I host the It's A Frog's Life Acoustic Podcast, and use my main MySpace profile for that. Click the Graham Holland "Frog" friend below to visit it.
I've been playing music since my early teens, and have been writing songs since then too. I used to invent songs for my fellow Scouts to sing while sitting around campfires during summer camps. I sang and played guitar in one guise or another at school and at university. I even got onto the radio singing a song called "Dry Spell Blues" live on the Steve LeFevre show on BBC Radio Leeds back in the drought-hit summer of 1995.
I cut my folk music teeth as a member of the Liverpool Singaround Folk Club (unfortunately no longer running), and used to attend the Stainsby Folk Festival in Derbyshire on a regular basis. It was at Stainsby in 1999 that I reached the final of the singers competition. At Stainsby in 2000 I reached the final again and took second place in the performers competition whilst winning the Best Original Song category with my song "Eyes of a Child". When time allowed I used to enjoy visiting different folk clubs around Merseyside and the north west, and over the years have had bookings to perform at The Prospect (Weston Village), Heswall Folk Club (as was), Halingdon Trades, and Anthony John Clarke's folk club in Liverpool. I am also a lapsed member of the Shellback Chorus sea shanty singing group. During my time with the Shellbacks I performed with them at festivals in Liverpool, Whitby, Fleetwood, Banbury, Edinburgh/Leith, Upton-upon-Severn, and Saltburn, usually singing the song I was commissioned to write for them - the Song of the Salty Young Sea Dog.
Since 1998 I have been involved in the Liverpool poetry and music scene, and have performed at Explosive Mouth, The Dead Good Poets Society, Rubyactive, Borders (Speke), Borders (Cheshire Oaks), Café Pop (Manchester), New Brighton Beer Festival, BBC Music Live, and New Brighton Comedy at the Railway. I was also one of the two guests who took part in the opening night of Outlet, the Tuebrook writing group. If all that wasn't enough, I also run and co-host 'Come Strut Your Stuff', a monthly poetry and acoustic night at Liverpool's Egg Café. Occasionally I even find time to perform, if I can fit myself into the running order. My other host is Nick Payne (from the Dead Good Poets Society), and the evening features Stan the Harper. You can find out more details by following the link in the 'My websites' section of my homepage at itsafrogslife.net
I have taken my musical talent to different countries (mainly through Scouting links) and have entertained people at campfires and bars in countries such as Russia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, and latterly the USA. It was in the United States, whilst working at Camp Freeland Leslie in Wisconsin that I picked up a copy of a campfire songbook which I took back to England, edited, added to, and published on the internet. A link to The Good Book of Peter Henry can be found in the 'My websites' section my website.
"It's A Frog's Life" was my first CD, hence the name of the website and podcast. The CD came about due to pressure from friends in the UK and the USA, many of whom continually pestered me for recordings of my songs, such as "Campfire's In Heaven" (dedicated to the memory of a Scouter from the UK and a young staffer from camp in the USA), "The Greens" (it's that froggy theme again), and the highly popular "Never Trust A Panda". Thanks go to Liz Holland and Jeff Parton (one half of His Worship and The Pig) who offered to record me after hearing one of my songs during a FOLKUS training day earlier in 2000. Their help, support, cups of tea, encouragement and impartial, critical feedback were invaluable to me. "Thanks a bundle, guys!" Maybe in the next ten years I'll record another CD...
