My first ever Band, Monksilvar, was formed in 1970 and lasted until 1972. There were many different line-ups, but the mainstays were myself on lead guitar, Stanley Sparks on Bass and John Kerruish on Vocals. John had a great voice and was in the original stage production of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' for a long time. He also understudied Paul Nicholas as 'Jesus', which gives you some idea of how good his voice was. Amazingly, he had a terrible stammer off-stage as we first discovered when he auditioned for us in a little room above The Hope and Anchor Pub in Islington, North London, but it never affected him on-stage! We had a variety of Drummers, the longest lasting being Nick Elphinstone, but also notably including Stuart Elliott, who left us to join Cockney Rebel and has played with all sorts of people since like Paul McCartney and Kate Bush. We also had a wonderful roadie called Mark Guterres, who now runs one of the most successful trucking companies called Transam Trucking which is based in Suffolk, transporting all the biggest bands around on tour. I am delighted to say that after all these years Mark and I are still in touch.

Next was Hammerhead  in 1973, and it was in this group that I met Bruce Finlay for the first time. Bruce had been the drummer with The Sorrows, a Coventry based band who had a big hit with 'Take A Heart' in 1965. Bruce had come back from Italy where he had lived for a number of years - The Sorrows having been much bigger on the Continent than they were here. He and I got on really well and he was just the most fantastic drummer. We both left the band at the same time, Bruce to go back to Italy and I had had enough of playing covers, even though we had a huge amount of work.

Monksilvar reformed twice in 1973 to play 'one-off' gigs. The first of these was The Windsor Free Festival, a real 'Hippy-Type Free Festival' held in the Queen's back yard in Windsor Great Park  and great fun. We played in a sort of framework teepee and I have to say went down very well, getting an encore which a lot of bands didn't! The next gig was just before Christmas at The City University, London and John had to take a night off from 'Superstar' to join us. Again, this was another great night.

The beginning of 1974 saw yet another new band, Tiny and The Hot Toddies. Stanley was again on bass and the drummer was Barry Purkis, aka Barry Graham and 'Thunderstick', his later nom-de-plume in the Heavy Metal band Samson. We had a residency at The Hoop and Grapes in London's Wardour Street, just up the road from The Marquee and this was very much the 'glitter' era. I seem to recall that I didn't wear any type of footwear other than silver boots with 5 inch stack heels for about three years! We added another guitarist, Keith Stanbury, later on and took care of the vocals amongst the four of us, certainly a mistake on my part...........we played that year's Windsor Free Festival too, but added John Kerruish to give us a much needed boost on vocals. That turned out to be a fantastic gig. There were six stages and we had been booked on the main one, probably because our success the previous year, and ten minutes after we had gone on all the other stages had closed down for the night. Consequently we had the whole of the audience who were still relatively compos-mentis listening to us! I don't know how many were there, but it seemed that the crowd went on for ever - great memories! Simon Catlin, who had sung in numerous bands, including The Sorrows and The Primitives in Italy came to this gig and later asked Barry and I if we'd go to Italy with him and play in a re-formed version of The Primitives with him and Bruce Finlay. We agreed and Tiny and The Hot Toddies split.

The Primitives had released a couple of records in the UK in the mid-sixties, but had also had hair-cuts on the Eamonn Andrews show - what some people would do for publicity! Like The Sorrows, they had much more success on the Continent and despite the fact (as I discovered later) that neither Bruce nor Simon had the rights to the name we played a number of gigs out in Italy and Sicily as 'The New Primitives' and 'The Primitives' in late 1974 and 1975. Some of these gigs were wonderful, and for Barry and I it was just like walking into instant stardom. I had never had people queuing up outside the dressing room door to get autographs before, and it was big, big fun.

