Born and bred in the South Wales Valleys, I have been involved with music in one form or another from the late 70’s until the present day. Playing in numerous bands over the years as a guitarist/vocalist, covering many genres of music, but never seemed to be able to find the time to do anything with my original material, which by now had been piling up. Fast forward to hell of 2020 which has put a stop to most of my musical activities, but allowed me to concentrate on what I hope may be some sort of solo musical career. With this in mind I decided to take a bunch of songs that were recorded over the past 18 months and put them on general release. My debut solo album “Ghosts of my Past” is totally self-funded and was recorded solely at Towpath Studios in Sebastopol, South Wales by Mike Hopkins, who also Mixed and Mastered it, and with the help of my good friend and Bass Guitarist Wayne Morgan. All songs are self-penned, most of them were written between the ages of 19 to 30, and were all inspired by my musical heroes The Beatles, Peter Frampton and Jimi Hendrix, to name but a few, hopefully I’ve done them justice.
Music gives me a purpose in life.
To write and perform music that is critically acclaimed by my peers and the general public.
Making Politicians accountable for every lie they make.
"She Loves You" by The Beatles
The Beatles, Peter Frampton, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Joe Satriani, Rory Gallagher and many others too numerous to mention!
Love, War and life in general.
We need to love both ourselves and each other more than we do at the the moment, if we are to continue to survive on this planet.
Nervous but full of energy, I just love the buzz that live music gives you, especially when you are performing original material and get a favourable response from the crowd.
Unfortunately it is very difficult to make a life as a musician playing original material for a number of reasons. Firstly it's very difficult to make any money from music sales unless you are an established artist. These days even established artists earn most of their money by playing live. It's almost impossible to get paying gigs, unless you are an established artist. There are very few grassroots music venues in my area, so it's difficult to get even non-paying gigs. The general public only seem interested in attending either gigs by established artists, or tribute or cover band gigs. It's a jungle out there!
I'm still very new to Drooble so it's difficult to make a balanced observation as yet, but so far so good.
Not being able to get to the next level!
Yes I regularly attend gigs at my local grassroots venues.
Bags of talent, bags of money, spare time and patience.
Erja Lyytinen, Samantha Fish, Ana Popovic, The Geoff Smith Group, Times Up, Multi-Storey.