Half the songs on Present Tense started out some time ago and half were newer. None had ever been properly recorded. I made the decision that I was going to record the whole album myself, to retain complete control of what went on the final album. This meant compromising, often quite a lot, because I’m […]

When I decided to embark on telling my musical story I knew that eventually I would have to write this section. I knew what it would cost me to do that, how I would feel and I’ve dreaded getting to this chapter. But it’s crucial because without it I wouldn’t be at this point with […]

As 2003 wound on I made up my mind to commit my songs to CD. I was very aware of my limitations as a music producer and as aware that I wasn’t getting the best possible results from Cubase because of my lack of knowledge of the program. But even so I had come up […]

In retrospect it was no surprise that Christine liked my songs, that she played them over and again on her car stereo because Christine supported me in just about anything I wanted to do. To be fair it was mutual, we just fitted together. A couple or so years after we met and started living […]

I left Bristol and headed up to North Wales where most of my family had decamped to whilst I’d been in London and Bristol. My personal life had gone to hell in a handcart and I needed somewhere to get some sanity back into my life. That wasn’t easy, or quick. In fact it was […]

So my marriage was over and I was starting out again. And something very strange happened. I actually found my voice, quite literally. Some friends of a friend invited me round to their place and by pure chance they had a range of musical instruments and recording equipment in their house. If I see a […]

After the band folded I went on to royally screw up what was left of my education. I sat my A Levels more because I didn’t have a sufficient enough excuse not to than any expectation of doing well. Predictably I didn’t do well. I got a summer job working in a plastics moulding factory […]

To get in my face Chris would have to bend down, quite a bit actually, but he had no hesitation doing that. He was well over six feet tall and had a mop of curly hair bouncing around on top of that. He once famously told our audience to stop clapping because the song we […]

Despite my musical limitations I soon wrote quite a few songs, the most important of which was called Fotheringhay. So much so it pretty much became the band’s anthem. Everyone at the folk club could sing along to it because we played it so much. Fotheringhay was an imaginary tale of some ancient battle where […]

After having the guys learn my song I felt I was in the band on some sort of merit. There was no formal initiation ceremony just an acceptance that I was expected to turn up for rehearsals and when we had a gig I was on stage with them. What I didn’t understand were the […]