I was approached by another school band, (they were better than us), who asked me to join playing bass guitar, this seemed quite novel as not only had I not played a bass guitar, I had at that point never seen one close up. I accepted and went out and bought a bass guitar. We had limited success around the schools and youth clubs and I was ‘poached’ by a working club band called “Buster”, this eventually turned into “Avenue” which was extremely successful on the local and national club circuit for a number of years.

I started late as a guitar player and was 18 before I first picked up the instrument. I then spent a year or so fumbling around and not really learning anything until my younger brother also started playing. He stuck at it and quickly became a much better player than me (still is, in truth) which spurred me on to make a greater effort. Like everyone who takes up an instrument I eventually got to the point where the novelty of playing with yourself wears thin and you find it’s more fun to play with somebody else.

My first venture into a band was as a three piece with a bass player and drummer who were Motorhead freaks, which became a bit limiting very quickly. Eventually the bass player left to join his father’s building firm and we recruited a new bass player with a wider repertoire and a second guitar player who could also do a bit of vocals. We rehearsed a lot but did only a couple of gigs (a common affliction, I find) and we were awful. It was destined not to last. From the outset the bass player didn’t fully apply himself, the drummer became increasingly mental (well they do, don’t they) and eventually, the other guitar player left to play bass in his mate’s band.

By now I had hooked up with a bass player I met at work and we decided to start again with a new band. This was probably the first decent band I was involved in and contained the best musicians I had played with to date. This was around 1974/75 and going under the name of ‘Mistral’ we were a classic prog-influenced 5-piece based in the Durham area.

Together with myself and the bass player we had a very good drummer who’s only fault was that he insisted on dressing like an elf, a singer who had an unusually high voice (a bit like the guy in Caravan, if you’ve ever heard him) and a classically-trained, jazz-influenced keyboard player who was particularly impressive and as the band had made the decision very early to concentrate on original material, he and I took up the song-writing duties. I learned a lot from this guy in terms of chord structures, scales and arrangements and even if I say so myself, we wrote some quite complex and intriguing stuff which was well received at gigs. It was with this band that I made my first venture into recording at a local community-sponsored studio housed in an old school in Fence Houses near Chester-le- Street. It was very primitive and the sound quality wasn’t great but I still have an old cassette lying around somewhere that gives a good flavour of the band.

Sadly, the combined factors of lack of decent transport, inadequate PA equipment and increasing pressure from real-life work gradually became to great to avoid and the band faded away. At this point I moved to the Manchester area due to work commitments and I pretty much gave up playing for 12 years or so.
After moving back to the North-East area around 1990 I decided to give it another go and started to look about for like minded individuals who were no longer in the first flush of youth. Just to get back into it I joined up with a bunch of guys who were playing the clubs and were really in it to earn money rather than playing music they enjoyed. The nearest we got to a rock song was ‘Invisible Touch’ by the pop version of Genesis. It was a mismatch for both me and the vocalist, who sounded more like Brian Johnson than Phil Collins. Neither of us stuck it for long. It was at this point that I placed the ads that would assemble the group that would eventually become Big Sister………but that tale is told elsewhere on the web site.

Over the years I have gone through numerous guitars, from the humble’best you can afford at the time’ to a small collection that consists of a Yamaha acoustic, a Gibson SG, a Gibson Flying V (which one of my brothers is forever borrowing), a Gibson Les Paul and my favourite, a Fender Strat Plus which I’ve had for 15 years or so. They don’t make them any more and I’m on the look out for another one so if you know anyone who has one that they don’t want………
In terms of favourite bands and guitar players I would list Wishbone Ash, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Jethro Tull and Yes as bands and Andy Powell, Jimmy Page and Alex Lifeson as players. As a result I do find myself on the receiving end of disapproving looks from the other members of the band when my prog rock influences show through.

I grew up listening to, and enjoying classical music, and ignoring, even dissing the contemporary music of the time, up to the age of about 15, when I was dragged to a Youth Club by a friend…..Status Quo’ s Hello album was on the turntable and that was me…… HOOKED on ROCK.. Out with the Classics in with Quo, Lizzy, Free, Zep , Purple, Lynnyrd et al what had I been missing???…. Anyway not long after that, I had an urgent need to bash things and DRUMS seemed to be Ideal – So armed and ready with my first ever Kit ( a fragile Olympic jazz kit God only knows how old!) and no idea how to play I joined my first band – Thank God for Punks, all I had to do was hit it HARD, LOUD and FAST – we even had a small following quite quickly. But it wasn’t rock so I moved on.

A little while later (It’s all hazy now ya know!!) with a little more knowledge I joined a band playing sort of jazzy fusion stuff (still with the Olympic) but they were v. political – I learned a bit, even recorded some stuff but had to move on…..Then I saw an ad in Melody Maker…Drummer wanted for Metal Band LEGACY
Well the first question was…. DO you play Double Bass drums?.... Er… Yeah…. ‘course! (GULP!!!)
Right come and audition then!!

It just so happened my mate had an Olympic kit like mine, different colour tho’ – One phone call later and it was round my house, set up, and I spent a week kicking shit out of it desperately trying to work it out. The house started cracking up, the family started cracking up and I was cracking up!

Hey – I got the job – punky speed metal before Anthrax and the like, BUT I needed a new kit – Melody Maker to the rescue – Mark Brabbs of TANK sold me his Kit - A Gold Sparkle Premier, Double Bass lots of toms etc… Grrrreat. We gigged and gigged and got totally ignored and I left the band only for the arrival of the American thrash bands a few months later… Ah well never mind!! at least I could play Double Bass now!
Along came VHF a classy heavy metal act along the lines of Queensryche, twin Guitars screaming vocals loadsafun, Around then our gear including my kit was stolen from out of our van. The LUDWIG arrived – double Bass loads of toms, cymbals, super loud fantassssstic….VHF folded due to record co. pressures, but I picked up with Battlezone when D’ianno fell out with his usual drummer.

Then time spent in a band called EGYPT, I took over the drums for a tour promoting their just released album. The audition consisted of getting totally hammered and being told if I could play the next day I was IN – well…I was pissed, but I was IN, and stayed on for a while, playing with the best musicians I’d met up till then… we played relentlessly up and down the country until the singer quit, then we travelled up and down the country playing covers and anything else the Bass player could sing, and eventually found ourselves as Tony Mcphees backing band – I had become a GROUNDHOG. During this time Paul SAMSON produced an EGYPT demo tape for us, and eventually this led to me playing with SAMSON for a while.

I went on to play sessions with a number of other project type bands, a couple that gigged the circuit around London, and did a few dates with Eric Bell (ex Lizzy), but rock was on the way out and I couldn’t get a satisfying gig for love nor money… so I packed up the kit and took a few years off, and got a job in the real world… (UGH)!!! 5 Years later one way or another, I found myself in Middlesbrough enjoying the North East rock scene and decided to dust off the Kit…. after a couple of false starts found myself in the company of BIG SISTER and so the story moves on….