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I am a Scottish singer-songwriter and a full time musician. I am based in Edinburgh, have a grown up daughter and I am married to a juggling Chipolata called Jasper King. I have 3 albums recorded and released: 24 Hours, Quiddity and Reckless Angels and another album in the pipeline. I was rubbing along in 2002 as a singer-songwriter, playing a number of gigs a year and busy writing for my second album when a childhood injury in the shape of a fused radial head, went from being a bit bothersome to completely debilitating in the space of about 4 months. I was no longer able to play my guitar and, after a bit of time waiting around to see my orthopaedic consultant, (two years!) I was scheduled for an operation to remove the radial head on my left elbow and transpose my ulna nerve to try and give me back the movement I had gradually lost over the previous 30 years. After the operation I was in physiotherapy for eighteen months. Little did I know at the time that the operation would mean a five year break from playing guitar and song writing, a spiral into depression and ultimately, a life changing realisation.


The operation wasn’t hugely successful, although it did relieve some of the more extreme pain in my elbow and forearm and the transposition of the ulna nerve did help alleviate much of the numbness and pins and needles in my left hand. However, it didn’t change the fusion across my ulna and radial bones and my wrist is still fixed in one position. In the space left by being unable to play or write I attended college and then Edinburgh University, throwing myself into academia, writing two books (unpublished) and learning massively about the world. I also learnt a lot about myself and my work ethic.


It was during this time that I had the dawning realisation that only writing music, playing and singing would truly make me happy and fulfilled. This came to me over a long period of time while I was avoiding going out to gigs because of how badly I felt about myself when watching others perform. I could no longer listen to music, because listening to music made me feel deeply unhappy, and I was amazed and disturbed to discover how much we are defined by what we do: people when they meet for the first time tend to ask ‘what do you do?’ not ‘who are you, what makes you?’ I was adrift with no proper sense of self and self worth. Eventually, utterly fed up, I decided to put myself on a programme of taking pain killers and anti –inflammatory, playing my guitar every day, a bit at a time and slowly, very slowly, I built up the stamina and the strength to go back to playing.


In 2009 I decided it was time to start writing again – what a life changing decision this was. I made a new album, called Reckless Angels, with the help of musician friends who understood my limitations and, fortunately for me, could see how important it was for me to get back in


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