The 2000’s
 Time rolls on and all of a sudden my face seems to me to belong to someone else. Still my friends and family seem to recognise me so that’s OK.
My equipment is now almost exclusively digital in both the studio and for back line although I do use Orange and Vox amplification occasionally. My studio gear is 24 track digital hard disk (for studio and live use), alongside a multichannel computer based system using Cubase I also have an 8 channel digital live recording set-up for demo and live gig work. I have switched from Roland to an Axon synth controller for its speed capability and accuracy of tracking. If it was good enough for John McLaughlin who am I to complain?
I am still running the Rising Records label and continue to aid other musicians in bringing out their product. I produce and play backing tracks for artist’s projects, and record their efforts where appropriate. I have just finished a second album with Barry Diamond on which I once again recorded all of the musical accompaniment and his output is very pleasant. We tracked the emergence of the band ‘Severance’ had a musical partnership with ‘Psi Phi’ and are currently tracking the emergence of ‘Setsudan’.
 I have been working on a number of Pig’n’aif type projects over recent years and have just produced my latest solo album ‘The Jester... thinks...’ which brings together some overdue material as well as some new outings under that heading. That too is available under Rising Records.I have a huge backlog of demo material which I am now trying to get into finished format as soon as possible, given my current time constraints and will hopefully be collaborating with other musos on that.
I have produced a musicians joke book, which is freely available for download. If you have a sense of humour and you want a copy of 'The Almost Definitive Musos Jokebook' follow this link to the Media page and download it. You might want to have a wander around the site at the same time.  Please feel free to pass this info on to your mates so they can download one for themselves. I am also in the process of writing a book looking at the humorous side and loosely based upon my past musical experiences in the business which I hope to have finished this year. The first chapters certainly make me laugh even though some of the background was not that funny on a personal basis at the time.
It recently struck me that time is getting on and it is also about time I had some cross-fertilisation with other musicians again. I also wanted to play with my son Krys live before that opportunity disappears and he is swept away in his own musical projects. He is developing into a very capable guitarist. To that end I have kicked off another band project called ChinWig. This is a 4 piece line-up with myself and Krys on guitar and guitar synth, Gordon Henderson on drums (a welcome return) and Mick Shedd (who I last worked with in the ToshRollo days) on bass. We are looking at new treatments of some old selected Phoenix Rising material, some of the intervening Pig’n’aif material from my latest solo album as well as some purpose written material under the working title of ‘Grumpy Old Music’. more info can be found on our ChinWig website.
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