The Early Years
First off, you may know him best as the drummer from Simply Red. But more about that later.
He was born in Manchester, North West England.
He started playing drums at the age of 15. After three months he was in a band, called Flashback, with friends, playing rock and roll songs in pubs on Fridays and Saturdays. He was bitten by the bug of getting up on stage in front of people.
After Flashback he joined a band called Fast Breeder and they were managed by the now infamous and sadly deceased, Tony Wilson, founder of Factory Records.
Durutti Column
When the band split up Wilson called on him to join a band called Durutti Column. The first line-up of Durutti Column released only two songs from the first Factory Records EP named A Factory Sample.
He quit this band to form another post-punk band around 1979, The Mothmen.
The Mothmen
The Mothmen released two studio albums, Pay Attention, which was released by On-U-Sounds and One Black Dot, released by Do-It Records, and also a number of singles, before disbanding in the early 1980’s.
During his time with the Mothmen he also toured and recorded with a band from Liverpool called Pink Military recording an album for Virgin records called Do Animals Believe in God.
Around the same time he also recorded with a singer from New York called Judy Nylon, releasing an album called Pal Judy. This album was produced by Adrian Sherwood for the On-U-Sounds label.
Also around the same period he toured and recorded with an act called Suns of Arqa.
Heavily influenced by African, Eastern and reggae music. Suns of Arqa were invited by Peter Gabriel to play the first WOMAD (world of music art and dance) festival.
The Mighty Wah!
By 1982/3 he was again back in Liverpool, this time working with Pete Wylie and The Mighty Wah! At the end of 1982 Wah! had a number 2 hit with a song called “Story of The Blues”.
He went on to record an album and played a full UK tour with The Mighty Wah! Soon after all this he got the call from Simply Red. It was the beginning of 1985 and very soon he was on a roller coaster ride with what was to become one of the biggest selling bands in the world.
Simply Red
The first Simply Red single, released in 1985, was “Money’s Too Tight To Mention”.
The single had big international success, reaching the UK and Irish top 20, later the American, French and Dutch top 30, and the Italian top 5, beginning a successful career in Italy.
The debut album, “Picture Book” was also released in 1985. In 1986, the band released a track from the album called “Holding Back the Years, it was a major hit, peaking at number 1 in Ireland, number 2 in Great Britain, number 3 in Netherlands, number 20 in Italy and later number 1 in the United States.
The song established Simply Red as a household name, and remains one of the bands most recognized works. The album began to sell more copies and soon became an international hit.
Simply Red’s next album, “Men and Women”, included more hits in the form of “The Right Thing”, “Infidelity” and a reworking of the Cole Porter standard, “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye”. Again, this album reached number 2 in the UK charts.
Having twice reached number 2 in the UK album charts, the band finally scaled the summit in 1989 with the album “A New Flame”.
The album coincided with another hit, “Its Only Love”, which was followed by a reworking of Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes’ “If You Don’t Know Me By Know”, which climbed to number 2 in the UK and became the bands second number 1 in the United States, and one of the biggest singles of the year internationally; and the bands greatest success to date. In 1991 his time with Simply Red came to an end.
He is now fully settled into his studio in Morecambe and doing most of his teaching from there.
His teaching practice is keeping him very busy and he is not currently touring or playing any gigs but who knows what might be round the next corner!
