I have been very fortunate over the past 15 years to meet and perform with some of my musical heroes, graced the stage in some of the most beautiful venues and lived a happy life surrounded by amazing people.

I have performed in almost every country in Europe, played shows in the USA and successfully completed an extensive tour of Asia. Music is my life.

I was born in Oxford, grew up in Bicester and have been professional since I quit Cooper School at 16.

On February 29 this year, I had a show in Hannover, Germany. This was part of my regular German outfit entitled Hamburg Blues Band founded by Gert Lange. The ethos of this band is focused on British Blues.

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Previous members have included Dick Heckstall-Smith, Jack Bruce, Clem Clempson, Miller Anderson, Pete Brown, Arthur Brown and Maggie Bell.

While on tour, we had the legendary British singer Chris Farlowe as our guest vocalist.

Oxford Mail:

The bass player collapsed on stage mid show. I thought he was dead.

Luckily, there were some doctors in the audience who managed to bring him round.

Was this a sign of things to come?

I don't know, but very soon after this, a pandemic was declared. The world called for help. Death, struggle and panic was everywhere.

In my case, all my 80 plus gigs for the following six months had been cancelled.

I was living in Germany with my girlfriend and came back to the UK to ride out the storm following British government advice.

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When lockdown was announced mid-March, I immediately thought to myself 'Make the best of a bad situation and don’t give up. There will be light at the end of this tunnel'.

I wrote songs for my next record which I will be going in the studio next month to produce. I started running and attempted to find a job. I lost a lot of money from the tours being shelved, so I needed to quickly find a way to make a small amount back.

I eventually found a job delivering pizzas, but then found comfort in a volunteering operation at Bicester Heritage inside Hanger 113.

This was part of a mission to pack and distribute one million meals to our incredible and brave Covid-19 frontline workers across the UK. I wrote a song about it and with the help of Fresh FX, we made a music video featuring the incredible dancing from many of the fantastic volunteers. And the best thing is that the one million meal target was reached.

After five months of live music retirement, the phone rang and I was offered a gig. Of course I said yes.

Oxford Mail:

I did the show on August 14 in the beautiful grounds of Blenheim Palace.

This was for Picnic at The Palace organised by the most incredible team Midsummer Night Cap.

It was a double show with a very close friend of mine, Rory Evans.

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Alongside me in my band were the insane talents of Josh Rigal on bass and Max Maxwell on drums. The event was very safe and the hospitality was perfect.

It felt so nice to step on stage again and get paid to do the one thing I was born to do.

I cannot thank Picnic at The Palace enough for asking me to be a part of this festival and for putting this event on - a platform for musicians to perform again.

I take precautions and follow guidelines, but I will not let the virus win. Covid19 is a terrorist and I will not be feared. The arts industry needs you more than ever now.

Without music, humour and film, how would you have got through lockdown?

Whether it’s an art gallery, theatre performance or live music event, grab a ticket, buy some merchandise and keep supporting your local and favourite artists.

Without the arts, so much unique talent would be chucked down the drain and the world would be a very boring place.