After Deaf School disbanding in 1979 I moved to London. Initially I joined a band called 'Fame' who gigged around the Capital to no great aclaim. On leaving ( fired ) Fame I found myself without income for the first ( but not the last ) time in my professional career. To make ends meet I busked at South Kensington tube station, played in bars and restaurants around the King's Road and did a little teaching. At the time there was a thriving wine bar / restaurant music scene in and around the Kings Road and I managed to get quite a few gigs, mainly with the great Polish singer/guitarist Leszek. In addition I joined as many up and coming bands as was humanly possible. This involved quite a lot of rehearsing, gigging and recording which, although unpaid, gave me a lot of playing, recording and arranging experience, as well as making many useful contacts. Amongst my favourites from this period were Haze; a glam rock band that I reinvented as a science fiction techno pop group and The Shunters; an African High Life band. The very talented writer and front man of the eponymous Haze went on to perform as part of the 'Circus Of Horrors'. It was connections made from the unlikely step of joining a glam rock band that got me my first record contract with CBS Records and publishing deal with April Music. ( Miro Miroe ). The Shunters perfomed all over London, most memorably for me an epic 7 hour gig at the Africa Center. We recorded one album which was released on a small label in England and rather more successfully in Nigeria. Around this time I was contacted by Liam Sternberg who was producing the Virgin Records signing Jane Aire and the Belvederes. After a recording session at the Townhouse studios I was offered a place on the British tour as a Belvedere playing saxophone. This tour was one of the last Stiff tours which in addition to Jane featured Wreckless Eric and Lene Lovich. The other members of the Belvederes were from the post punk band the Edge, who included Lu Edmonds ( guitar ) from the Damned and John Moss ( drums ) who later came to prominence with Culture Club.


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