me being the youngest, play to grade 6 standard, studied at the academy of contemporary music in guildford (yes that chorr from last choir standing were on it and a few of my mates are in that choir), also played drums with chad smith which was rather fun.
heres my new rig and the green one is my old rig.
black and silver kit is a brand new pearl masters, costs thousands just for the drums and took 9 months to get, the green kit is a mapex pro m, has been a good kit to me but no longer have it as having a 7 peice and an 8 peice in my parents house wasnt going down to well with them.
Ex - professional trombone player and teacher here. 3 years at the Royal Academy studying trombone, piano and harpsichord. Also used to play guitar and bass, but leave that to my lad now. He plays in a band and I have just come out of retirement to get a trombone choir together with a tanker driver mate of mine
Generally I can play any brass instrument except french horn and play any type of music for the right money.
Drummer since i was 13 played in a few heavy metal stylee band, greatest acheivement was doing a crate of stella from northampton to glasgow in the back of the van and still being in a fairly ok state to remember the songs…that and selling out the Underworld in Camden. Not much but more than urm someone who hasn’t done it… packed it all in now though the joys of a wife and kids!
1981 was the pivital year in which i embarked on a long and fruitful musical journey which has seen many line ups and changes of personnel along the way. Firstly being press ganged into becoming the Bass player with a rather Notorious and Infamous Tilbury Based Oi Punk Band, at the time when the national tabloid press were calling The Ship In Tilbury the hardest pub in England, And we got to play inside without so much as broken guitar string, Things changed in 83 when i joined forces with The Business guitarist and frontman Steve Whale & Micky Fitz , still playing bass the Band we formed started to get some great songs together only to fall at the final hurdle. Pretty soon On The Waterfront were calling for a Bass player. Fronted by a tall and charismatic songwriter called Billy Mayell. ON THE WATERFRONT soon had major music press exposure in N.M.E & Sounds along with the likes of Aztec Camera, A Record Deal followed shortly on the heels of the blaze of publicity,along with many high profile live support slots, this resulted in the release of 4 songs ……… “We had finally made it onto vinyl and all of a sudden, people in my home town were asking for MY autograph”………
86 finally saw On The Waterfront’s Demise, there was a brief reunion in 1992, which resulted in the legendary gig at The Rock Garden.
In 1986 i joined forces with Excellent Blues man Roy Mette and Drummer Steve Hallford to become the final incarnation of Essex Rock/Blues 3 piece WARRIOR. For six years Warrior Rocked Their way across the South East to much acclaim.
1994 saw the formation of Burnham based rock outfit Jokers Wild, after much auditioning seeking a vocalist without much luck it was decided to share the vocal duties between me and Guitarist Paul Norton, The band split and me and Paul moved forward by becoming a duo using only acoustic guitars and vocals as instruments. Known as JOKING APART We became very well known on the Essex/Suffolk pub scene. Also receiving plenty of good reviews in regional press features……………. 1998 saw me going Solo as WAY4WARD ……… Why Then WAY4WARD ?..…… “Maybe I will tell ya over a pint and let the music do the talking” All this and i drive a lorry too !!!
