My Mum first dragged me along to piano lessons aged 8, and I learnt to play scales, arpeggios and all the other ‘classical’ stuff. That lasted until I was 13, by which time I’d learnt to read music and was starting to buy my own sheet music (the likes of Billy Joel and Genesis, which interested me more than classical pieces). Thanks Mum – I may not have appreciated it at the time, but if it wasn’t for you, I would never have had so much enjoyment from music during my life, playing in bands and making ‘real’ music with other great musicians (and great friends).
I started off in my first band while still at school, with my best mate Mark, and constructed a single-manual organ. The box was constructed from orange (they didn’t have any black) fabric-covered quarter inch plywood, the keyboard was 4 octaves, and the circuit boards were from a kit from Maplin. Lots of wires, lots of soldering. I played in a folk band – I can’t remember how I justified playing an orange organ in a folk band. We were called Stale Ale, and played at a few school concerts. Due to the quality of my construction, the orange organ eventually stopped working. Soon I discovered that if I raised the keyboard to about 45 degrees (it was hinged at the rear), it stretched the right wires and worked fine. It wasn’t easy to play. I had to place the orange organ on a low table, so I could play a keyboard that was bent up at 45 degrees. We played all our own compositions, and I’m sure I looked a twat with my orange organ! In those days I followed Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Richard Wright to name but a few, and realised that I was never ever (ever) going to come close, with my one orange organ with dicky keyboard and talent to match. However, I was undaunted ….
My first ‘real’ band was based in Bournemouth, where my job took me, in the late eighties. I played in a band called the Idol Rich, with Ian (bass), Paul (vocals), Arthur (guitar) and Wayne (drums). We played some of the memorable (and usual) rock and pop covers, including several Who numbers. We had some great gigs – most of which I can’t remember (we’re talking more than 35 years ago!), but the few I can remember bring back great memories. I left the Idol Rich when marriage no. 1 was breaking up and I had to move to London for a while (long story). Later on I moved back ‘oop north’, back to my roots. More recently, Idol Rich has ‘reformed’, and we have had some great sessions, in a rehearsal studio in Bournemouth, trying to relive the old days! The only trouble is, that’s a 450 mile round trip!

In the early ‘noughties’ came the Credible MCs, a pop-rock covers band, based in Warrington. The Credible MCs consisted of me, Tony (pronounced Tawny) on vocals, Tim on guitar (great lead guitarist), Tom on bass (with his massive bass bins and 5 string green bass guitar), Bob (my sister’s fella at the time) on drums, and Mark (aka Joey the Lips) on sax. The highlight for the Credible MCs was playing at the Hardrock Cafe in Manchester, every Friday for 12 weeks. I left the MCs in 2006, when I moved house (that was the excuse, actually I had developed tinnitus from the loud drummer, who didn’t know how to do quiet!).
Next came Married in Vegas, with Pete (vocals and guitars) and the two Kevs (bass guitar and drums) and Anita on vocals. I started off with MIV in 2007, having moved to Macclesfield. When I joined MIV, they had a talented fiddle player, and we played all our own compositions. However, we weren’t getting many gigs, so soon learnt that we needed to play covers as well. These ranged from Neil Young to Pink Floyd. Over the years, MIV members dropped out, or were replaced, and we ended up as a three piece (me, Pete and Kev the bass, but no drummer). I left MIV in 2016, as Pete was getting us more and more gigs, and I decided that a gig every weekend was too much. A hobby was quickly turning into a chore!

And then came the Charlie Farley Band. And I’m still enjoying making music, with a group of excellent musicians!

<Click on photos to enlarge>