Born North of the border I spent much of my youth travelling around Europe due to my Dad's job... Having followed the usual 'child prodigy of the future' path which all children are encouraged (cajoled/harangued/bullied) into by parents who want to live vicariously through their offspring and learning to play instruments such as the recorder, clarinet, saxophone and bagpipes (Yes! It's true! I'm a sweaty sock!!), I finally found an outlet for all my teenage angst at the age of 14.  I picked up a cherry red Gibson SG copy from a mate at school for £40, and the rest of my life was sorted.  I was going to be famous, a rock god, the Angus Young of the future!!  This was what I had been waiting for... I spent hours teaching myself AC/DC, Iron Maiden and Thin Lizzy tracks... none of which sounded very good at all when I played them, but I knew I was good ;)  I was set...

It took me many more years to realise that I really wasn't very good at the guitar, the most I could hope for was the odd rhythm part in any of the bands I played in, even the ones where I wrote the material!!  But that's not the point... I'd caught the bug and, shortly after that epiphany in my mid teens, I started to write my own songs.  Admittedly the first few efforts were atrocious, but they were mine!  Over the years I fine tuned my word smith skills, I even became capable of playing the guitar well enough to get my ideas down on tape (and yes, it was tape back then! Eh, Pete?). I'd always been singing, as long as I can remember, I sang in school shows, I sang in choirs, I sang on stage (and much later I even succumbed to that evil invention called karaoke!!), it didn't matter what it was, or where I was, I'd sing... I've even been known to busk!! I was never very good at that though, perhaps because I always had enough money in my pocket for a KFC and a train home before I started :)

But I digress!!  After leaving school I did what every bright eyed keen young man does... I went straight back into the education system!!  This was where I formed my first 'real' band (I don't count the efforts at school, they were the rehearsals for the real world as far as I'm concerned)...

Sometimes Angels were a three piece band put together at the request of a friend for a charity bash he'd arranged.  I agreed to get something together before I found out when it was... when he told me it was in a little over a week I nearly died!! Undeterred I had a word with the local Minister and booked the Church Hall as a rehearsal venue, phoned up a friend I knew who could play the guitar, and a friend of my brothers' who was an awesome drummer and talked them into helping me... One week later, with days to spare we had two or three of our own songs (one of which I can still remember, and play, to this day!) and a vast amount of cover material including everything from Queen's Death On Two Legs and I Want To Break Free to Iron Maiden's Running Free and the Police's Every Breath You Take... we could also play nearly every song on Pink Floyd's The Wall.  A few days later we were setting up on the small stage for our sound check wondering where the main act were... we completed the sound check, hit the bar, came back and were half way through our set still wondering where the main act were... by the time we finished the 45 minutes of our set they still hadn't arrived and it looked like the night was going to be over before it started... the organiser wandered over, looked at our sweaty, bedraggled faces and asked "Have you guys got any more stuff you can play?", "How much more?" I asked, "About an hour and a half?"... I nearly choked on my heavy!! 90 minutes?!  I was bloody knackered after 45!  I looked at Martin and Wullie who were both in as much disarray as I was and they nodded... "Aye, alright..."  After a 30 minute break we were back on stage playing most of The Wall, a cheap imitation of the live version of Running Free from Live After Death (even down to the split the room in half and have them competing with each other!) which ran for almost as long as Maiden's did before finishing with a repeat of one of my songs and an instrumental (Mark Knopfler's Going Home I think it was?). And that was it.  Two hours and fifteen minutes of live music, and that was it, we never played together again... but we left the crowd screaming for more, and that was what mattered... I'd caught the bug.

Over the years I have played in several bands, some of which were quite successful, even to the point of being offered deals, and others which I'd like to forget.  I've supported 'real' bands, I've even played in support bands to my own headlining band, and I've always written my own material.  Yes, most of the bands played a cover or two (one which I guested in as bass player was a total covers band but that wasn't mine so it doesn't count, although there is a funny story about that one, and I'll tell you if you buy me a pint!!), but I've always been adamant that I want to play my songs, or songs I've helped write or, at the very least, songs written by a member of the band.

I've worked with some absolutely stunning musicians, Wullie (yes the Wullie from Sometimes Angels above) is still one of the best drummers I've ever had the pleasure to play with (and he did get a deal, so well done him!), Craig Hughes, a guitarist and songwriter from a band I played in called Dirty White Funk who taught me never to accept mediocrity and turned me into the perfectionist I am today when it comes to my music, and my brother Ally who is just an astounding blur of arms, hair and facial contortions once you sit him behind a kit and who works wonders with a mixing desk, and Fernando Moura (George Martin, Steve Hackett), possibly one of the nicest people I know who is involved in the music industry.

But in the end, it all went away.  I grew up, I got married, I had a family... I gained responsibilities and found that I couldn't keep on living my boyhood dreams and be the responsible husband and father I wanted to be.  So it went away, and I was never the same...

Fast forward to earlier this year and, for the first time in nearly a decade I found myself with enough time to get my guitar out and play... It didn't take long before I was writing again, and getting frustrated at the fact that my six-string skills still weren't up to the task. I discovered MySpace, and shortly after that I found Pete's ad...

The experience of writing with Pete has been an eye opener, and a constant pleasure... As with Craig Hughes many years ago I have found a foil to play against... we can talk for hours about music and, so far, have benefited from an almost symbiotic understanding of what the other is trying to say.  Although I must admit to being daunted by the prospect of writing lyrics from cold to someone else's music it has been a painless experience (with the exception of Fighting Man, but that's another story) on all counts and I look forward to the time when we write new material together from scratch.

I can honestly say that, without any shadow of a doubt, the material we are writing now is better than anything I have written, or played, in the past.  I've remembered why I like doing this so much, and it's not money, or glory... I enjoy it, and that's what counts, isn't it?

In my head we've got something here that's special... is it really that good? Well? I'm sure you'll let us know...

Slainté,

Grae

MORPHEUS RISING
resurrecting British Heavy Metal