Music
I started playing piano when I was very young, worked through the classical grades and then progressed to guitar
When I was 16 I attended the Guildhall School of Music at the Barbican, London, and this opened my eyes to the industry and networked me with a whole host of ‘proper’ players
By the time I was 18 I was playing in a renowned band around the South of England and then went on to be one of the main session guitar players in London for many years. I spent a while at BBC Maida Vale Studios, meeting many idols of mine. Around this time I played with people from Madness, Brand New Heavies and Freak Power at the Camden Jazz Cafe jam nights which were organised by Simon from the Heavies
I became the resident guitarist at the Blues Tavern in Farnham where my right-hand-man on guitar and vocals was Gary Nuttall who then joined a new band started by that bloke out of Take That who went on to sell a couple of records (and yes, Gary still plays in Robbie’s band)
I recorded my first solo album ‘State of Mind’ in 1994. I then started recording with the singer on most of the tracks (Simon Bell) and we created the July Earth Band. We released the July Earth album in 2001 which was made up of songs from the previous 6+ years
In the late 90s I started working with Steve Jones who I had met on stage at the Camden Jazz Cafe with some of the Brand New Heavies crew. As ‘The Music Project’ we managed to get several songs published and the song ‘Family’ was included on a major Acid Jazz release (track 5 – Totally Wired Vol.2) with glowing reviews
For the last 5 years I played with Ivan Chandler in the True Mentals – then called The Fundamentals. Now I am looking forward to recording some tunes in my studio and maybe playing a few live dates here and there.
Click here to listen to some of the tracks I have written and recorded
