On Wednesday 13th August I am off to London again to play in Laura Bowler’s opera ‘Anything Money Can Buy ‘. With three performances, the final in Studio Two at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith this will be an enjoyable experience I am sure.

In Anything Money Can Buy the focus turns to shopping. With a colloquial libretto by Alasdair Middleton showing a footballer and his wife disagreeing about the important things in their relationship, we see how one birthday shopping trip can show a person’s true colours!

Well I have just been asked to do some collaboration with the composer Jamie Norton. His music is to be used in the forth coming production of ‘The Three Sisters’ by Chekhov and he wants an accordion part! Not sure quite how and when we will get the recording done but watch this space!

Jamie Norton studied at the Royal Academy of Music and has worked with such musicians as Mark Owen, The Brand New Heavies, Incognito, Acoustic Alchemy, Judie Tzuke and Bailey Tzuke. He has worked extensively as a session musician, recording and touring with numerous bands and artists, most recently with Just Jack, McFly and Take That! For more information visit www.jamienorton.co.uk

On Friday 11th July I had the pleasure of playing with Steafan Hannigan, Saskia Tomkins and Elizabeth Ann Barlow at the Henley on Thames Festival. Despite a few teething problems we had a great gig, with some of the usual fun as well! Always a pleasure to play with these guys the music making is always a joy to be involved with!

On the weekend of 21/22 February 2009 I will be one of the tutors at the accordion weekend in Witney in Oxfordshire. These are great weekends where you get the chance to work with some of the top players and teachers around in the company of fellow players! Have a look at http://www.whitecottagewebsites.co.uk/homweekends/accordions.htm for more details

Part of working with orchestras is the waiting! Here is a picture of me in the dressing room at the Hackney Empire on Thursday, waiting for my piece!

Well I am off to London again this week for a couple of gigs with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and the National Opera Studio, performing Act Two from Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen.

The concerts are at the Hackney Empire on Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th June. At the first rehearsal I was pleased to see it was to be conducted by David Parry, who conducted Pinnochio on the recent tour. David is always fun to work with and I am sure it will be ‘Marvelous’!

Well what a wet weekend we had at Chippenham Festival! Still never let it be said that the weather spoilt our fun! It did but never say it!

Again away with the lovely Jon Loomes (Heretique) you can imagine the silliness that went on, he now appears to be called ‘The Doctor’ not sure why!

We are well on the way to completing the first album from my trio ‘Heretique’, with Jon Loomes and Mike Beeke.

The recording has gone wonderfully well, with us recording two thirds of the album in a weekend! We are now at that slow annoying stage of finishing little bits off but so far the tracks are sounding great!!

We have also engaged the services of a great young graphic designer Mark Barrett, www.grimdesign.co.uk. He is on the same insane wavelength as us so he is just the man to do the artwork, and a few other daft ideas!

Visit Heretique’s new myspace page for a chance to hear a couple of rough tracks, more to follow soon!

The weekend of the 3-6 May I was at Rochester Festival with my good friends Jon Loomes (Heretique) and Anna Elliot. We had a fantastic time, met lots of people and generally acted stupid!

The high point was doing a gig with Philip Martin. If you haven’t heard Phil’s new album then get hold of a copy now it is great! He will be appearing on Heretique’s album as a guest soon, more news of that soon!

Well I am back again and playing once more. I wish to say my thanks to everyone who has sent me their best wishes over this difficult time, it is very much appreciated.

It is always hard at a time like this to refocus but I owe all my successes to my parents and it would be a poor way to repay my father if I stopped now. He was always my inspiration and supporter and I would not be who I am today without him. I will miss him always