I start breathing air.

I am given my first record player and various records mostly by the Wombles.

Dad gives me his bongos and I sell my model railway to raise funds for my first drum kit.

I buy my first and, I think, my second guitar.

During these years I manage to bluff my way through some 'A' levels and a degree, whilst writing and recording a mountain of songs on my four-track and playing drums, guitar or bass in a variety of bands, most of whose names I can't recall. One was called "If".

I join Phil Saatchi's band "Blue Noise" and set up Pandemonium Recording Studio at an infamous farm house in South Oxfordshire. Here I embark on various recording projects including an EP with Blue Noise, Kate Garrett's debut album "Vertigo" and my own first album "Pink".

Pink is finished early this year, although I injure my thumb during a bout of drunken gesticulating on my birthday and have to take a sabbatical from real music. For this reason I record a series of dark, sampler based, sci-fi obsessed tunes.

After a break from writing and much time spent recording other peoples music, I close the studio, move to Dorset and start writing/recording songs for "Skeletons".

After a long haul similar to most self funded album projects, Kate Garrett's album "Vertigo" is finally mixed and I move back to my home county of Cornwall for the rest of the year. Here I set out to write more songs for Skeletons and, as an antidote to the "proper" recording I had been involved in, decide to record them without involving other people (as much as possible) and as an experiment in simplicity and imperfection. These are the recordings you will find on the album.

Having moved to Oxford, I finish Skeletons, concentrate on developing my internet design business, have the idea for this website and marry Claudia Holt.

Having a little break from writing, but record one song, "Soak It In" with Claud and I finally get around to building a previous version of this website. Somehow get pressganged into singing on and promoting a World Cup single "World Cup In Our Hands" as part of People United with the likes of Julian Sharples, Ady Davey and Justing Gibson. What a laugh and we did actually end up on twelly with the real World Cup in our hands at one point even if England never got hold of it. Towards the end of the year Claud gives birth to our daughter Violet (who is going to be a singer in a rock band) and the three of us disappear into a black hole for a while.

Lot's of baby pooh! Andrew Howard and myself form The Dying Animals, a nasty greebo punk entity, and we are soon joined by another like minded idiot Ade Dacre. I think we did our first gig later in the year in Reading, but I can't remember for sure, it may have been the next year.

The Dying Animals kind of come to a standstill amidst all three of us having too much need to focus on supporting our families and too many rehearsals getting cancelled. It was much easier when we rehearsed at Andrew's house, but sadly he had to move and that option was no longer available. A brief moment of efficiency occurs and we manage a gig in December, but then it peters out again.

Somewhere during this year, The Dying Animals manage to pick up another guitarist , Adam Bishop, and the three become 4. Things are looking up. Towards the end of the year we record three songs at Courtyard in Sutton Courtney, Oxfordshire. We rock! Then the results of getting Claud up the pregnant again materialize and our son Gabriel (who is going to be a drummer in a rock band) is born. He rocks too, likes a bit of Led Zeppelin in the small hours.

More sleepless nights thanks to the young man. The Dying Animals do their first gig as a four piece at the Exeter Hall pub in Oxford. We rock again and suitably inspired return to writing some more evil tunes...

Did some gigs with The Dying Animals and a bit of work on my own stuff, but the most important thing I did was to record and mix Claudia Gibson's Highwire CD.

Started to wake up the musical part of my brain a bit more now that our youngest is past his second birthday and I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel...

...then my friend Kate Garrett sadly died and I think this will turn out to be the most significant event of 2009, it's hit me somewhere in the foundations...