At what age do we first become captivated by music? For me it was while I was very young - piano lessons at the age of six or seven with an elderly chap called Sydney Pickles who had gnarled old twisted hands and a love of everything to do with the piano. A few years later, there was Isobel who (in agreement with all other male members of the family) was very easy on the eye... and the complete opposite of old Sydney (bless him). I remember having to play the piano in school assembly, and nobody ever knew that even at that point I'd almost 'untaught' myself to read music and used to jam my way through 'Jerusalem' like it was ELO or whatever else I was listening to in the 70's (and i was still only 9...). Anyway, it wasn't too long after this that a family move brought a new school and piano teacher, at which point it stopped being fun. My days of formal lessons were numbered...

I had one trick up my sleeve though, and could play simplified versions (usually in a key of my own choice!) of pretty much anything I laid my ears on... (including school hymns). After not going near the piano for ages, I started playing again, trying to play stuff I heard on the radio. I suppose it was at this point that, as a teenage boy, you turn even more inward. I'd always had a very active imagination, but now started to try and write songs - mainly from the musical point of view (lyrics were just something that rhymed and made another sound on top of the music!). I had a saturday job in a clothes shop and used to spend some money at the local music shop. In fact I spent all my money there, so much so (relatively of course!) that they used to let me take things on loan and I'd pay them when i could. I started recording things on an old second hand Fostex 4-track tape machine, mainly on my own, but often with a handful of friends who were also into music (Tony, Jason, Bob, Sas, Tracy, Syd & Tex to name a few). It was around this time i got in touch with Paul Flower, who was working for the BBC at Radio WM in the Midlands. For some unknown reason, he took the time to listen to my awful demo tapes and became my first 'real' contact in the music industry, offering me advice and managing to see some promise behind the tape hiss...

By the time i was eighteen, I'd got into the guitar and fancied a crack at playing live in the pubs i'd been drinking in (but only since my 18th birthday you understand...). Thus in true rock 'n' roll style at 'The Castle' in 1989, began the 'public' music career...

Now, I'd better keep it short for now, but the first of two inspirational musicians I stumbled upon was meeting Tony, a few weeks before that first gig (you taught me all those fancy chords mate - which I then forgot and carried on with just the three!). A summer of music in 1992 virtually sorted my future out (despite the ambulances on Manchester Road!). The second was meeting Stuart as a result of answering an ad in 'Melody Maker' (the best) while I was unemployed and signing on in North London. This turned out to be the move towards the music I'd always hoped I'd be involved with and write (even if it took another 10 years!). After that it was easy (well, almost!) and was followed by meeting the IoM crew (musical family) Dave, Simon, Paul, Roy, Christy etc...