The bands of which I have been a full time member have sometimes played original music, sometimes covers and sometimes a mixture of the two.

The first two bands I was in played entirely original material. The next two played mainly original material with the occasional cover.

By the time I had been playing for about five years I was an adult and earning money had become a priority, so my attention turned to performing covers. Three of my next five bands still performed some original material as well as covers, but since 1995 I have been a member of another eight bands, all of which have performed covers, with no original material at all.
This split of having been in seven bands that have performed original material and ten that have not is not one that particularly pleases me, as writing is a side of music that I enjoy so much.

During the many years of performing covers and not writing with my bands I have continued to come up with ideas, though they have never progressed beyond tunes in my head, scribbled notes, or maybe the odd poor-quality four-track demo.

In 2004, after a lot of encouragement from my wife Anna and a chance conversation about writing original material with a friend’s father, I decided that I would gather together all these ideas, blow the dust off them and record them. If the results are anything worth hearing I will produce an album of original material.

Watch this space! – though maybe for a very long time, as being so busy stops me dedicating enough time to the project to make it move along quickly.

Update:
As of 16/11/06, I have completed demos of a complete album's worth of material.
Now I have to find the time to get it all recorded properly.
This means not only finding the time myself, but all the other musicians that will be involved in the recording finding the time too.

So far so good, as every musician I've asked to take part has wanted to do so.
There are currently over 20 people who have agreed to be involved in the project and there are a few more I want to ask.

Recording is going well, all be it very slow due to the aforementioned time problems.

Who knows how long it will take, but at least it's finally happening!


Further update:
As of 5/08/09, recording is now complete.
However, every track still has to be mixed and mastered. Since we moved house, I have not yet set up a mixing environment, so it will probably be the end of the year before I have time to create a finished product.


Latest update (6th April 2010):
Believe it or not the album is now finished!! At long last it exists!
As well as myself, 22 people eventually performed vocals, drums, keyboards, guitars, bass guitars, double bass, cello, fiddle, saxophones, flutes and harmonica on the 15 tracks included, all of which are self written and recorded.

I will get this site updated to show full album details.
However, in the meantime, if anybody wants a copy (£5 each), please contact me and we can get it sorted out.
Copies are also available from Diverse Music, Charles Street, Newport - although due to the overheads etc of shop sales, they will be priced slightly higher.
Thanks.

Nick Brown - Guitar Tuition, Newport, South Wales.