About me 

  Being a big fan of the Beatles from a very young age, I always had a passion for

wanting to write and play my own songs just like they did. I wrote my first song when I was about eleven or twelve years old, way before I could play any instruments to any recognisable level. I just had to write down the words and remember the melody in my head. Once I’d learned a few chords on the guitar and written a few more songs

I tried to form my own band, but I couldn’t find anyone with my interests or

even owned a guitar. Everyone seemed to be more into football.

It took until I was about fifteen when I was approached by some older lads who asked me to join a, newly formed, band with them called the Exits. We rehearsed quite a bit at the local church hall, but it wasn’t really for me. They weren’t really into the stuff I wanted to do and being the youngest member, I was largely overlooked. We lasted about a year or so and never got past learning a handful of songs.

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It was around this time, while playing in the garden one day, that I heard a guitar being played in the distance. Following the sound, I found this young lad sitting on his doorstep just around the corner from where I lived. He was playing Apache by the Shadows. His name was Mel Jones and he must have only been around ten years old and still in primary school. I quickly got to know him and started going around with my guitar. Over time he introduced me to Elvis and the Shadows, and I introduced him to The Beatles. That friendship has lasted to this day. I regarded Mel as being a child genius on the guitar, well advanced for his age. He would go on to start developing guitar breaks and melodies to enhance the songs I’d written.

I spent a lot of time out with my mate Steve and “the lads” doing what lads do while Mel devoted his time to becoming an extremely talented musician. As I was writing songs Mel was enhancing many of them to another level.

 Early 1979 was Mel’s first year at senior school. It was also my last year at the same school. So, before I left, we took the opportunity to perform Apache for them during school assembly. This was at a time when a school’s musical bias was toward orchestrated classical music and not modern “pop” groups. It felt like guitars were regarded as “Satan’s instrument”. They’d never been played during a school assembly before, let alone a relatively recent tune. So, with me on acoustic rhythm and Mel on electric lead we played our first gig and it went down a storm and they loved us. I recall Mel telling me his friends treated him like a rock star after that.

  Mel and I continued jamming together and went on to team up with a group of other individually talented artists who called themselves the “Wolverhampton Young Entertainers”. Within this we weren’t content in remaining a duo and really wanted to expand and form our own group. By the Autumn of 1980 a work colleague of mine, and former school friend, Ian Westwood, agreed to join up with us and went out and bought himself a bass. That was my first real band and we called ourselves Complex. We did about forty gigs throughout 1981 and even caught the eye of a professional management team who, among others, managed non other than, Alvin Stardust. Unfortunately for us, due to Alvin's resurgence at that time, we were put on the back burner and nothing ever came of it.
 

  Around the end of 1981 Complex decided to take an extended break (which went on to last for over thirty years). I, on the other hand, still had the buzz to be on stage performing so, following a short stint of playing solo gigs down at my local boozer, I set my sights on forming my second band with my then girlfriend; Jan Stewart. We called ourselves Beat X and it wasn’t long before Mel, once again, joined up with us. We even had a drummer this time.

Both Complex and Beat X performed a mixture of music including music from the 60’s and 70’s, the Beatles, Rock n Roll and some of my original songs thrown in.

Following several line-up changes, Beat X would eventually come to an end around 1986 when I was the grand old age of twenty-three.

  I had, up until that time, written a fare few songs but, without a band, my song writing slowed down as I no longer had an output for them. Apart from a handful of my songs that Mel recorded for me in 1990 I turned to running my own mobile disco outfit for ten years between 1988 and 1998 doing birthday parties, weddings, anniversaries and schools. This was mainly to keep my hand in with entertaining audiences and for an extra bit of cash to keep my young family going.

 Throughout this time and into the early 2000's I also. began to acquire knowledge in digital audio using a PC with built in sound cards and digital sound modules. My aim was to be able to record the songs I'd previously written along with some new ones I'd written digitally. My issue was the frustratingly long learning curve needed to understand the music programme and hardware I was using. I just wanted a simple way of recording.

