What can I say? I’ve literally lived music since I was born (see ‘Musical Memories’ in my family history pages) and played the guitar from the age of about 13. Initially torturing the neighbours with the ‘Winfield Wall of Sound’ – a cheap guitar and amp combo courtesy of Woolies in Hull, I progressed through a variety of guitars, sometimes attempting to play in a band situation along the way, until the present day when I just have a Gibson Les Paul, a Tanglewood Telecaster copy and an old Ovation Matrix acoustic that I bought off my friend Andy Braimbridge in the early 1980s. These are occasionally treated to a day out through a modern Vox amp with on-board electronics.

The last few years have seen the introduction of Apple Macintosh computers into my life, courtesy of an old (very) and dear (very) friend Ian Halstead. Renewing our friendship after a gap of almost 20 years has been a high point in the recent years of my life. He has done his best to train me in the ways of the Apple, in so many varied avenues, not least of which Apple’s music creation software ‘Garage Band’.

Here are a few of my first attempts, mostly using the loops that Apple provide, although many have been hacked at and distorted along the way by yours truly. This first track was an early effort on the Apple Mac music software - I can hear Tom Waits singing over this one. It has his sort of groove I think, and I especially like the muted horns and brass.

You'll need your speakers plugged in as the tracks are quite bass-ey (is that a word?) - or they do sound rather good through decent head-phones too - that's how I composed them so you would probably hear them as I intended by listening that way ...

Some years ago I discovered that my middle name - Leslie - was in remembrance of a brother I never knew. My brother Leslie was born 7 March 1958, and died just a few days later on 11 March 1958. My mother and the family never spoke of his short life and - when I eventually found out many years after my parents had died - the knowledge that I would have had a brother of almost the same age, affected me greatly. Without sounding too precious, I made this track with him in mind, and it reflects my mood following the discovery of such an old secret, and my thoughts about the sadness my mother felt all those years ago; such sadness that he was never spoken of.

The fretless bass is courtesy of Ian Halstead

I really like this one - and can't sit still when its playing, so I hope it encourages the same energy in some of you. It was made to dance to.

This started out as a series of tracks that would represent in music, some of the roads in Hull (seemed like a good idea at the time ...). Most of the other tracks are as yet unfinished, but this short but happy track is my representation of Prince's Avenue and its many, many, many cafe-bars. I particularly like the guitar refrain.