. Programmer Olle Roma had his computer and he was dealing with everything that was initially recorded. Then as soon as everyone was satisfied, it would go to tape."

Given that Taylor used the SY99 extensively during recording, I ask what he particularly liked about it. The answer is somewhat surprising.

"I wasn't even aware of it until the start of recording. I was just shown it and told to 'get some sounds out of it if you like.' I'd been away, and you know what it's like when you're on tour for a long time; you tend to lose touch with what's new and what's coming out. You just get on and use what you've got. So I had a play around with it and thought 'this is bloody great'. There were a lot of exciting sounds, sounds I hadn't heard before. I was just totally into it after day one. I even quite liked the keyboard, and I like the string sounds and atmospheric sounds. I thought if that's what I'm getting just using presets, then there must be a hell of a scope. I don't think it's going to be particularly easy to program, though, because the DX7 was such a pain in the ass. Keyboard players tend to get very lazy anyway."

It may be surprising to some to hear the DX7 mentioned in a professional context in 1992, almost 10 years after its launch. Don't pro session players always insist on the latest in gear and sounds? Taylor is obviously quite attached to his DX7 but acknowledges that he's been considering replacing it.

"I bought one seven years ago. It was used on so many records, I find you have to have that DX7 sound. But for a while I've been thinking that it's knackered and that I need something to replace it. The good thing about the SY99 is that I can probably get as close as I need to the old sounds as well."

"I was mainly using the Yamaha SY99. I used that quite extensively. Elton uses the Roland RD1000. He also used the 9ft Yamaha Disklavier Grand — the only one they've got, I think. But he likes the keyboard on the Roland."

As he's a man who plays for a living, I suspected that Taylor might find synth programming just too time-consuming, and wondered if he ever had time to get into serious sound creation.

"Absolutely not, no. There again it's not easy to program a digital keyboard. Analogue was so easy. That's where the real creativity came from. That's where new keyboards fall down. Also, it's so important that whatever instrument you use really 'speaks' well — especially digital ones, because they don't cut. Once you're playing on a big stage, a big auditorium like the Forum or whatever, the cleaner the sound, the more transparent it is. And that's why the old analogue stuff is so useful. It always speaks well, always cuts through. It always seems to end up that whatever digital sounds you're using, you have to tart them up with bits and pieces of analogue."

Taylor also finds a use for samplers in the studio, and relies on that perennial studio name, Akai, using the S1000, S1100, and S950. "I have a lot of string stuff on the S950. On a couple of occasions when I needed quite heavy strings layered a few up using the samplers and the SY." A Korg M1 also supplemented the SY99 on synth duties for the album project.

Leaving aside equipment for the moment, we discuss Taylor's musical approach to the album. "You look at each track, see what it needs, see what's going to work here, what's going to work there... and pour as many ideas out as possible."

Taylor's working relationship with Elton John was clearly harmonious. "We didn't seem to have to fight to find the sounds, or the ideas. They seemed to come pretty instantly — like 'how about this sound'?' 'Yeah.' 'Try the idea... Yeah.' 'No, it's not working, on with another...' and that's great, it keeps you really on your toes.

"Once Elton's done his bit, he's quite happy to let everyone else finish it off. But he was there every day, first thing in the morning... none of this waltzing in at three in the afternoon stuff. The man is exceptional."

LIVE TALKING

As Taylor and I speak, preparations are under way for the forthcoming Elton John tour, and rehearsals are due to start the following day. Naturally, Taylor will play a major part.

"Officially I've got 40 songs to learn. I've got to do strings on 'Philadelphia Freedom', strings on 'Funeral For A Friend', and so on. I also play a bit of guitar, so I'm playing acoustic on some tunes. Basically, I'm replacing Fred Mandell, so I'm simply playing all the parts that he used to play."

Since Taylor has been in on the new album from the start, live recreation of the new songs should present few problems. However, Elton John has an extensive back catalogue, and older songs have an important place in the live set. Supplying keyboard parts for classic Elton John tracks must throw up problems for the player; not least, how to replicate the sounds used on older songs. Taylor is pragmatic:

"On the older songs there really isn't any point in trying to get too close to what was originally recorded. You're obviously going to have something more contemporary for them. A couple of songs I thought would benefit from a bit of edge, too, though I'm quite sure they've thought of that already. Generally speaking you play things harder live anyway.

"I was surprised at how easy it was to learn these songs. But in a way it's learning all these great songs that you know already. You don't even have to work a chart out, because you just know it."

Given the increasing prevalence of sequencers in live work, I wondered whether the imminent tour would feature sequencing. Taylor insists that it won't, and is pretty forthright in his opinions about this much used (and abused) tool. "I don't think so. I don't like sequencers. And I don't have a computer because I don't want to get into that. Maybe I should have got involved in the whole computer business, but I think you can waste an awful lot of time learning about Macs and stuff. It's just something that passed me by. I've concentrated on other things instead."

However, this apparent lack of interest in computer technology hasn't been a handicap for Taylor — I ask whether he has ever been expected to turn up for a session laden with computer goodies.

"No. I'm the first to say I can't do that. I find there's always someone there who's capable of doing whatever's needed in that sense. Then I can play the parts. The sort of people I've been playing with recently aren't at all technical anyway. With [Jah] Wobble, or Sinead, it's like, well, real music. Not a lot of computer stuff."

I observe that even the people who play the most 'real' music in the world always seem to have a computer ticking away somewhere. Taylor agrees. "Absolutely, even with Elton, for instance, who is a tremendous real musician. But they wanted to hear real instruments most of the time. I'm quite a purist in terms of sound. You know there are all these great synths and stuff but you can't beat a good piano and a Hammond. The good thing about it at the end of the day was that everyone wanted to hear instruments being played."