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A few of my favourite things ....

A Few Links to Other Music Sites

Who am I?

We'll start at the beginning then shall we?

I was born in the North-East of England in the industrial town of Middlesbrough. My father was a Methodist Minister in the town and had a Church at South Bank.

I suppose you could say that I was a troublemaker from the start as my parents would often find out that I had crawled out of our garden to watch the trolley buses that ran along our street, often sitting there in the middle of the road! (Which just happened to be a major trunk road !!)

I developed an interest in music from an early age, my grandmother was in fact one of the ' little old ladies ' who played the piano in the local cinema. My mother was a keen pianist too so it seemed obvious to me that I should continue a family tradition.

My older brother also plays a variety of instruments and runs a folk club in Northwich, Cheshire. It is mainly listening to him playing the guitar and listening to his records when I was young that influenced me as many of the artists I listen to today are the same as back then. Artists such as Lindisfarne, Ralph McTell, Barclay James Harvest, Chris De Burgh and Electric Light Orchestra have always been firm favourites of mine.

The first group I was a member of was way back in 1978, a three member combo called 'Mid Ocean' we tried to stay a "middle of the road" sort of group but unfortunately, differing musical tastes started to get in the way and we decided to call it a day, well, in reality, I did. As far as I know, Ian and Mick went on to be quite successful locally. What became of them? I wish I knew. I hope they did well and are both still enjoying music and life as much as they did then.

I remained a solo artist for a good ten years after that apart from a time when I was a part of a local gospel group in Blackburn - "Hymn" , so named after a Barclay James Harvest song which became our "anthem" or theme song. Differences of opinion were once again the main factor in the demise of this group which was a shame really. If we could have learned to put aside our differences who knows? We actually sounded good together.

I have concentrated since then on a solo 'career'. I put this into inverted commas simply because it couldn't really be classed as a career at all! I have played in local working mens clubs and folk clubs but haven't really done much else for a few years now.

Perhaps it's time I did..........

I am willing to have a go at any instrument really but I tend to play the Guitar, Piano/Keyboards, Mandolin and Flageolet (a.k.a. Penny Whistle) I've been trying for a few years to get my tongue round the harmonica (literally !).......... not as easy as I thought !!

My Musical Taste

A few of my favourite things ....

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