Paying my dues by playing the blues.

After college I joined blues guitarist and singer James O’Hara, who was forming a new line-up for his band The Detonators, alongside Richard Ormrod and Gideon Marcus.  James gave me my first serious experience of life on the road; I became used to not sleeping a great deal (or when I did, between speakers in the back of the van) while touring gigs and festivals throughout the UK and Ireland.  As well as being a fantastic singer and guitarist and a mine of information on all things blues, James is one of the hardest working musicians I’ve known (and there are a lot of candidates for that title), who would think nothing of driving the hire van for six hours from Leeds to Cornwall, unloading, getting changed, performing and driving back as the morning sun rose to get an hour’s sleep before taking the hire van back.

I recorded two unreleased albums with The Detonators (‘Make Up Your Mind’ and ‘Covers’) and contributed original songs.  James is still going strong and can be reached here .