Album Notes

'I'm blending everything I've ever heard, read, seen, felt, touched and thought in my tiny messed up brain; trying, by the force of my will against all Nature's constraints, to shape songs to tell you how it feels.'

I'm from a little town called Stocksbridge, near Sheffield UK and now live in nearby Doncaster. I've been a professional musician for 25 years; always working, travelling, trying to make ends meet. Well I stretched them 'til they met and tied them into a clove hitch: my hands are now free so I can get on with actually, ironically, playing some music at last.

I heard 'Space Oddity' on Radio Luxembourg (transistor radio, 2am, with the earpiece in, under the covers: 'Planet earth is blue and there's nothing I can do...') when I was about 13, and the world hasn't been the same since. I'm sure many of us have a similar experience: a seminal moment caused by a song that we will always remember. My first guitar came along when I was 16, a classical that I learnt to finger-pick while playing along to Bert Jansch records. Then I heard Jack Bruce sing and play bass and thought: 'I want to do that!' so I bought a bass guitar and practised in every free moment. I joined my first semi-pro band in 1977, and since 1982 I've worked as a bass player/singer; mostly in bands but latterly in a duo, doing the clubs, pubs and suchlike of the UK's ever-shrinking live circuit. Is it like this the world over? In November 2004 I suddenly found myself with time on my hands after years of gigging too hard, and the days are relatively empty. I now have the equipment and the time, a bit of pent-up creative frustration, and a reservoir of bits of ideas and tunes that have floated round my head for years looking for a home. Well they have one now. Thank you.