I was born in York, England and educated at St Olaves and Bootham School in York. I spent a great deal of my childhood wandering around the moors and countryside of North Yorkshire like a small blond (but much cleaner!) Heathcliff!.
I got my first guitar at twelve years old and spent the next eight years posing in front of the mirror with it. I finally decided to learn to play it at 18 after getting my first job and deciding "there has got to be more to life than this!"
Years were spent in and out of many bands playing various instruments with varying degrees of success.
Calling Earth is the culmination of eighteen years dedication to music and the music business. The music was all composed, played, recorded, mixed, produced and mastered by me.
The story was written to convey a simple message - WAKE UP EVERYBODY! STOP treating the Earth as your own personal rubbish dump before it's too late!.
I am currently looking for a commercial release for Calling Earth and am keen to get into writing music for Television and Films.
If anyone can help then please contact me via MySpace or the Website.
www.calling-earth.com
Other current projects include:
Bass player/ Rhythm Guitarist and Songwriter in Scream Arena
Musician/ Songwriter in Fractured?The Story
On August 25th 2022 a transmission was received. It was to change the future of mankind.
At 10.17 am Pacific Time the satellite N.O.C.T.U.L.E was jolted into life by a radio signal. Undecipherable at first the signal began to adapt, coding then recoding itself until it could be interpreted by our communication systems. The signal, although faint was from what claimed to be a peaceful alien race of human descent called the Altanns.
Although treated sceptically at first the message gave a fantastical detailed history of this race. Their home planet, Altann it was claimed, was situated many millions of light years from Earth and the race used wormholes to travel from galaxy to galaxy. The message claimed that the Altanns had visited Earth once before to gather information about our various life forms.
The Altann race was currently being wiped out by a virulent airborne virus inadvertently created by experimentation in the name of 'advancement of Science'. No antidote could be found to combat the virus. Many had been created and tried but so far none had succeeded in stopping the spread of this deadly virus.
Detailed analysis of the data brought back from Earth revealed a rare plant extract from the Amazon jungle - Heliconia psittacorum x spathocircinata "Tortuga" could provide the missing amino acid chain to perfect the antidote.
The transmission also revealed the whereabouts of a 'scout vessel' left behind on the Moon by the Altanns on their visit to Earth as well as detailed information of a large underground 'workshop' on Mars where the scout ship could be adapted to a warp speed vessel capable of navigating wormholes.
What the Altanns needed from us was simple and crucial to their survival. Take the Tortuga plant to their home planet in the hope of halting the virus and thus saving the race from extinction. In return they would give us the technology to combat the effects of Global Warming that were currently devastating our planet.
After much debate it was decided to launch a rocket to the moon and verify the Altann story by locating the scout ship allegedly situated in the Sea of Tranquillity.
The shuttle Explorer VII touched down on the Moon close to the Sea of Tranquillity on 12th November 2022. Two astronauts Jessica Mansfield and Adam Stores located the Altann spaceship at 5:02 am. The craft was discovered at the western end of the Sea of Tranquillity covered with an unusual reflective material that completely hid the craft - exactly as described in the transmission. Also contained in the transmission were detailed flight manuals giving instructions as to how the ship functioned. It was decided that the vessel, now affectionately named 'Rio' by Jessica, be brought back to Earth for further examination and tests.
The Altanns had already transmitted the coordinates back to Earth to Rio and once power had been restored these directions were immediately downloaded into her onboard navigation system.
After 'drawing straws' Jessica (having the longest straw!) was to pilot the craft home. After a handful of 'false starts' Rio slowly rose from the Sea of Tranquillity at 10.17 am and headed for Earth. Adam, meanwhile had returned to Explorer VII to begin his albeit slower return.
As the world watched in fascination and awe, Rio touched down at Cape Canaveral at 11.25 pm on November 13th 2022 taking thirteen hours to complete the journey.
Further investigation revealed that Rio's technology, being far in advance of our own, enabled the craft to travel at great speed though use of an anti- graviton field that encircled the ship stabilising the crushing gravity that was generated at these speeds and preventing the ship from disintegrating.
As familiarity with Rio's functionality grew it was announced that a mission to Mars had been authorised to locate the workshop left by the Altanns and to adapt Rio to warp speed capability. The pilot would once again be Jessica Mansfield, now skilled in manoeuvring the vessel. A young Senator named Rafe Granger, who through a rigorous process of selection, had become the first Earth Ambassador and would accompany her.
The mission to Mars would take in the region of three weeks using Rio's advanced technology and speed. Once adapted to a warp speed vessel the flight to Altann would take in the region of a further five months.
Operation 'Altannsave' began on Tuesday 21st February 2023 when, at 9 am Rio rose majestically from Cape Canaveral and headed for Mars.
As Rafe recorded in his flight log: 'After the immense anticipation and lead up to the mission, it has to be said that the trip itself was for the most part unremarkable. As soon as Rio had cleared Earth's orbit we felt a power surge as the engines began to 'rev up' like an aeroplane just before take-off. Then suddenly... we were off! Outside, the view became a blur bright lights and shapes with a strange blue hue whizzing by at immense speed - too fast to be able to pick much out with the naked eye. As Rio's speed stabilised the view slid back into focus and though initially it was amazing to gaze at the various stars and formations, it must be concluded that in reality not a lot really happens in space! Still we managed to fill the time in by reading, writing, talking, sleeping, tending to the all important Tortuga plants and playing cards!'The most exciting part of the journey was watching Mars grow from a pinprick to a giant mass as we approached, returning to its true rusty colour as our speed decreased. As we slipped into orbit and began our descent, we could make out various rock formations mountains and valleys. However, upon closer inspection and to the naked eye, Mars appears to be just a big red rock!'
