I started my musical career in the 1960's at Ushaw Moor Salvation Army on Cornet. In 1974 I joined the Light Infantry as a Regular Army Musician, and in 1986 moved onto Percussion. In 1990 I attended The Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall for a two year course on Percussion under the tuition of Paul Cameron, while there I won the Denis Brady Memorial Prize for Best Percussion Pupil of the Year (1990). I was posted to Headquarters Army Music in 1993 as part of the Training Development Team responsible for training all of the Army musicians and stayed in this post for 5 years. I retired from the Army in August 1998, and joined the Bearpark & Esh Colliery Band in September 1998 where I teach the Percussion learners. I also compose and arrange for the band.

I have played with many of the North East's brass bands and more recently have been part of 'pit orchestras' for local operatic societies, this is something I really enjoy doing. You can find a list of shows that I have played in below.

In 2005 I attended and passed a conducting course run by Ray Farr at Durham University. Conducting is something else that I enjoy doing, although at the moment there is plenty of 'shed building' in me yet.