My first guitar was a Futurama, a red Fender Stratocaster copy. I was thirteen and like many other youths in northern England in the 1960s I'd joined a local rock band. At seventeen I emigrated to Australia and have spent the last forty years fronting and playing guitar in various blues and rock bands, mostly in Sydney, though now I live in Brisbane.

Along with playing guitars, repairing and tweaking them has always been a favourite pastime and only after achieving a level of business success am I now able to make guitars a full-time pursuit.