The Glorious Eighties '

I'm not entirely sure what happened to me during the initial stages of the eighties..all I can say is that I spent the vast majority of my time being hell bent on becoming a successful concert singer. I'd studied 'singing' and 'performance' at music college and with numerous different international singers both in Munich and London, and my confusion became even greater. I was'nt entirely happy singing in a classical way,and I leaned heavily towards writing and performing my own songs in my own particular vein...Eventually after divine intervention I woke up one morning in 1984 and decided to stop singing in a classical way and concentrate soley on my songwriting. It was not until 1985 and one international expedition to South America with David Hempleman-Adams that I wrote a series of short songs which still remain unrecorded. 'Foreigner' were at the height of their popularity with a song canned 'I want to know what love is' and I was aching to get back to South America in my own right as an 'Adventurer'. The ideas for songs now seemed to pour out of me,and ideas were worked through,written down and simply filed away. Now another expedition loomed on the horrizon and I'd come up with an idea to link together two sea going kayaks and put 'sails' on them. My strange lifestyle of believing in conceptions and writing songs seemed obsurd,and even today when i think about the experiences it all still seems rather obsurd,but the reality was beckoning and through sheer luck and providence I ended up en route once more to South America and Cape Horn, together with a big box in which was housed the 'Kaymaran' the worlds first sailing kayaks. I was to attempt the rounding of the Horn utilising this contraption. This period of my life was to be the beginning of my music in a proper way, and the back drop for the inspiration for at least three of my early albums.