Thanks for visiting my website. Here’s where I tell you a little about what I do, and why.
… let’s get the crucial matter addressed first:
My latest CD and first solo outing is released as of April ’23. When my Ship Puts Out To Sea comprises songs written during the pandemic, and recorded in those precious periods when restrictions were lifted enough to allow visits to the recording studio. Its songs deal with the emotional landscape of those two strange, unsettling years of lockdown and pandemic.
The album features a line-up of stellar musicians, whom I am humbled to have worked with, from the members of world music luminaries The Angel Brothers, ex-Magazine keyboardist Dave Formula, and Jon Boden of Bellowhead as well as members of my regular band, Coil.
Keith Angel produces, and I like to think we’ve achieved a rootsy mix of the folk, blues, country, and rock styles that I love.
Now the biography bit...
I’m a songwriter, musician, and poet based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Music and words have run in my veins for as long as I remember. I first picked up a guitar when some friends at school took a poem of mine and set it to music; my reaction was ‘I want to do that!’
Although I grew up with ‘70’s rock music, my prime influences have always been wordsmiths, Dylan, Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, to name the obvious ones, as well as poetry and traditional music.
COIL
With some great friends and fine musicians we formed the band Coil in the early ‘80’s. Our first album, Blood Money was very well-received took us on a national tour from Sheffield City Hall to London’s legendary Marquee Club.
After a long hiatus and remarkable chance encounters, Coil reformed to release the successful follow up album Cold Truth in 2017, and with three original members, we continue to play and record.
JENKINSON-PARKS
I was playing songs at the Ted Hughes Poetry Festival in 2015 when the wonderful poet Ian Parks approached me to ask if I would collaborate with him. We embarked on a long-running project to collect local stories and write songs chronicling the loves, lives and landscapes of Doncaster, which culminated in the album, Songs of Our Town.
This is a partnership that shows no signs of losing its potency, and indeed half the songs on the new CD were written with Ian.
POETRY
Music and poetry flow in and out of each other for me, but I have had the good fortune to have a couple of pamphlets of poems published in the past few years; A Tale to Tell, by Glasshead Press in 2017 and When the Waters Rise by Calder Valley Poets in 2019.
And for many years I have run a monthly poetry performance evening at Doncaster Brewery and Tap. Well Spoken is held at on the second Thursday of each month; come along and say hello!
COMMUNITY WORK
As an Arts Practitioner, I am available to deliver song writing and poetry writing workshops for local community organisations, and I have a passion for involving myself as much as I can in the rich cultural life of the City of Doncaster.