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Welcome

"I have learned that there lies dormant in the souls of all men a penchant for some particular musical instrument, and an unsuspected yearning to learn to play on it, that are bound to wake up and demand attention some day." - Mark Twain

Hi, my name is John and I live in England. Welcome to my web site.  My site tells you a lot about my lifelong passion for music as well as passing on some some (hopefully) useful information. In my spare time I write and record songs in my home studio, play guitar and sing in a band with some friends.  I also like to read non-fiction: my favourite subjects being Oscar Wilde and the true American West, books on Billy The Kid in particular.

Site Updates/News

• 2020: April - Last September we moved from the Midlands to Cornwall.  I’ve always longed to be back near the sea (I was born in Plymouth) but career and other commitments never enabled it.  Now I’m retired we’ve made the move to a beautiful coastal village between Truro and Falmouth and every day we have wonderful views of the sea. I’ve got a larger room now for my home recording studio and will soon be back in song production.  I’m also working with another local musician to form a music partnership for live gigs.    

• 2016: September - I appeared with drumming buddy Laurie on the Jo Cameron show on BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Radio. They wanted to talk to us about our music adventures in the ‘60s, and our music partnership of 50 years.  You can hear the interview here.

• I'm a fan of the Canadian jazz duo Four80East and they've issued a challenge to make a video to go with a track 'The Walker' from their new album 'Off Duty'. My songwriting partner Laurie and I rose to the challenge and the result can be seen on YouTube or on my videos page here.

• If you've visited my other Other Interests page, you'll know I love reading about the life and times of Oscar Wilde. I discovered some really interesting videos at the New York’s Morgan Library & Museum web site. A handsome leather-bound volume of Oscar Wilde manuscripts was donated to them in 2008. Some of these have never been seen before and offer some intriguing insights into Oscar and his life and work. For example, why is a handwritten manuscript of 'The Selfish Giant' written in his wife's handwriting? The museum made six two minute videos with excellent audio commentaries about this amazing volume and you can find them here. Highly recommended!

In my studio