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  During the late nineties/early naughties, and with. my disco days behind me, I was offered the chance to join a brand new band that was put together to support my brothers (Brian) band; New Horizon. We called ourselves Quest and included my son, Aaron, on drums. But after only one or two gigs I was asked to join "the  main act", and I joined my brothers band; New Horizon. It was a really great band with great musicians (especially Tim), and some great PA equipment. For several years, we used to practice every Monday night just for our own enjoyment as we hardly did any gigs. The music was far more advanced than what I’d been used to including a Queen medley and incorporating covers of newer music from the 80’s and 90’s.

However, by the mid 2000’s we’d changed rehearsal rooms to further afield which, among other things, lead to me giving up the band in 2007.

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 In 2008 Mel Jones recorded and produced another batch of my songs for me to sing on. Two of which actually appear as a backing track on the album Bushbury Hill.

A few years later I finally had the oppertunity to fork out some money investing in an iMac with. some decent music producing software and finally begin to do some serious recordings of my songs.

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 It was also around this time that Mel Jones and I got back together to form a Beatles tribute band for my youngest sons, Ross’s, 21st birthday. We called ourselves "Mathew Street", (after the street where Liverpools Cavern stands), and consisted of Mel on lead guitar, me on guitar and vocals, my brother Brian, on bass and vocals and my middle son Aaron on drums. We even managed a handful of gigs throughout the following year or so. I quite enjoyed playing in that band, can’t beat a bit of Beatles (and pretending to be John of course).

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  Following this, Ian Westwood (from the early days of Complex), approached Mel and I to reform the band for his 50th birthday party. Over the years intervening years Ian had developed a close relationship with The Boomtown Rats. So. much so that they'd agreed to play at his party. Subsequently when Mel and I were asked to go along and support The Boomtown Rats we, of course, said yes.

 Along with fellow musicians; Aaron Wilkes, Finley Ewell-Jones and Roger Hill, Complex went on to perform a handful of fairly local gigs plus a show in Crawly, London, for their Shocktober fest. That was great fun as we were following on from acts such as Bruce Foxtons, The Jam and Doctor and the Medics.

 Complex came to an end as my health began to deteriorate and it would be several years before I returned to the stage.

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 My brother Brian, started accompanying me to a guitar group that I'd started attending in 2018 as part of my rehabilitation. Whilst there we met a very talented guitarist, Dave Copson. He along with Brian and my middle son, Aaron, have since formed a great little band and having a weekly Jam. We call ourselves The Bushbury Beat. We don't take ourselves too seriously and just do it for the sheer enjoyment. We've even done the odd gig here and there.

 

 Where the recordings are concerned, Mel Jones continues to put up with me to this day and I really appreciate everything he’s added to the music. 

 Since 2011, during the times of Mathew Street, the rebirth of Complex and The Bushbury Beat, I've been recording my songs from home in what I call "MilesTone Studios". Thanks to the advent of modern tech, Mel Jones has continued to add his musical talents to many of my songs remotely from Solihull.

 This has FINALY culminated in the production of my first album, "Bushbury Hill", in January 2023 consisting of songs I've written dating back to 1977. The release was accompanied with a live album launch (my first proper live performance for eight years). The show was engineered by my eldest son, Ashley and consisted of many of my family and friends on stage and back stage putting it all together for me.

 Although being outside my comfort zone, I also produced a video for a song that I wrote in tribute to my mum; Bread &. Jam.

 

I've since followed up the January 2023 album release with a November 2023 release of my single "Merry Christmas 2U".

 Another two single releases, one in 2023; "Live Forever", and a second in 2024; "All I Ever Wanted", marks the debut tracks from my second album; "Complex", released June 2024, (I decided to name the album Complex in tribute to my first band called Complex from way back in 1980).

 Also in June 2024 I released my second video  for my new song; "The Great Marine Machine". I'd recorded this one while on a cruise the previous year.

 My first release of 2025 was a Valentine EP (my first EP) called "Smoochy Time (with Miles)". This consisted of five previously released songs with a more "up close and personal" feel to them (if you know what I mean).

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 Along with Mel, I'm currently working on a third album. As with the previous two albums, it consisting of both new material and songs that I've written over the years. I'll keep you posted on how its going over time.

 There's also two or three new video's that I've been collecting footage on that I'm hoping to release this year 2025.

 

Well I guess that brings me pretty much up to date.

Onwards and upwards...