About Me
After my Fine Art degree (1979) and wailing to John Peel in Brighton Punk group 'The Molesters', I migrated to London and got a sensible qualification to teach art. Getting involved in the musical community in Deptford South- East London was far more fun than teaching, and after forming two acappella groups, 'Big Fig' and then 'Too Many Cooks', I eventually teamed up with singer songwriter Marilyn Gentle, guitarist Jilly Abela and singer Lindsey Reed as 'The River Sisters' ( hear us on my songlist). Later the line-up changed to include Chris Morgan on double-bass, Andy Astle (founder member Ukelele Orchestra Of Great Britain) on guitar, and Dorothy Barker (sister of Sally, singer in Folk group 'The Poozies') We performed in arts centres and festivals in the uk (and Guernsey!)for several years,and got on B.B.C.'s 'Pebble Mill At One' (remember that?)as well as supporting Jools Holland at Greenwich Festival. But the money didn't go up, and I tired of organising a five-piece outfit, so I ran 'Deptford Folk Club' on a 'dark night' of a local theatre, and then later 'The Eclectic Club',in 'The White Swan' pub, Greenwich.Just a short walk from my front door, I was able to present all kinds of music including folk/acoustic, singer/songwriter material, improvised Russian piano,jazz bands, barbershop singers,poets, a flamenco dancer and yes!Knife-throwing (to music of course).I was also able to work on a temporary basis with a range of musicians in duo format - Celia McNicholas, (singing the Thomas Campion song 'What Then Is Love But Mourning' on my song list) being one of them.It was whilst working with accordionist Rae Duncan, who was unavailable for a festival gig in France that pianist Vladimir Miller stepped in, and after three days of French food and wine we decided to make my first album 'Disagreement With The Moon'.
For a few months 2007-8 I ran a monthly club in Jane Bom Bane's lovely cafe in Brighton, but stopped in Feb.2008 to take a year 'off' from performing & promoting to write songs. Now it's already March 2008, the album is ALMOST finished...........
