If you’re in a long-stay hospital with a broken leg, what do you do? It’s 1984. I’m in Germany. My wound has staphylococcus aureus, a hospital-acquired infection. With a broken leg, what can I do to fill my days of confinement? I found the answer – I started singing and playing guitar to entertain the other patients (they were a captive audience!). Most of the patients spoke English, and I wrote songs about being in hospital as well as other subjects. I printed a songbook with lyrics, musical notation, back-stories, pictures, cartoons. The songbook contained songs I’d written in previous years plus lots of new ones (more details in My Songwriting History).

Now, I can publish again, using the medium of a web-site. I have added a lot of new songs, and we now have mp3 sound recordings. This means you can press the orange button to listen-and-read.
Recently, I got some good comments from professionals, such as “Well-written. Just an excellent job.”

(I would love you to comment on any of the songs. Give your considered opinion using the Contents/Feedback section – no holds barred!)

Some musicians say my songs appear to be musical clichés, but once they get to play them, they say ‘You think the song is a cliché, and then you realise it isn’t.’
In 2022, the professional judges of the Songdoor songwriting competition said of Rolling Along ‘The verse and chorus melodies seem familiar, but upon closer inspection they are actually unique and very catchy.’
The comments are the combined opinions of multiple judges.
Admittedly, some of the songs are corny and will give you a laugh.

In 1957 I started my first song. It was called Mule Train, but I later changed the title because there was already a song called Mule Train. I rewrote it as Midnight Train. (In the 1960’s, when I learned guitar chords, I discovered this song had an unusual change from minor to major and then straight back to minor again in the very next bar)

In the late 50’s I was listening to the likes of Buddy Holly, Lonnie Donegan, the Everly Brothers and The Platters.

In the 1960’s and 70’s, I sang in a cabaret minstrel group called The Cherry-Tones, doing what were called “Standards”, songs like ‘Singing In The Rain, Somebody Stole My Gal, Chattanooga Choo Choo’. One of my songs got accepted by the group – I Married A Cowboy. Also a song called Beautiful Serenade. I learned guitar chords and vocal arranging, and how to make medleys of songs which merged into each other, e.g. a train medley, a cowboy medley, an alpine medley. When everyone else loved 60’s Pop, I loved Irving Berlin! I also admired Cole Porter, Henry Mancini, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Michel Legrand and Francis Lai.

I formed a harmony group called The Highlights, then one called Three’s Harmony, then one called Flair. In Sept. 1976, Flair went on ITV’s New Faces, and we won! We sang Listen To The Wind. (You could say that winning New Faces was the 1970’s equivalent of winning X-Factor). This photograph was taken from a T.V broadcast screen. You can see that my face got covered by a star.

Tony Hatch was on the panel. He was the one everybody feared, because he spoke his mind when he didn’t like one of the performers. (Tony Hatch was often called the ‘hatchet man’!) He gave the song 6 out of 10, saying he’d have preferred something with more “Zip” in it. Shaw Taylor said “No, the song I liked,” and gave it 9. I was asked was I in the Performing Rights Society, and that prompted me to join. Although we lost in the All Winners’ Show, singing ‘Tearaway’, I had by then joined. ‘Tearaway’ was the first and only song that earned me anything. Jack Parnell, bandleader and jazz producer, was on the panel; he said he liked the song. (Flair consisted of myself, Josie Andrews and Chris Alexander. Later, Josie joined a group called Co-co and represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978)

In 1977 I wrote the songs for a school musical performed in Islington, with 1950’s-style songs. I also wrote some 1960’s-style songs for the intended follow-up.

In 1983 I went to Germany doing voluntary work and broke my leg. I got an infection in the bone, and spent eighteen months unable to walk. I was at a long-term hospital in Murnau, near Munich. I used the time to write a songbook of all the songs I could remember writing, plus a whole load of new ones. I recorded some of them with the help of friends I’d met in the locality. Some were translated into German. I apologise for the occasional rude joke (I was egged on by two German women).

Later in the 80’s, I recorded a lot of songs back in England, and in 1987, I came second with a song for LBC about the Easter Parade in Battersea. I also worked on a Musical called Chelsea Parade, set in the 1960’s.

In 1987-1993 I was in Glasgow renovating old houses and writing songs in my tea-breaks. Then I moved to High Wycombe where I got married and had a son. In 2003-2004 I made a CD in aid of autism (it was called Hidden Treasure, and copies are still available).

Some of the songs in this collection were recorded in studios, others are acoustic, just me and my guitar. In a few cases, I’ve put in both versions. I still have more exploring to do, digging up old recordings in various formats, including reel-to-reel tapes. I have had Parkinson’s disease since 2011, so I don’t play the guitar any more.

If you have any comments or thoughts, I would like to hear from you. You can leave any messages via the Contacts page.

A big thank you to Alex Eaton for setting up this site.

When I was putting this collection together, I remembered lots of people who helped me record songs, and probably forgot quite a few as well. Here is a list of those I remember. The names are noted as I go through the alphabetical list of songs. Thanks all of you.

A) Pino Pinelli, Pip Dawson (Pip Walter), Linden Harley, Michael Servadei, B) Les Payne, Paul Kitching, Mary Goodfellow, Hayley Dredge and Sophie Angel Turner, Karin Fasser, Helga Stapper, Waltraude Bretzke, Ulrike Kammermeier, Andy Jackson, C) Suzi Clark, Brian Hollett, Audrey Barrow, D) Heinz & Uli, Ken Goodfellow, Zany Zoo Studios, E) Gillian Wills, H) Ilse Wolfram, Josie Andrews, I) Dave Bird, Kate Palmer, Mike Collins, Sam Whitham J) Graeme Tucker, L) Chris Alexander, Julie Ebsworth, Dave King, M) Silke Genster, P) Annick Aka Adjo, Susanne Bell, Lorna Pierre, Mike Wooster, R) Oliver Kirkland, Colin McAndrew, S) Anne-Marie, Stephanie Spragg, Patrick McWilliam, Alan Cook, Alessandro Aicardi and his wife. And I had lots of help from Peter and Barbara Kreitmeir and Ilse Wolfram.

If you are not on this list, please get in touch and jog my memory.

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