My Life in Music

Through the photography I got the taste of the 60's Music world and I decided to stay in music as a full time career.

I started working at "The Cromwellion Club" in the 60's also "The Scotch of St. James", "La Valbonne"  "The Round House" and "The Speckeasy".

In early 70’s I was headhunted to go to the "Lyceum" in the Strand, and work from Midnight till 6 o-clock in the morning on the session called "Midnight Court" which became a "The Great Rock" venue of the time.

At the Lyceum I started "The Best Disco in Town", on a Monday night and this developed into the drop-in place where the bands & artist would come and do personal appearances to London music dance scene, this started what is now known as PA's.

On St. Valentines night in the mid 70's in front of over 2400 people I put (an then unknown in the UK ) "Bob Marley" on stage in a brown 3 piece suit when he was with "Johnny Nash" who had just released "Stir it Up" which Bob had wrote. I became very good friend with both Bob & Johnny.

The "Cromwellion Club" was my first gig in 1966, my in-house band was an unknown band who nearly disbanded but went to the USA and found fame they were called “Deep Purple”.

The club was the drinking and meeting place of celebrities like Motorcycle World Champions Mike Hailwood & Bill Ivy, top stars & bands (ie:- The Beatles, Mike Jagger, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, The Tremolos, Long John Baldry,The Searchers, Cat Stevens & Stevie Winwood & when in town artistes like Edwin Starr, Temptations, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Four Tops & Marvin Gaye).

One night in 1966 "Chas Chandler" who used to play bass guitar with "The Animals" dropped in on his way back from the states (having just landed at Heathrow) with this black guy carrying a guitar and asked me to give this guy a spot, his name was "Jimi Hendrix"  and this was his first gig in the UK & I become very good friends with Jimi until his un-timely death.

In the early days I worked with the likes of Otis Redding, Rolling Stones, Carlos Santana, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Nash, Sly & the Family Stone, Toot's & the Matels, Edwin Starr, The Grateful Dead, Arthur Lee & Love, The Three Degrees, The Cream, The Doors, Elton John, The Who, Bob Marley and many more. I also worked with Bob Marley when he recorded "No Women, No Cry" Live at The Lyceum in the Strand.

In the early 70’s I built a network of DJ’s that worked the clubs and bars in the Midlands and the southeast part of England including London and I was based in The Lyceum in the Strand where I run the network from.

The Lyceum was also where I did all the early "Miss World Finals" with the BBC (before it went to the Royal Albert Hall), "Carl Allan Awards", the opening night party for "Cats", "The Feathers Ball"and the "Rock & Pops Awards"  (which was the forerunner of "The Brits Awards" now),

 In 1972 I was one of the first English DJ’s to work in San Antonio, Ibiza at The "Playboy1 Club".  San Antonio, Ibiza.

In 1979 I spent one year in Dublin and set-up a recording studio with Brian McKenzie (of Radio Northsea International, which I also was a London based DJ & Agent ) and worked on a Radio/Television stations "RTE" and "ARD Radio" but returned to London for family reasons and to work the live scene as an consultant & live DJ at the Lyceum which I had truly missed.

In the late 80's on a  five years contract I also a freelance consultant to Kenny Scott the owner of the "Dun Cow" circuit where we ran nights five nights a week with Capital Radio & BBC Radio 1 DJ's roadshows.

On Sunday Lunch times I worked as a DJ & Presenter along side comedians Jimmy Davidson, Jimmy Jones & Mike Read  at "The Dun Cow" in the Old Kent Road, which was spin-off from the TV show "Your a Star" that was great fun which ended being filmed in a individual BBC2 TV documentary on nightclubs in London.

As the music industry progressed, new technolgy came with it and I started using computers in production of mixing and promotion, which I developed a very quick understanding of their workings which led me to any career change, which brings you back to the home page of this web site.