The vocal booth in Studio 1, Gorse Hill Studios

In early 2000, after being commissioned by Trafford M.B.C. Youth Service to design and install a recording studio in a Youth Centre in Manchester, I then took the role of project manager, building the studio into a nationally recognised youth music project.


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Since the mid 1990s I have regularly been commissioned to work on soundtracks to large-scale fireshows produced by Walk the Plank Pyrotechnics, a cutting edge fireworks company based in Salford, UK.


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Album Photo: Rachel McFarlane

Working one-on-one with Manchester's favourite guitarist and composer of beautiful guitar music, Vini Reilly, I supplied the programming, arrangements, sound engineering, production and some instrumental accompaniment, for this entire album that was subsequently released on Artful Records to critical acclaim.

The original site design

After nearly fifteen years of working on hundreds of diverse projects I realised that the best examples of this work lacked an effective means of presentation. A website seemed to be the only way forward.


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The Digital Arts Suite

A music and video technology and digital arts production classroom next-door to Studio 1 containing seven networked workstations providing the perfect environment in which to teach students how to program their own musical backing tracks as well as record and mix vocals.


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Design: Sophie Choupas

The first promo showcase CD to be made at Gorse Hill Studios in 2002. The limited run of 500 copies gave the best artists an opportunity to get their music heard by a wider audience.

Design: Sophie Choupas

The second promo showcase CD from Gorse Hill artists, reputed to have been a much sought-after release amongst music industry scouts was completed a year after volume 1 and a run of 2000 copies released a lot of these being distributed to the audience of "The Side Show 2" as they left the concert.

Working with Manchester-based singer/songwriter Tom Leyden I co-performed, arranged, engineered and produced this album that has yet to be released.

The first Side Show event was supposed to be a small showcase event for the kids who came down the studio. It was so popular that we nearly had to stop the show because about 250 turned up (we expected about 80).


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First at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester then at St George's Hall, Brighton. Finally at Oklahoma in Manchester. These multi-track recordings were made to be used in the soundtrack for a DVD movie of "A year in the life of Vini Reilly", enigmatic virtuouso guitarist/front-man of legendary Factory Records band, The Durutti Column. The movie has yet to be editted.

In each of the eight houses or apartments that I have lived in since 1993 there has been a music studio of varying degrees of complexity built by my own fair hands.

This critically acclaimed tragi-comedy theatre piece from Motionloco Theatre Co. about Syd Selby, an ageing music hall magician and his long suffering assistant/spouse, Fanny, written, directed and starring the ultra-talented actor Terence Mann, ran for two weeks at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester over Christmas 2004. Working together, Terence and I created a rich and inventive sound design that together with a clever script and split-second timing took the audience on an amazing journey into the psyche of this tormented individual.

Building on the success of their first production, "Syd & Fanny", Motionloco's second theatre show, entitled "Me & the King" is a surreal foray into the dark under-belly of an Elvis impersonator's disturbed subconscious.

 The stage action is entwined with an ever-present ambient and musical soundtrack that adds an at-times twisted and dark, at others, uplifting and ecstatic dimension to this highly original and critically acclaimed piece of psycho-theatre.