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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

• 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.

• 2016: Check out my new band ‘The Phoenix Trio’ here.

• February 2014: In London the other day I visited 34 Tite Street, Chelsea where Oscar Wilde lived from January 1885 with his wife Constance and his two children (born 1885 and 1886) until his fall from grace in the Spring of 1895. Now divided into flats, it’s one of the most expensive addresses in the country. A complete house in the street changed hands last year for about £15m. The front room seen in the picture on the left (with yours truly posing) was used by Wilde as his study, but is now the bedroom of a two-roomed flat sold for c.£1.15m in 2012, here’s a link to the sales brochure. Click on the photos for larger versions and more information.

• 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