I have a vision of Music, and that Vision is Clear!

For the second rehearsal of the unnamed band I went by myself. I felt now that I had met everyone, saw what I could do and had also seen their talent, it would be better to knuckle down without my girlfriend being present. She did come along from time to time and witnessed some of our most triumphant gigs, but for now it was time to work on our set and get 'gig ready'. 

Originally, we just did covers, and within a few weeks somehow we had managed to bag a gig at the student union at one of Medway's university campuses. No pressure then! Yes, our first gig would be at a university student union, in front of loads of drunk students, baying for our blood - if we were crap..... Great! So, work hard we did. 

Within a few weeks, we had successfully got over an hour's worth of material, covering the then in-crowd of musicians/bands of the British Britpop scene. Plus a few more from a little further in the past. Very soon the gig was upon us, and the issue of finding a name was very much a concern to all. I can't remember who exactly came up with the name, but I was very proud of the name we had chosen. 'ClearVision'. Within a week, we had a logo and a hastily hand-drawn banner to display behind us on the stage. I think I still have it in the loft of my father's house, but I'll need to check. (Sometime later..... Yes i have it!)

(The Original ClearVision Logo)

The first gig came and went without any problems, mostly because hardly any students turned up and the audience was made of up predominantly of our family and friends. However, we had performed well and not made many mistakes. Our friends and family told their friends and family, so by the time of the next gig, we had a much bigger fan base to call upon. 

( One of our first gigs, at Aylesford Rugby Club, Kent)

We soon started dabbling with writing songs. I had done this on and off for a couple of years by now, very basic chord structures and melodies. Alex and Chris formed a partnership, bouncing ideas off each other which culminated in two very exceptional songs called 'TV Life', and if I do say so myself, a beautiful song called 'All I Believed'. I was trying to write on my own, but still struggling to get anything decent, except I had a chorus to something which had a hook that revolved around the words 'I, am not really that strong, and you, you're the one that turns me on'. Unbeknown to me, Alan, our bass player, had been working on something where he had a chord structure, but no lyrics, so he asked me to see if I could work with it. The next rehearsal, I rocked up guitar in hand, with a completed song which included Alan's chords for the verse, my chorus hook and a new bridge section to link the two together. It was called 'Love me Today'. With these new songs in tow and our rapidly expanding fan base, we had started to build strong foundations for ClearVision. The new songs became extremely popular and we kept getting asked if we would be recording them for people to buy. 

(ClearVision: L to R - Alan - Bass, Chris - Guitar, Myself - Vocals, Martin - Drums & Alex - Guitar)

After a number of months saving up our very limited gig money, we entered the studio and recorded our first, and last, EP. The CD was very popular; I think we sold close to 500 copies, which isn't bad considering our fan base didn't really exceed the Medway/Maidstone area. We collectively worked on the design with I think Alex using the logo to form our cover. To sell 500 copies nowadays of a physical single/EP you would be expecting a chart entry in the top 75 of the British charts (if sold in a week, yes I know, but it's still impressive). Our increasing popularity led to us entering a 'battle of the bands contest', probably the pinnacle of ClearVision's career as it turned out, and also the place where I discovered the music of Pink Floyd......

Tentative steps into Rock and Roll.

....in 1994 I went to see my, and my mother's, favorite singer. We'd always wanted to go together, but unfortunately, she had been too ill to go. So, just a year after she died, there I was, aged 16, watching Chris de Burgh at the Albert Hall in London. I was about 10 rows from the stage, all excited to finally see him. I started chatting to this lovely lady from Cornwall, who was about my mum's age. We got round to the subject of why I was there alone and I explained how and why I was there because of my mum. After the explanation, the lady waves over a chap from the side of the hall. It turns out he's Mr de Burgh's PA. She tells this chap all about me and the both of us are issued backstage passes! The concert was amazing and I was wowed by CdeB's guitarist Danny McBride. With trepidation I went backstage to meet the man and his band. CdeB was very nice and down to earth, he knew of my mum, and chatted to me for ages, even signing an autograph on my program, as did Danny McBride, who also put a message of encouragement to carry on learning guitar. 

The night ended about midnight, with me running for, and missing, the last train home. Then calling my dad and sheepishly asking for a lift, but the story I told him about why I missed the train was so great, he didn't mind. That's not the end, oh no not by a long shot. I became a regular CdeB concert attendee and in 1997, at Hylands Park, Chelmsford (home of the V festival), I was once again close to the stage when CdeB asked if the audience wanted to sing with him. I was egged on by one of my best friends, Andy, so I jumped up and I said I would love to sing, as did many others. However, he pulled me out of the crowd and there I was standing in front of an estimated 12,000 people, bricking it. We sung together on a song called 'Crying and laughing' and it was one of those life events you never forget. From that day, I wanted to sing in front of many, many people. 

Luckily, I have sung many times in front of big crowds since, not 12000 no, but sometimes 1000-2000 people from time to time. I now perform regularly with my band and I do this in the hope that one day, when I meet my mum again she will tell me how proud she is of me, as all I ever wanted to do is make her proud. However, to get to the present day means there are many, many more stories to tell, so read on.

My experience with Chris de Burgh prompted me to get up there on my own. If I didn't do it myself, I would never get to sing in front of many people, not by just turning up at people's gigs and hoping to perform; let's face it, that was a one off (or so I thought) and also it's just not cricket hogging other people's limelight..... yes, that was a joke.... not funny?..... I'll try harder. 

