Biography

My interest in music started from a very young age, being forced to have piano lessons by
the ‘rents’ when I was 8 didn’t really spark anything at the time, but I do wish now that I’d
stuck it out and carried on with them into my teens, but alas, when you’re young you just
want to climb trees and play outside, not be stuck in a room with a smelly old piano.

The spark actually came when my sister asked for a synthesizer for Christmas and because
of the price, I agreed that it would best be a joint present for both of us. So on Christmas
day in 1982 I became the proud joint owner of a fabulous Roland Juno 6 (which I still own to
this day). My sister lost interest in it after a while, but I loved it and just played and played.
The first band I joined was a Melbourne based original group called ‘Why’ at the age of 17.
We gigged for a while and had a little bit of interest from a couple of record companies in
London, but as with a lot of bands, friction between a couple of members and egos taking
over, the band folded and that was that.

The rest of the 80s and early 90s were taken up by joining a number of original music bands
and writing songs. Steve (bass) and I formed a band called ‘The Caravan Club’ in the early
90’s with an ex-member of Why and a drummer from one of Steve’s previous bands. We
rehearsed and wrote but never gigged this band – it was great fun and we rehearsed in a
static caravan, hence the name.

Both being Pink Floyd fans, Steve then suggested we set up a Floyd tribute together, so
‘Pigs On The Wing’ was born. It was great fun playing in this band, though we had a few real
rock ‘n’ roll moments along the way with a stoned singer at a gig that came very close to
disaster!

POTW folded in the late 90’s leaving both Steve and I doing nothing band wise for a while
until he called me to say that the Coventry band ‘Dark Side Of The Wall’ were looking for
new bass and keyboard players. I was a little apprehensive about this as I knew they were
an accomplished band and a lot higher standard than our old ‘Pigs On The Wing’ band had
ever been, but after a kick up the arse by Steve, we both headed off to Coventry for a
rehearsal with the guys and after an hour the band were talking about booking a gig next
month!! Looked like we were in then! We held them off with the first gig for a couple of
months until we had rehearsed a lot more together, then the rest is history as they say…

To date, Steve and I are now the longest serving members of DSOTW with well over 200 gigs
under our belts and still going strong – long may it continue.

In 2010 Andy (guitar) and I started writing and recording original music under the name
‘Freedom To Glide’. We’ve released two discs to date (as of April 2013) the first being a 3
track EP called ‘Rain’ and the current being a 6 track mini album called ‘The Wait’. Our full
album also called ‘Rain’ will be released later this year.

So music has really taken over my life, but I wouldn’t have it any other way…