UK
​
Born in London two years before Elvis joined the army.
​
Piano lessons from age 5 to 13 years, whereupon my teacher, a Mrs Rix, would not have me play Honky Tonk Women as she said “…it’s the same chord all the way through”. So, I quit …
​
Work in folk clubs and then bands throughout the 70s as a guitarist. There are some recordings of this time, and some are just ok (Nick Carter – Abstracts and Extracts album for one), others not so good.
​
I quickly developed a socio/political dissatisfaction with notions of “the music business”. So, a brief drive into solo guitar, electronics and free improvisation at Chapter Arts and the Bristol Musicians Co-op; then a Micro Moog Synth, a Revox and a Teac 3340 … which led me by 1980 to full time alternative theatre composition and performance and working live with actors, synthesizers, tapes and echo units. This alternative direction had appeared after seeing, amongst other things, Lol Coxhill with Welfare State
​
The move facilitated the working musician away from any “music industry” complications towards not-for-profit environments, with co-operative structures driving demanding and deep collaborations with directors, designers, writers, actors, film makers, communities and artists of all kinds …a brief selection:
​
Chattie Salaman, Deborah Levy, Bryony Lavery, Adrian Shergold, Jennie Buckman, Romain Weingarten, Alan Passes, Frank Whitten, Hilary Burns, Danny Boyle, Frances Barber, Phil Overhead, Jane Gibson, Kate Willard, Richard Shannon, Kathryn Hunter, Vincent Ebrahim, Nicola Kathrens, Nella Marin, Andrea Stark …
​
At Common Stock Theatre I was composer in residence and assistant director, I also established a small 8 track open access studio. With percussionist and actor Stuart Pampellone I developed a range of experimental music workshops over 9 years with local youth in Hammersmith & Fulham and across London, and in the venues the company regularly toured to nationally - including work in prisons, community centres, roadside camps and on large council housing estates. Tapes of this period are lost, since the closure of Common Stock, by which time I was in Australia.
​
Common Stock was a (legal) co-operative and working there I learnt a tremendous amount artistically and aesthetically from Chattie, the Artistic Director. I also learnt from her how to animateur long term community cultural participation; manage studio and rehearsal space; tours and large-scale community residencies. And all the administration, budgets, pr and people processes that go with them, while all the time maintaining the art at hand as the only concern.
​
Australia
​
All that experience helped maintain a wage when I moved to Australia in 89 and found Footscray Community Arts Centre in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne, with a socio/political position and philosophy very much aligned with that of Common Stock. I am thankful to all these organisations and pleased to have remained working all my life in a not-for-profit environment.
​
I have maintained a sound studio throughout, and occasionally performed live in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Singapore and Indonesia. Also independently curated live art events include Singapore, Indonesia, Brisbane, Melbourne and Glasgow and work in sound design for galleries, museums and universities.
​
By the 2000s in Brisbane, I first met Mr Lawrence English while I was running a generative sound installation with audiomulch in the Turbine Hall of The Brisbane Powerhouse.
​
CEO/Centre Director of the Footscray Community Arts Centre
Chair of the Contemporary Music Events Company
CEO/Artistic Director of the Next Wave Festival
CEO/Artistic Director of The Performance Space
CEO/Artistic Director of the Brisbane Powerhouse Centre for the Live Arts
Artistic Advisor at Metro Arts Centre
Professional Development Coordinator for Access Arts Inc
Associate Professor Performance Studies, Queensland University of Technology
Chair of Media Arts Asia Pacific (MAAP)
​
Top gigs
​
Throughput the 1970s and 80s a range of live events profoundly affected my thinking about music, performance & art ...
​
A brief selection, by no means comprehensive, but they do set markers in time:
​
Leonard Cohen – May 10, 1970, Albert Hall, London
Van Der Graaf Generator - Sept 23, 1971, Paris Theatre, London
Derek Bailey & Lol Coxhill – sometime in 71, South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell
Centipede - Dec 19, 1971, Rainbow Theatre, London
Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan and Alla Rakha - Oct 28, 1972, Albert Hall, London
Henry Cow - Feb 10, 1978, Arnolfini, Bristol
The Slits - Nov 26, 1978, Top Rank, Cardiff
Welfare State International, Burnley, Lancashire 1977: The Loves, Lives and Murders of Lancelot Barabbas Quail
Pip Simmons Theatre Group at Chapter Arts Cardiff 1977: Woyzeck
IOU at Chapter Arts Cardiff 1978: Between the Floods - the Churning of the Milky Ocean
Shakespeare's Hamlet at Royal Court Theatre London 1980 with Jonathan Pryce & Harriet Walter
Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape at Riverside Studios, London 1986 with Max Wall