Having left the Continent, we headed to the USA, changing the name initially to Angel Dust, which received some adverse comment (unsurprisingly) and then after a little while to Rampant, which was fairly suitable for an English band in the States in those days! We played a few gigs in New York, then started our way across country and parted company with our bass player in Michigan. This made life a little more difficult, to say the least, and our initial plans were obviously thrown into disarray, so Simon, Bruce and I headed for California where we had some friends and contacts. 

Very shortly after arriving we had new management, a new bass player in David Gordon and started gigging around the Bay area. David didn't stay with us for very long, so I called Stanley Sparks in the UK and asked if he wanted to join. He arrived five days later. Having had some very intensive rehearsals we were able to resume gigging with very little delay - I don't think Stanley had got over his jet lag by the time we played the first one! Some of these gigs were great, but probably the most fun was with Frankie Miller at a club in Berkeley. His guitarist at the time was Henry McCulloch, who had played with Joe Cocker and the Grease Band at Woodstock and then with Paul McCartney's Wings, which was a pretty impressive CV and he was a very nice guy. Another couple of gigs that I remember in particular were a college do with Eddie Money, just starting to make a name for himself around San Francisco and some huge auditorium north of San Francisco that ended with Simon being wheeled out to the car on one of the equipment trollies having passed out through excess! Simon was the best performer that I ever shared a stage with, but being an alcoholic meant that he trod a fine line between being brilliant and a complete pain. We parted amicably from our management whom we felt weren't doing enough for us and soon after this headed for Los Angeles living for a while in an apartment just around the back of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. We shared this with another band, and to say that it was fun would be an understatement...............

I loved being in Hollywood, and we also spent quite a lot of our time in Santa Monica, probably because Simon had found the 'English' pub, called The King's Head. Naturally, he got on very well with the landlord and unbelievably we ended up playing a gig there one night with Peter Sarsted of 'Where Do You Go To My Lovely' fame. We go to the other side of the world and end up playing in an English pub - weird! I also got to play with a harmonica player called Gers, who had appeared on the Jimi Hendrix album 'Cry of Love'. To receive the compliment 'You play great guitar, man' from someone who had played with Hendrix was praise indeed.

These were good times, but so often there is a downside and Simon's drinking was becoming too much to handle. The final straw was after he turned up late for a showcase gig. This had been arranged by our management for Record company executives to see if a bidding war could be started for our signatures on a contract. Simon not only turned up late, but also drunk, and the first thing he did was leap off stage, sticking his head right in front of a very carefully selected audience shouting 'Right, come on you bastards, let's Rock and Roll'. Cringe city all round........and no new contract. We spilt shortly afterwards

Arriving back in England, clearly things were not the same. I still had hair halfway down my back and glitter glasses. Everyone else seemed to be wearing torn clothes with safety pins etc. At this point in time Punk had not hit the USA, so I was surprised to say the least! I decided that life would be better back in Suffolk for a while, via some fun in Europe first.......... the next band being Hard Core in 1978. As the name suggests, we were playing pretty basic hard rock, being 'boring old farts' already and only aged 25! The singer and bass player was Terry Fisk, great voice but a very volatile personality. We gigged a lot, but it was never going to go anywhere and when the inevitable split came I moved back to London in search of something new.

Surprisingly, this came about via Terry. He had met Kevin Beautista, ex-singer of "The Idols" and agreed to form a band. He had also told Kevin, flatteringly for me, that they couldn't find a better guitarist. They came up to London, played me the songs, which were tremendous, and I agreed to join. Kevin did write great songs. We got John Mazer, ex-Hard Core, in on drums and started gigging immediately having decided to call ourselvesThe Motives. We released a single, called 'King of The Dub' and things were moving in the right direction. Terry then got an offer to sing with another band on a tour supporting Chuck Berry, took the gig and then John left too. I brought in an old friend, Pete Goodsell, on bass and we auditioned for a new drummer. The best by far was Mark Price, whose previous claim to fame had been to star in an television advert for Hovis bread!. By then we also had new management and released another track, 'Looking For Miranda', on a compilation album entitled, 'So You Think We're All Farmers'. 

