May - August 2010
Really not sure where another summer went, but from what I can remember, I spent most of it with a guitar in my hands. Bazillions of gigs (both with the band, and solo acoustic stuff) and lots of teaching have made it a really good summer. Recently finished some session work that came through the online service I offer. The client was happy, and I had a great time doing it, so everyone wins.

November 2009 - April 2010
Woah, not sure what happened there, but it appears I forgot about this page for a while. In short, I've had 6 months of gigging and teaching like mad. It's been awesome. The Reason have played some amazing gigs and are now braced for a summer of functions. In guitar-nerd news, I've restarted using the Warmoth Strat that had sat un-used for a fair while. New neck, new pickups, a Plek job, and it's turned out fantastic. More regular updates here, I promise.

September - October 2009
Plenty of gigs, loads of teaching, and hours of practise. It's been a fun few months. The highlight was definitely two masterclasses I attended with Carl Verheyen and Guthrie Govan. These two players are monsters, and gave me a huge jab of inspiration. Both very different players, both equally awesome, and both entirely worth checking out if you get the chance. Other than that I had my old teacher and good friend replace me for a few songs at a recent Reason gig. Lesson learnt: never invite someone to step in with your band when they can kick your ass on guitar :-) . Right, time to get some more practise in....

June - August 2009
A quite shocking lack of blog updates over the past few months, purely because I've been too busy playing guitar.....Suffice to say there have been gigs with the Reason (lots of them), solo acoustic gigs, alot of teaching, and when time allows, lots of practise. More updates over the winter months....

May 2009
Really quiet this month, purely because I was on holiday for most of it. One lesson I did learn though, was that after 3 weeks of not playing guitar, don't pick it up and spend two hours on string bending exercises. For the first time in thirteen years, I actually have blisters on my fingers....

April 2009
Fair amount of variety this month. I played on the Isle of Wight with my first band, which comprised of seventy minutes of punk, was surprisingly good fun, and got a great crowd reaction. With The Reason we learned first hand that singers, broken arms, codeine and gigs can have some amusing side effects. I don't know any other people that would have done the gigs in that state, so kudos all round. Finally, I received the track Deep Water in my inbox. This is the track I played on back in December for the guys at Hi-Sonorous studios, and it's turned out very nice indeed. From here on in the year turns into one big wedding season....

March 2009
Another good month for gigs with The Reason - it seems like every gig we're going at the moment is knocking people over, which is always nice. Though there are some obvious changes that have occurred within the band, and these have clearly been beneficial, the reaction we're getting at gigs these days is almost inexplicable to me. Maybe there's a lack of bands out there who actually try hard? (I'd like to think we do, at least). Other than that I've spent most of the month looking forward to my new guitar which was assembled (literally) at the end of the month, and looks like this. It's turned out just how I'd planned, so I'm very happy. On top of that I've been learning a set of music for a 're-union' (don't call it a 'come-back') gig in April with my very first band(!), consisting mostly of 70s punk stuff. It's weird - I'm sure I've gotten better in the last 10 years, but playing that material, it doesn't really show ;-)

February 2009
Relatively quiet this month in terms of gigs, but The Reason played a corker last night in Havant. It's strange going to a new place for the first time and seeing people there from other venues who've come to see you, but that's what we got, and very nice it was too. The big thing this month was the completion of the first track from Project Moose Knuckle. This is a band four of us put together with the intention of writing and recording some progressive music, the kind of stuff we don't normally get away with writing. My idea was to get the best drummer, keys player and bassist I knew, and see what happened when we made an effort. The first track, Threebone, is the result of four months of faffing about, then 3 weeks of actual work. We've started working on some more ideas since, so hopefully there's more to come. Other than that I've been transcribing loads of country (my head hurts), and generally ploughing in as many hours as possible to learning how to play guitar.....Next month's blog should see me grinning as the parts for my new guitar will have arrived.

January 2009
A few lessons were (re-)learned this month with regard to live work. Firstly, noise-limiters are the work of the devil. A wedding gig at the start of this month was pretty much a wash out because a medium snare hit alone would cut the power to the band. Luckily this didn't happen during the first dance, but it happened in pretty much every other song that night. Secondly, those folk in Pewsey like a good rock band. The Reason played at The Coopers Arms again this month, and it had to be the best reaction I've ever seen at a pub gig. Aside from teaching, the rest of the month has been taken up by recording - firstly for a new set of demo tracks for The Reason - but mostly for Project Moose Knuckle, a 'prog outfit' I'm involved with whose first recording should be up here next month. Brace yourself.

December 2008
As months go, this one was pretty varied as I played 8 gigs in a row with different bands and/or lineups. The tricky part there is getting to the end of a song and looking round the stage to see who you're playing with, and trying to remember how they end that song. The most amusing gig was a regular pub gig in Pewsey (somewhere towards Oxford) where we had so much PA and lights it felt like a small arena gig - and actually turned out to be the best pub gig I've ever done - for some reason the crowd loved it. Away from band work I did a solo acoustic wedding gig that went well, although it's always hard to tell at those gigs how many people there are actually listening. The most challenging and rewarding time this month was a day spent doing session work for Hi-Sonorous studios. In the company of studio owners Chris and Sanj (both incredible musicians) I spent 8 hours writing and tracking guitar parts for a 4-minute song, which I'll post up here as soon as I get the mix. Great fun!