My father, Stephen Shears, who has died aged 70, was an incredibly talented piano tuner. He was always in great demand all over the UK and was renowned for his old school ability to tune by ear, a skill gradually being replaced by the use of mobile apps.
Over the years he tuned pianos in every conceivable setting, from a box trailer towed behind a car to the grotto at Stourhead House in Wiltshire. He would drive long distances to fulfil jobs and on one occasion undertook a four-day round trip from his base in West Pennard, Somerset, all the way to Inverness.
In Bath he shared a workshop with two friends, Roger Forsey, a carpenter, and Philip Ireland, a french polisher, and together they were able to repair pianos that often looked to be beyond help, including a number that were badly affected by flood damage.
Born in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, Stephen was the middle child of Cecelia (nee Denton), a school secretary, and her husband, Trevor, a draughtsman. The family moved to Crewkerne in Somerset when he was young, and it was there, aged 10, that he joined the church choir. He also learned to play the cello and piano, and his love of music grew quickly. So dedicated did he become that on one occasion, as a teenager, he ran the equivalent distance of a marathon just to pick up an instrument that he had forgotten, so he could get to his band practice on time.
After attending Maiden Beech secondary school and then Wadham school (both in Crewkerne) he went to Newark College, Nottinghamshire, to take a piano tuning and restoration course, and his career as a freelance developed thereafter. He even inspired and taught his own father, who took up the business too – and they would work on pianos together. Sometimes Stephen would restore instruments for himself and then hire them out; one of them, a magnificent grand piano, was used by Bryan Adams in his video of the song Everything I Do.
Alongside his work as a technician, Stephen became a fixture on the folk dancing scene around Devon, Somerset and Gloucestershire as a keyboardist and occasional bass player, starting his band Jigs for Gigs in the 1970s and continuing until recent years with many of the same members. In addition he played keyboards with his younger sister, Alison, as a duo called A Pair of Shears.
An incredibly kind and gentle man, he never raised his voice and was always humble. At home one of his greatest joys was cooking hearty meals for his family.
Stephen is survived by his wife, Kellie Simpson, a music teacher whom he married in 2000, by two children, Adam and me, from his first marriage, to Julia Pitchford, which ended in divorce, by Kellie’s daughter from a previous relationship, Eden, six grandchildren and by his siblings, Alison and Jane.
