About Me

I have been lucky to be part of some of the most groundbreaking acts on the British Folk Scene. My journey started when I was 14 in The Old Swan Band – a band that explored and reaffirmed the joyousness of English traditional music, at a time when most English folk musicians were playing celtic music. The Old Swan Band has never stopped playing.
From this healthy foundation of tunes and song I moved on to Blowzabella (whilst never letting go of Old Swan).

Blowzabella created its own revolution by bringing a more European flavour to the British market, while still being firmly entrenched in the British scene and its music. We toured Europe extensively and the band has also travelled to West Africa, Brazil and beyond. This band has now reformed and there is still nothing around that compares with its amazing wall of sound.

From those two amazing rooting and growing experiences I went on to become a writer of songs and tunes, as well as shows – my first of which gloried in the title of ‘Perjuring Little Whore’. This show featured another musical collaboration that was to have a profound influence on me as a musician. That was my work with avant garde cellist, Kathryn Locke.

We wrote together and produced music that was hard to define and box; that heady label has remained with me ever since.
That may sound like a strange thing to say but I am often told ‘I don’t know how to market you’ or ‘you are before your time’... I never really know what that one means! Yet within that possibly difficult area come accolades such as ‘it doesn’t matter what I see you do, you always do it well’ and ‘there really is no-one else like you’.
So, if you have come to my music via one particular avenue this site should help you see the whole me and give you an insight into what makes me tick.