I was born in a hospital, and grew up part of a fairly small family, in Sydney, with one brother, one sister, a dog, a cat, and a budgerigar.
I didn't place too much emphasis on my schooling, preferring instead to indulge my social and musical tendencies.
My love of music was galvanised during the attendance of my first “rock show†at the age of 11. Due to my mother being unwell, my father took me to the Regent Theatre in Sydney to witness a concert performance by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. When Costello and the Attractions refused to do an encore after playing for only 57 minutes, the crowd went berserk. While promoter Zev Eizik was trading punches backstage with Costello’s manager, Jake Riviera, the audience decided the best way to encourage the band to do some more songs was to rip up the seats and throw the cushions on stage, along with anything else that was or wasn’t nailed down. The ensuing riot further convinced this impressionable youngster that rock n roll was my calling.
My early teenage years were also spent wisely listening to a large variety of great music, accessible to me because of my father’s eclectic vinyl record collection.
After saving my meagre pay from a part-time job collecting shopping trolleys for a suburban super-market, I was finally able to afford my first bass guitar, which I purchased from my then high school art teacher. I was sixteen at the time. Having mastered the basics inside two weeks, I went in search of some people with whom to form a band. With the help of these friends the Trash Potatoes were soon in existence and I was able to fulfil my youthful dreams of playing and performing.
Having just about made it through high school, I took employment in the local David Jones department store. This was to be a short-lived experience selling travel goods. I was eventually lured in to the world of banking and finance, in which I have been entangled ever since.
At the end of the 1980s the Trash Potatoes were no more, as was my next band, The Nerd Berds. In 1990 The Barbarellas came into being and with them my first real foray into recording and releasing records. Over the next two years the band released a double a-side single (Dying Inside/Forget About You), an EP (Fringe), another EP (Quit Skylarking) all on vinyl, followed by an album (Slumber) on CD which was a compile of all previously released vinyl. The prestigious Citadel Records released these recordings. The band went their separate ways in 1992.
Over the following years I continued my musical education spending time, either as a permanent member or guest, performing and/or recording with the following acts:
Spurs For Jesus ,
The Verys,
Larabees Birthday,
The Hecklers,
The Devil May Care,
The Older Guys,
The Intercontinental Playboys ,
The Aristo-cats,
The Louisville Sluggers,
Grandview,
The Empty Bottles,
Skinny,
High Horse,
Miranda Boyz,
Soap Star Joe ,
Sarah Blasko ,
The Model School ,
Beachfield ,
Lazy Susan , and,
Jason Walker and The Last Drinks.
