Biography

My father got me music lessons for the accordion when I was 13, about the same time that the Beatles were the biggest group on the planet, so it wasn’t very cool to be playing the accordion, but I loved playing the accordion and it gave me my first taste of what it means to be a musician. At 15 years of age I bought my first guitar and just kept going from there, learning what I could pick up along the way.

My first encounter with a big band was when I was about 17, I went along to a concert performed by a band called the Syd Lawrence Orchestra I didn’t know anything about the music I just gave my pal the ticket money. The band was a recreation of the sound of the Glen Miller Band, this sounded like nothing I had ever heard before, I had no knowledge of this music or how they created the sound, but it definitely left me with a lasting impression in a similar way when I heard the Beatles for the first time, the difference was I new I could copy the Beatles but not the big band.

Many years later with lots of things happening in-between I reached my mid 50’s and came to a crisis! (not a mid life one) Money was getting tight what would I do now? I asked myself a lot of questions but this one came up the most, what music do I listen to and enjoy the most? Music that I don’t analyse. It was my Frank Sinatra’s double CD of greatest hits, I took it everywhere in the car, in the lounge, if somebody took it I got very annoyed. Again I had no knowledge about this music but decided to
memorize two sets of songs, and practiced them with backing tracks. Now I was ready to sell it, this changed everything for me. There is a lot more to tell about this learning curve, but I’m sure you get the idea don’t you !