Twenty days, seventeen hours and twenty minutes later, after a groundbreaking, trouble free flight Rio touched down on Mars on 13th March. Mankind's first ever manned mission to Mars.
The workshop, located close to the Cydonia Mensae region of Mars had broadcast a homing signal as soon as Rio was in range. As she slowly descended towards a small crater, the ground opened as two giant metal doors slid back allowing Rio to set down inside the giant underground workshop. The only visible signs from above were a large pyramid and a cluster of smaller ones rising 100 feet or so from the surface, now covered in a thick layer of red dust.
As she touched down automatic power generators hummed into life providing light, heat and oxygen. Instructions had been transmitted to Rio's computer system of how to convert her into a vessel capable of reaching warp speeds and navigating wormholes.
The Altanns had developed a way to modify space-time in a way that allows a spaceship to travel at immense speed by a purely local expansion of spacetime behind the spaceship and an opposite contraction in front of it. The instructions were merely a blueprint for information purposes as the majority of the process was automated. Two days later the process was complete.
Jessica and Rafe had spent the majority of the time collecting soil and atmospheric samples from Mars and shooting video footage for transmission back to Earth. Rio, now renamed The Rio Grande (or RioG for short) by her crew were now ready to make the distant and lengthy trip to Altann.
At 7.15 am Pacific Time on 15th March the Rio Grande left Mars and headed for Altann. Even with the warp speed technology the trip would take approximately five months. The course was to take the vessel past our Sun, through the HorseHead Nebula past the Belt of Orion and beyond Proxima in the star system of Alpha Centauri. Communications back to Earth would become haphazard as the signal had to first to go to Altann, then be transmitted back to Earth through the wormhole. The new technology aboard RioG would allow Jessica and Rafe to be put in suspended animation for the journey to Proxima.
Rio passed Proxima some two and a half months later continuing on to the black hole of Rantok VII, which lay two days ahead. On 2nd June 2023 RioG slipped out of warp-drive and began her cautious approach to the black hole. As many earth scientists had expected the black hole had a magnetic field and was rotating, creating an immense distortion of spacetime at its centre. The Altanns had been able to create exotic material made of super symmetric particles that harnessed the distortion allowing them to create the wormhole that would be used to propel the ship into the Altann galaxy.
In an entry from the ship's log Jessica described the approach to the black hole: 'As Rio slowly glides towards Rantok VII it is hard to describe the contrasting views around her. On one side there are flickering stars and dancing lights, on the other a vast wall of blackness, utterly devoid of any kind of movement or light. Nothing unusual was observed as we approaced , within our own relativistic view everything appeared normal. The lights begin to dim as Rio attempts to conserve power, fighting against the immense gravitational pull of the black hole. A distant vibration begins to engulf the ship, intensifying as we near the entrance. Out of the blackness I can see a faint pattern of lights emerging, spiralling like the eye of a hurricane. My mind is flooded with memories my childhood, adolescence and teens all flashing by at incredible speed, yet allowing me to seize any given moment before letting it fly off into the void.'
'Rio is shaking violently now as warning sirens begin to flash around the ship and I fear I may soon lose consciousness ...'
When the crew came to some forty minutes later after passing through the wormhole, they were in another galaxy. The damage Rio had sustained was negligible and the onboard computer systems had been automatically able to deal with any faults in the absence of their unconscious crew.
As soon as they were clear of the wormhole the crew were returned to suspended animation and Rio once again initialised warp-drive and headed for Altann.
Twenty hours before reaching Altann, Rio disengaged warp-drive for the last time. To the now revived Jessica and Rafe excitement was running high in anticipation of finally completing the long mission. As the ship neared the Homeworld bright lights began to dance around the ship, beautiful and mesmerising, seemingly welcoming them into this new world.
On August 5th 2023 the Rio Grande began her descent to Altann. As she came through the clouds Jessica and Rafe could see the land below begin to take shape. The oceans were a reddish colour, contrasting with the pale blue land. The sky was emerald green.
At 9:12 pm earth time, Rio touched down on a shelf of rock high in the hills. 'We had finally arrived!'
It was dusk as Jessica and Rafe emerged from the craft. With them they carried their all important cargo - the Tortuga plants. They were met by a council of twelve members lead by Ambassador Roke.
Altann technology had created a universal translator enabling both races to understand each other and after a short welcoming ceremony the Tortuga plants were taken to be analysed by the top scientists.
After an agonising eight-hour wait it was announced excitedly by an out of breath Chief Scientist named Professor Larne that the antidote had been completed. Mass production of a serum would begin at once to halt the spread of the virus. The mission had been a success!
Jessica and Rafe were to stay on Altann for a further four months being granted a 'free right of passage' to explore and gather information and samples.
Accompanying them back to Earth would be a top ranking Altann scientist named Theaill.
In the space of less than one year mankind had not only proved the existence of life on other planets, but also saved a race from extinction and through mutual cooperation had gained the knowledge to reverse the effects of Global Warming caused by human ignorance, selfishness and stupidity.
Now it was clear for the first time that the sky was no longer the limit. It was the Universe that was now the limit!