Telling stories through song
Here’s a brief music bio from being a shy 14 year old trying to play Bob Dylan songs to what I’m doing now:
Here’s a brief music bio from being a shy 14 year old trying to play Bob Dylan songs to what I’m doing now:
Originally from Shropshire, England, through the mid 1970s to early 1980s I played in the Shrewsbury based bands Angie, Smithy and Co., Civilian, The Stains (single released on Redball Records 1979) and The Breed, I moved to Scotland in 1989 but more about that later.
Angie was really the start - formed at The Priory School in Shrewsbury with drummer Mark Webb and bassist Gary Reed. Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople fame also attended the same school a few years ahead of us. In a music paper interview he referred to the place as being dreadful. He was right and maybe rock music was an escape for us all from the grim realities of The Priory!
As a young inexperienced guitar player, I somehow ended up playing in Smithy and Co with Baz Smith, Deke Vernon and Paddy Duncan. Baz and Deke were seasoned performers who had played in a more recent line up of the Mojos and passed on many words of wisdom especially with regard to putting on an entertaining and professional performance. Baz and Paddy went on to form the NWOBHM band Slender Thread.
From what I remember, Motive Management had both Smithy and Co and a prog rock band Civilian on their books and as Smithy and Co went separate ways it was suggested I join up with Mark Webb, Richard Benjamin and John Cubbin in Civilian. Early music highlights as the other guitarist in the band included playing at the legendary venues The Marquee Club and Camden Music Machine in London. Following a gig in the wilds of Herefordshire the band met up with Les Penning (best known for his work with Mike Oldfield on Ommadawn) and got to spend a weekend jamming with Les at his home studio in Herefordshire. Demos were made, gigs were played but the band members were heading in different directions, particularly myself who hankered after a move from the prog rock style of Civilian to a more straightforward style of rock music.
After that came The Stains who were a post punk era band featuring Gary, Mark and myself plus Dave Clarke and Dominic Ouvre. At that time there were lots of venues putting on live music and we played far and wide going to Liverpool, Cardiff, Lincoln and London along with the regular Shropshire / West Midlands gigs. Memorable support spots for the band included Dumb Blondes when Phil Collen was playing with them (later to join Def Leppard), Steel Pulse, Punishment of Luxury, Neon Hearts and Dexys Midnight Runners (who still owe us our £60 fee). Apart from the three tracks released on the Redball Records single, the band also recorded a demo engineered by Dave Anderson (ex Hawkwind and Amon Duul II) at his studio in mid Wales. This was after Dom left the band and featured replacement singer Nancy Evans. It was a good demo and got some minor interest from Virgin Records. Jumbo Vanrenen from the company came to see us at a gig in Camden and took the trouble to speak to some of us after the gig but that was as far as things went.
Sometime around 1982/3, drummer Mark from The Stains and myself teamed up with singer and bassist Mal Salisbury to do some gigs as The Breed, also recording a demo cassette of a number of Mal’s excellent songs. Mark took it around several record companies in London hoping it would bring us fame and fortune. Wisely we all hung on to our day jobs!
After that I moved to Scotland to be nearer the mountains, I Performed as mainly an acoustic artist from late 1990's onwards releasing 3 CD's - Coracle Man, Escape on 220 and more recently The Line Between The Land And Sea.
I realised during that period that I had a wealth of interests and life experience that I wanted to write songs about and through meeting other songwriters including Bob Davidson, Tom Fairnie and the late Martin Boland, received the support and encouragement to do so. This led to the start up of The Taybank Songwriters Festival, a showcase and networking event for Scottish based songwriters which I ran for about 5 years.
Around the same time I played a few gigs as guitarist for the wonderful singer Gina Mcleod and also regularly visited the USA to perform and travel with Pennsylvania musicians Jay Smar and Kj Reimensnyder.
Since moving back to England in 2016, I still perform and write as an acoustic artist but also play in the Berwick-Upon-Tweed based Salmon City Blues Band and more recently have gone full circle, song writing and playing in the 3 piece rock band The Longship who released their first single in 2022. Still Rockin' 50 years on......
Watch The Longship on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thelongship
