I hit my youth in the formative years of punk which left its jagged teeth in me and shaped my approach to music and performance ever since.

Punk gave me an unshakable ambition to run against the grain of popular music convention which possibly explains the reason for being absolutely nowhere after thirty years of music creation

After many years playing the length and breadth of the British Isles in one band or another I decided to swap the bass guitar for the six string and present my songs in acoustic format and armed with a newfound awareness that the ‘message’ can be communicated more clearly and concisely this way I set about open mic and folk sessions of England

A positive response convinced me to take the songs to the recording studio and commit them to the hard drive and ‘armchair critic’ is the result

Many of the songs included here are written from the vantage point of the sofa with a mug of tea and barrel of biscuits for comfort

Quite simply some subjects cannot be overlooked and the killings of both Blair Peach and Ian Tomlinson and the Morecombe Bay cockling disaster are just three examples of stories that disturbed me for days before I finally decided to make them a theme for a song – in a way I guess this is all some form of exorcism!

I think it is important to leave some songs ambiguous – lyrics can take on a whole new meaning depending on the viewpoint of the listener and unravelling a song is one of the most enjoyable aspects of music

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