As I referred to in a previous post, I established a duo with my best friend, which has resulted in 2 modestly unsuccessful performances before we decided it wasn't working. This included one show with the seminal line up of myself and Ewen in front of 3 men + 1 whippet at a working men's club, plus a line up change for a gig with myself and my other best mate Andy (Ewen was more interested in racing his car, I mean c'mon what's more important here! Ha!) for his cricket club. This was better as there must have been over 50 people. As a side note both men are also friends and were joint best men at my wedding, more of that anon...  

As the ashes of 'Cutting edge' faded (yes that was our name, revolutionary eh?) I realized I needed to get myself into a real band with a drummer and other guitarists, until I did that I wouldn't be fulfilled in my musical career, so the search began. By this time I was 18 and at a prime ripe age to become Medway's biggest singing superstar! (yes another joke) I scoured the local ads, placed in Medway's music shops, for something when I saw an ad from a band who were looking for a lead singer, with guitar skills a bonus but not essential. The ad stated a new band was formed but needed to have a singer to complete the line up. I took the number down, reached into my pocket, pulled out the massive brick sized early mobile phone and called the number while standing in Chatham high street*, outside Argos. (*Disclaimer; this was Chatham high street pre chavs! Hence why I wasn't mugged for my mobile phone!) 

The call went swimmingly and a few minutes later I bagged myself an audition with the band, one excited call to my girlfriend later and it was organized that I would audition the next Saturday. I took my girlfriend along for moral support. I arrived at the address stipulated a few minutes early and was shown into a room. Shortly afterwards, I met the two lads who posted the add. To my surprise, these lads were 3 years younger than me. Yes, I know that doesn't sound a lot, but at aged 19, 16 seems soooooo long ago. However, 'in for a penny' I thought and showed them what I was capable of. The lads, who were named Chris and Alex, seemed impressed and asked if I could make it the following week to meet the drummer and bass player. Luckily, this address was located just round the corner from my then girlfriend's address.  So there I was knocking on the door of the drummer's house, the location of the first rehearsal with the new, as yet un-named band. The door opens and an even younger chap called Martin opens the door. Martin was the youngest in the band at just 15 years old, but for his age he was a very capable drummer. I must have looked like John Lennon to these chaps when I turned up..... Not because I was a presence or someone with an outstanding capability to write some of the best songs ever, no, it was because I turned up with my own version of Yoko Ono in tow. Yes, I brought my girlfriend, possibly not the best idea ever, but she was very sweet and looks nothing like Yoko Ono, in her defense. However, I wanted her opinion if she felt these chaps were good enough. Sometimes it's always good to get a second opinion. Luckily, she agreed with me that there was a special spark and I joined the band full time, starting us on our path to domination** of the Medway music scene! 

**May be a slight over exaggeration. 

In the next post, find out how our world tour of Medway came to fruition, we recorded our debut EP release and we became one of Kent's very best bands (well at the time we thought so)........

PS: Cutting Edge reformed for a spectacular one-off performance in 2003, at my wife's joint 18th birthday/our engagement party with the original line up of Ewen and myself, playing to a giddy 25 people (yes that's 25 people!). Plus, we had a new member, the then 9 year old Michael Mowbray on kid's toy drums.  Needless to say, Michael has been scarred for life and has never performed with a band or drummed since.

Ones beginnings.

Where do I start?

Well, it's been interesting, my 34 years on this planet so far. When I tell people the stories of my life, I can see the look of disbelief on their faces. I'll readily admit they do sound extraordinary, but every word is the truth. The stories of my life are the things you hear, but they always seem to happen to someone else..... Maybe I'm that someone else but I'm genuinely a normal, average every day chap.

Born to an age of disco, the death of punk, emergence of new wave and the still dominant ABBA, all with Kate Bush screeching "Heathcliff, it's me, it's Kathy, I've come home, I'm so cooooooolllllddddd"...... Why did that song have to be my birth no1? Actually love Kate Bush's work, but that song just gets my goat! OK, I digress, sorry. My parents were exceptional. I'm the son of a train driver, who gave everything he could so my brother and I could have the best, wherever possible, and a loving mother who unfortunately died when I was 14 from cancer.

Brought up on a diet of ABBA, Slade, Chris de Burgh, Paul McCartney and his Wings, obviously The Beatles, Roy Orbison, and many other musical idols, no wonder I have a wide ranging taste in music. I definitely got the softer side of my music love from my mother and the harder side from my father. I remember being about 3 and screaming the lyrics to 'Get down and get with it' with my father, one sunny summer's afternoon, while he was playing the record on his big old ditton 44's doing some housework.

My parents still influence me to this day, especially my mother. I wish she was here to see me married to my very beautiful wife, and to see me onstage with my band. Her death inspired me to do the things I do today. With my father working lots of night shifts, I had to stay at home to make sure she took her prescribed drugs when most of my peers would be outside playing or chasing girls in those early teenage years. I don't begrudge my peers; however, with the exception of a select few friends, especially my best friend Ewen, I didn't have many mates my age when my mother finally succumbed to that horrible disease. With her gone, my father saw that I was lost and with the help of Ewen, who taught me my first chords, he bought me my first guitar. My mother always encouraged me to sing, I sung in choirs, but upon her death, and with my newly acquired mediocre guitar skills, I decided to give lead singing a go and I found out I was pretty good. Ewen and I joined forces to form a duo with very little success and only 1 or 2 gigs performed. However, I soon joined my first real band and started performing to enthusiastic audiences. Concurrently to that, probably the biggest performance of my life happened, and it happened by total fluke...

....and that's a story for the next post....