About me as Recording-Artist & Singer-Songwriter
My music on
My music video channel
As well as developing online infotainment channels, a merchandise brand, and from time to time self-publishing books, I also write, record, and independently release songs. I have done this since I was a teenager. It’s been an almost constant strand in my life. It is not the tale of rags to riches, or fame and fortune, or of being accepted into the heart of the music industry. This is not some take on a star is born type tale. No. This is entirely another story. And probably, more than likely, more real, more common than the kind where our hero eventually becomes an international superstar, critically acclaimed, famous, financially rewarded, recognised by his or her peers, and sought after for many a lucrative deal… until he dies young in a plane crash, or from an overdose… No. This story — probably similar to thousands of others — is about a teenage boy simply addicted to listening to, performing, and making music… no matter what the cost, no matter what the outcome, no matter what the obstacle. The story now spans more than forty years.
Always recording, day-after-day,
analytical troubadour, night-by-night,
seeking satisfaction, riff-by-riff,
trying to work it all out, line-by-line,
never quite making sense of it, rhyme-by-rhyme,
facing fears, gig-by-gig,
upstaged and backstaged, lig-by-lig,
sorrows drowned, swig-by-swig,
whilst dreaming someday I’ll make it big,
then laughing, usually at my own expense,
this experience, well it don’t come cheap,
high stakes and no stranger to defeat,
sometimes enough to make you weep, but how to count the cost?
I’m all in, nothing worthwhile was ever gained without the risk of loss.
My recordings date back to 1979. They vary from 4-track cassette demonstration tapes recorded in various bedrooms, to fully professional 48-track analogue tape master recordings in absolute world-class studios, to totally digital-domain recordings on a laptop. The end-products — well everything from cassette tape, CD, vinyl, digital download, and streams.
These recordings were made possible by begging, stealing, and borrowing, by doing deals on the street and in executive suites, by super-rich backers, by almost penniless friends, by slipping into an empty studio late at night and greasing the security guard’s palm, by favours, by schmoozing, by double bluffing predators, by back-handers, and by never giving up, never quite being able to just quit while slightly ahead.
Some of the recordings were made in next-to-no-time or laboured overnight and day and night. Recordings made alone or with other musicians, some similarly addicted to their kraft, trying to carve out a niche, some making it big, some never making it to the next year. Recordings of songs made-to-measure, and totally from the heart. Recordings of songs of all levels of quality – rough sketches, demonstration tapes, nowhere near unfinished ideas, almost completed ideas and fully completed masters. Recordings of songs sold in every manner you can imagine — homemade mix-cassettes sold in Kensington High Street Arcade, or Camden market, or in the bar at Camden Palace, or at gigs, limited edition vinyl white labels sold for twenty-five quid a pop to the hippest DJs, self-paid-for short pressing runs, major record company backed national and international releases through the mainstream music business networks to the high street, grassroots friend-to-friend and independent labels….. you name it, every possible flavour and variation.
And for what? Well, all in all perhaps one-hundred to one-hundred-and-fifty songs. None international hits. None super-well-known. Here is the majority, an unsung songwriter’s mother-load, maybe 60% to 70% of the entire catalogue, warts and all.
If not otherwise indicated I wrote the songs entirely. There is one collection of co-writes between 1982 and 1988. Mainly I played all the guitars, arranged all the songs, and recorded and produced them. There are many other singers, male and female, performing my songs. Like I say, every combination of level of quality and musicianship can be found here, there is some real rubbish and some real diamonds too, and some not-half-bad attempts, but you decide for yourself. For me this is a tough call, it’s like letting someone read your private diary or intimate letters, or to show them something unfinished that you know could be so much better. But like I say, it’s warts and all, no point in just leaving all this music to disappear in a pile of dust…. or maybe you’ll disagree, maybe it was better left where it was, in the bottom of some draw somewhere! Like I say, you decide.
Link to Discography.