Artist description "Cheating Silence" is a retrospective of my music. I suppose I have always been trying to expand the boundaries of the popular song as a means of expression, but without it ever ceasing to be popular song. In the early days this lead me to avoid love songs, which I regarded as too restrictive. The songs were therefore about other kinds of relationship, e.g. with the self ("The Other Room") or with a particular audience ("Sponsor, Sponsor"). Or they were attempts to delineate certain types of feeling such as loss, hope and remembrance ("Storyteller", "Tomorrow"), or to capture the elusive quality of the life of the imagination itself ("Lost Cities"). More recently the anti-love song bias has been corrected, but I still try to get ‘outside the box' on the subject without losing the immediacy of the feelings involved ("L-plate", "Melt"). Stylistically, the music is mainly pop/rock with (in this compilation) a predominantly 80's feel, most obvious on "Cameras Of Mercy" and "Sponsor, Sponsor". But there are touches of traditional musics in "Islam" and "The Nightgate", a colouring of country in "The Company Of Strangers", and more than a hint of hip-hop in "War Against Dust". For people new to these songs, I recommend starting with "Sponsor, Sponsor", "In The Dark" and "Melt".

Music Style Mainly pop/rock with other overtones. See under Artist Description.

Musical Influences These include the Beatles, Magazine, Elvis Costello...Richard Thompson, Paul Brady, English and Irish traditional music ...John Barry, and film scores that aspire to the haunting moment. Favourite artists right now: The Mutton Birds, Ron Sexsmith, Beth Nielsen Chapman.

Similar Artists Beatles melodies with fewer harmonies, eighties pop/rock bands. Sponsor, Sponsor: Magazine crossed with The Knack.

Artist History Some of the early tracks lead to interviews at Mercury and CBS Records in London, but by the time we had a band ready for gigging they had lost interest. The music has therefore had to be made over the years on the margins of the music business, hence the name of the CD. But although self-funded, fear not, all these songs have been professionally recorded, with full band arrangements.

Group Members Various line ups, see track credits. Some one-man-band efforts too.

Instruments Vocals, electric, acoustic and bass guitars, synthesizers, drum machines, a recorder, the occasional sax and clarinet. In my time I have also been spotted behind a harmonica and a hammered dulcimer (the latter sadly not represented here). See song notes.

Albums Cheating Silence

Press Reviews Go on. You know you want to.

Location Hitchin, Herts - United Kingdom

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