Born 15th August 1950 on a council estate in Shirehampton, Bristol, the youngest of 3 to an Irish mother and a father who purported to be Irish, but was in fact from Norfolk (my mother only discovered this when i was well into my infancy). Educated at St. Mary Redcliffe Secondary School, Filton Technical College (both Bristol) and Brighton Polytechnic.
Took up the guitar and started mumbling Beatles songs in my mid teens. I was introduced at 17 to The troubador Folk Club in Clifton, Bristol where i was blown away by the likes of John Martyn, Ralph McTell, Al Stewart among others and dreamed then of creating songs and wandering about the country strutting my stuff, but it wasn't till i was in my thirties, and going through a deeply sad period, that i seriously started writing songs and guitar instrumentals. I found it highly theraputic. It helped me to make sense of my life thus far. I started recording my efforts in 1987 when a fellow songwriter Mike Silver suggested that i should and that he would make it happen. 'Not Before Time' (cassette) was produced by Mike and a violinist, Stuart Gordon, who had a recording studio at the time. Mike and i have remained friends to this day. This coincided with the collapse of my first marriage. A year later Mike and I ended up sharing a house and driving each other to distraction for the next 8 years, but the friendship survives to this day.
With no-one to consider but myself i started to roam around the UK. Made many friends and contacts. I met Jon Strong - wonderful performer (never understood why he's not huge as a singer/songwriter/guitarist). Jon had a recording studio in Leeds and I recorded my second album 'I Don't Know' (vinyl and casette) in 1990... 1993 recorded 'We Three' with Stuart Gordon (violin) and Dave Griffiths (double bass and mandolin) at Stuart's recording studio in Bath, calling the collaberation 'SMILE' - an album of ballads mostly from 1920's to 40's. Good fun. Also at this time, had some more fun, when i joined the Pigsty Hill Light Orchestra for a couple of years, my integrity was questioned (with some unsavoury language) by Fred Wedlock who was outraged, i was told, for not being chosen ahead of me.
1995 recorded my first CD album 'Dream On'. I started out with sponsorship for this one, but the sponsor was expecting an exclusively blues/ragtime album. I wanted to mix in some ballads, including some of my own, and he pulled out. I was pretty broke at the time and Andy Legget (clarinet/sax) had a friend who was happy to fill the breach. It was during the recording of this album that i met Gina Griffin (violin) who I would lose contact with shortly after, but who would get in touch 15 years later and become such an inspiration.