In the last year prior to leaving Salvation I had been writing a few of my own compositions and wanted to get success via this avenue, along with the song writing talents of the rest of the band, but they chose to go for the quick fix, of which I had pointed out, history, surely had already foretold. I persevered with my own limited talents writing songs, and early 1975, I went down to London, knocking on doors searching for that elusive record deal.  Physically sick, through nerves, exhaustion and self pity I almost gave up, but said to myself, I am here now, no-one else can do it for me, I then went to the Bradley Record Co (ATV Music) and was given a 5 year Record and Publishing contract, in which I secured Merchandising rights, Inflation rises, various consents in my favour, unthinkable at this time in the Music business, but I had achieved it, along with a substantial, non returnable cash advance.

On returning to Glasgow, I felt elated, and offered to share my money advance with my brother Jim, but by this time the Martin & Coulter syndrome had started to to take affect within the band, and he opted to go with the quick stardom route with Slik, but it was to be short lived.

August 1975, I went back down to London and recorded my first single record entitled “Heaven Knows” and it was due to be released before Christmas, but was held back a few weeks to January 1976. By coincidence, Slik had released “Forever and Ever" before my record was released and as we know made the number one spot, but this didn`t help my cause, as I received some bad press, saying, I was trying to ride on their success,
but the facts clearly state otherwise.

I promoted my record around the country but didn`t get the proper backing from The Bradley Record Company, as it was in the process of being sold, along with ATV Music/Northern Songs etc., to the giant company CBS Records/Michael Jackson.

I felt very let down at this time and somewhat deflated and acquired a dislike to the music business, but still kept writing and composing, eventually getting together once again with my brother Jim to form a Cabaret duo called “Dillinger”. This lasted I think about 10 months and we then went our separate ways only to get back together to form a pretty decent band called “The Snips”, with Eric Lovat on keyboards, Colin Finn on drums and a first class
guitarist called John Hird. We played mostly local clubs, weddings, functions etc.,for around four or five years before disbanding.

Jim and I got together again with a trio called “Revival” and later adding the talented Snips keyboard player Eric Lovat. I departed after a few years to pursue other interests and the band continued, adding a couple of female vocalists, using various drummers, doing Weddings/Functions etc., They are now called “Atlantic Avenue” and are still together and I might say one of the best around in this field.

This brings me up to the present, teaming up once again with old friend and great guitarist Brian Deniston to do the odd gig or two, and now with two six foot plus grown up sons, Ryan & Lee to keep me company. I am nearing the finish of the building of my own home recording/rehearsal studio, which will serve the rest of my musical pursuits, that being mainly in the recording and writing field and helping other local talented musicians to further their ambitions.

I will be adding my music and other musicians talents to the website on an ongoing basis as and when I get the time to do so….thanks for taking the time to read this.