The gigs that we were doing were very well received and we were definitely on the up. Then Kevin, who also liked to drink to excess, managed to drive his car off the road and into the side of a house. He was perfectly okay, apart from a couple of busted ribs, but of course that meant he couldn't sing....... Consequently everything had to be cancelled. When he was fit enough to sing again we resumed gigging and recording, but the relationships within the band were no longer the same. Somehow the magic had gone and sadly we split shortly afterwards. Mark joined Nick Kershaw after a while, being lucky enough to play with him at Live Aid, then played with All About Eve and was most recently with Del Amitri.

I was very disillusioned and upset by The Motives splitting up. I had had a brilliant time playing in bands from 1970 to 1982 but the two best ones had both been flawed by alcoholic lead singers. Such is life - I was fast approaching 30 by this time, so thought that I had better take a 'serious' job. I went out and bought a suit and tie and started in the City of London at an Investment Bank by the name of Nikko Securities, a Japanese firm. Much to my surprise, this new career turned out to be a lot more fun than I had anticipated..................although I still played the odd gig here and there having formed a pick-up band with some friends which we called "The Pink Torpedos" after a line from a "Spinal Tap" song!

Having left the City and moved back to Suffolk, a chance meeting with bass player Jeremy Gugenheim lead to the formation of The Verdict, a three piece Rock & Blues band which included Chris Bayfield on drums. The Verdict recorded a CD, “Guilty” which was well received “Nice tight rock sound” by Steven Foster on BBC Radio Suffolk.

Boulevard Blonde came from a chat between Chris and I. We knew that it was not possible for The Verdict to play at Hachfest 2007, but wanted to join in the fun. I gave Vanessa guitar lessons and in conversation found out that she had sung professionally and asked, “If you were to play again, what would you want to do?” She replied “I’d really like to front a Rock band”. With that the seed was sown and I told Chris that we had a lead singer with a great voice, but we needed a bass player. “Funny that” he replied, “I’ve just had an e-mail from someone who has moved into Hacheston, let’s check him out”. This turned out to be Pete Riches, rehearsals were arranged and “Muff and The Divers” were formed for a one-off Hachfest gig. It turned out to be so much fun that we decided to carry on, adding Rob Goodrich on Keyboards last September, albeit under a different name…………….

Some other musicians worked and played with include:-

• Gers – Jimi Hendrix’s “Cry of Love” album
• Henry McCullough – Paul McCartney and Wings, Joe Cocker’s Grease Band
• Frankie Miller – The Frankie Miller Band
• Bruce Dickinson – Iron Maiden
• Stuart Elliott – Cockney Rebel, Steve Harley, Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Roger Daltrey, Eric Clapton, Sting, Alan Parsons Project, Tina Turner, drummer for Monksilvar
• Jim Rodford – The Kinks, Argent, produced The Motives
• Mark Price – Del Amitri, Nik Kershaw, All About Eve, Bryan Ferry, drummer for The Motives
• John Kerruish – Jesus Christ Superstar, vocalist for Monksilvar
• Thunderstick – Samson, drummer for Tiny and The Hot Toddies & The Primitives
• Jon Kellihor – Steven Stills, drummer for Monksilvar
• Tony Phillips – Sound engineer for Seal, produced The Motives
• Nick Elphinstone – film soundtracks, drummer for Monksilvar
• Paul Samson – Samson
• Kevin Beautista – The Idols, guitarist and vocalist for The Motives
• Johnny Mars – American Blues Star
• Wally Bryson – The Raspberries, Eric Carmen
• Peter Sarstedt - solo star “Where do you go to my Lovely?”
• Navasota – Texas Blues Band
• Eddie Money – American Star
• Camel – featured Peter Bardens, ex – Them (Van Morrison)
• Robin Sylvester – Rory Gallagher producer
• UFO
• Larry Tolfree – Peter Green Splinter Group, Joe Jackson
• David Kaffinetti – Rare Bird