I started piano lessons in the early 1940's when life was very much based around a Salvation Army upbringing. In my early teens I played brass instruments from cornet down to euphonium in the band and my main interests were accompanying both instrumentalists and singers on piano and I was the pianist and organist for both the senior and junior choirs.

In 1951 I enlisted in the Buffs regimental band for three years based in Kent, one year of which was in Kenya. I played B flat bass and was the dance band pianist giving concerts to the troops and playing for dances as well as the concert and parade aspects. I gained good all round musical experience covering everything from classical through to jazz, but during all my earlier years I had a fascination for drums and the first thing I did on demob was to buy my first of many drum kits and watch and listen to the best drummers around.

Over the years I have played in London and the South East with groups from jazz trio and dixieland groups to middle-of-the-road groups and large dance bands. I have played with many fine pianists on a regular basis and freelancing generally, this gave me a good understanding of what piano playing was all about. This experience transferred into the organ field with my assessment of organists, their repertoire, recordings and ability, based on their recordings, be it classical, easy listening or jazz and still hold very strong views about the organ scene in general.

I ceased all semi-pro music activities in the early 80's to concentrate on a self-employed music engraving business (pre computers) which I have been doing part time since 1969 and in 1988 ago I went into computer engraving with my son Ian as a partner. Since then we have engraved well over 500 publications from many leading publishers as well as producing our own series of publications of organ music called Key Expressions for Organ.