Got into the guitar via James Brown, the Velvet Underground and the Stones. Played a few gigs in Manchester and Stockport pubs. Did a Stooges type thing at College - lotta fun. Got to do some great support slots for acts such as the Manic Street Preachers, Blur, and the James Taylor Quartet.
Next was a sort of pyschedelic blues band called 'The Beautiful Happiness'. We put out a few records on the Cheree label and did a fair bit of touring, variously supporting Ocean Colour Scene (Paul Weller's band) and Slowdive (now Mojave 3 ) amongst others. Our records were produced by Pete Kember otherwise known as Sonic Boom of the ' Spacemen 3 '. I got to meet and work with some great (and very druggy) people such as ' My Bloody Valentine ' and ' Spiritualised '.
Dramatic change of style next up and a bit of a home coming to a funk, acid jazz thing called 'Mal'. Lotsa gigs including residencies at The Jazz Cafe in Camden and the The Orange, West Kensington, London. Recorded for Acid Jazz and eventually got the big Warners Brothers record deal but never followed through somehow. Lost a few members to ' Faithless ' - missed a trick myself there maybe.
All change again to join ' The Flamingoes ', a power punky thing. They were mates of mates but it didn't really work out. Wrote some great stuff with James though. One or two other bands followed including 'Jensen' and 'Massifunk' but none seemed to quite do the trick.
So moved back home to Manchester and now working hard on getting my jazz muse sorted properly. Currently being mentored by ace guitarist Mike Walker . Mike is one the best players in the world having worked with many of the greats including Dave Holland and Steve Swallow, legendary composer George Russell, Kenny Wheeler, Anthony Braxton and Bill Frisell. It's a great privilege and flattering to get positive vibes from the man. Also meeting and hanging out with great jazz and funk dudes up here in MCR such as the phenomenal drummer Luke, John and Stuart from The Cinematic Orchestra and the funky folk from Little Green . In the process of putting my own jazz thing together.
I also blog about Manchester and jazz in the guise of ' The Ring Modulator ' and co-host the EXR Jazz show on Manchester's ALL FM 96.9