Friday, May 18, 2007 I just received an email from a friend of mine in Leeds who was very instrumental in helping me wend my way from classical piano training into rock and roll. Chris Graham. We've been out of touch since I left my home town of Leeds in 1984 at age 22 and moved to London, but I've thought about him and the bands we were involved with quite a bit. Although I have yet to determine how we actually met I do know we were initially in some kind of working mans club band working on covers. After that we formed a band with a guy called Paul (great guitarist) and then later Chris joined a band called Dedringer. After that we got serious and ended up in Batley (?) which was awesome. I was asked to play on a couple of tracks on their Second Arising album, which was a big honor for me. Throughout this period Dave Graham, Chris's brother, would drive everything around in a long wheel base blus Ford Transit and also work sound. He was a real whizz kid with all things electric, electronic and mechanical it seemed. Later I was in a band with Barry and Victor Cardis called Refugee. We worked and worked on lots of songs and actually played a show (Leeds Bierkeller). Can't remember everyone in the line-up because it changed quite a bit, but I do remember Nick Mason (bass and pedals) and a singer called Billy Barton who drove a Gran Torino (the starsky and hutch car). He drove me home from practice in it once which was amazing. Refugee practiced in the basement of Barry's house which was in the middle of a long terrace out in Beeston somewhere. It was real working class hero stuff with his two little boys having dinner (beans on toast usually) at around the time I showed up, then down into the soundproof basement for several hours. I really liked Barry and Victor and it was a shame things didn't work out. The Intimates While practicing with The Intimates in a new rehearsal space down by the Hammersmith Odeon in West London, Mick Rossi showed up with Mick Ronson. Needless to say I was pretty blown away but tried to be cool about it, and before long we got down to work on a new song. Next thing I know Ronson is stood right next to me watching me playing string pads on my Juno 106. After the song he showed me some cool chord progressions, and even shaped my fingers around some odd but very effective inversions that I use to this day. We chatted for a while about this and that and got on just great. Strangely enough the next time I saw him was several months later, backstage after The Bolshoi's first sold-out show at The Marquee Club. I was there taking in the sights and sounds of a packed after-show party in one of the most famous venues in the World, and up he strolls with the biggest grin and slaps me on the back while offering congratulations. He talked very candidly to me about being very smart about what I got up to while being in a rock band. Normally I'd be the last one to take anyones advice, but this was coming from someone who had been there, and also he was a fellow Northerner so I think he really empathised with me. Needless to say his words never left me through the many and varied crazy times touring with The Bolshoi." The Bolshoi Upon arriving in Los Angeles for our first US tour, we were met at the airport by our US promotor and driven to his Venice Beach condo for lunch. While en-route someone turned the radio on, it was tuned into KROQ, and the first words we all get to hear on US radio are "with their new keyboard player Paul Clark here's their latest single Away" followed by our new single Away which was on heavy rotation at the time. This amazing coincidence completely blew me away.