My story is not remarkable. I played piano for seven years when I was a kid, and I regret to say I don't remember diddly about it now. I am a qualififed avionics engineer who prefered to be jamming with the lads instead of studying to further my career. After finishing with the airline I travelled wherever the winds sent me for a couple of years and ended up making and selling recycled wood furniture and guitars. That particular situation didn't last.

I recovered in Japan with a friend of mine and started learning the martial art Aikido. I came home and picked myself up, joined a irish folk rock band and toured and played professionally for around 5 years before discovering that rock and roll is a young person's game; not having any real musical talent also made it an easier decision to go and get a 'real' job. I ended up working in local childrens TV. The job moved north with the production company and I wasn't about to go with them. I started a computer repair business 10 years ago and still run it now. I split my time between Christchurch, New Zealand and Trogir, Croatia where my wife is from. I still feel the call of the stage and probably will till the day I die; with Riffworks and Rifflink and Riffcast I can capture some of that spirit and relive it again, if only in my dreams and when sitting at my computer.

These days I am married, run a company, hire staff and have become one of the 'squares' that I used to make fun of. I don't drink or do drugs anymore, having taken more than enough of both in my youth to last me two lifetimes.

I am an author with one published book (www.computerkungfu.com) and one self-published novel (www.lulu.com/content/1140729) that is slowly selling and is currently in the hands of various TV and movie people; whether anything comes out of it, well, who knows. I wrote it to get the story out of my head where it had lived and nagged me to be written for the last 20 years.

I write a weekly humour/technical column called 'How 2' for one of NZ's national newspapers.

I am currently a 2nd degree black belt instructing at the Canterbury Aikido Club.

Thats enough about me. I know you just want to know what sort of gear I use. Here is a shot of two of my guitars for those who are interested.

http://www.pcanytime.co.nz/mygear.jpg

and I included the biggest teddy bear you have ever seen in the photo just to 'make' you have a look.

I hope the world is still a great place in 50 years where my grandkids (if I ever have any) can enjoy the things I have and hope and pray (though I am irreligious) that by then the planet isn't polluted, barren and war-torn beyond hope. Music and communication (through something like Riffworld) can stop that happening, I'm sure of it.

Peace and rock on.