MY MUSIC

40 YEARS PLAYING THE BLUES

Fell in love with the blues as a student in London around 1970, spent countless hours jamming with my friend Frank, listening to second hand vinyl, experimenting with open tunings.

First "real" band was called JUMP.  various line-ups
played in pubs & clubs around Sheffield, mid to late 70s



Moved to Zimbabwe in 1981.  Several years playing on my own, getting deeper into the blues.  Started to attend a thing called the Music Forum.  Met people like Heather & Bernie who I eventually teamed up with in various line-ups playing in cafes & pubs, whatever we could get. 

Then a new phase.  For the first time I had a dedicated blues band and I took the lead on vocals, not just occasionally but for the bulk of the set.  That was King Bee.




2004 and I moved to Dubai.  Towards the end of the year we formed a band for the office xmas party.  That was GAJ Rocks and it continued under various guises, playing private parties and open mic nights, multiple singers, wide variety of songs.  It was great while it lasted, but towards the end I wanted to get back to my blues roots.



Current band
OUT OF THE BLUE
with Jason & Geert
playing in and around Dubai
whenever we get the chance
... well ... that was also great, another journey of discovery
but Geert left Dubai & Jason took a break from the music

so I do a solo thing now ... not as often as I would like



BARNSLEY VISTA SOCIAL CLUB

For the last 3 or 4 years I have been getting together with two old schoolfriends.  Ian, Alan & I were at Barnsley Grammar School in the magical sixties.  Having stumbled across each other once more, we started arranging jam sessions whenever I was in England, then last year this matured into a gig near Hull which went really well.  So we did our second one near Glastonbury this year (2011) with various friends & family in attendance both on and off stage.  We did Reading in 2012 with my old friend Heather now a permanent part of the band.  A couple of informal get-togethers since then.


Five years on and I haven't been updating this blog. Here's a couple of pics from my annual UK visits over that period.  First one is a village hall gig in Somerset, summer 2016.  Wearing my african nostalgia outfit to do a couple of rock and roll numbers towards the end of the evening.  I sit down at the back of the stage to add a bit of slide work into the mix for the bulk of the band's performance.


The most recent gig was at a small arts centre in Reading and here I did a short solo set on steel-body guitar early on in the programme: hardcore blues.  Did the subtle slide fills thing with the band as usual later on.  It was a very enjoyable evening all round.