Just Me is the title of my first album. The tracks are my collection of original songs up to around the age of 18. Generally I wrote the bulk of the lyrics and chord sequences, but often other parts are expanded by a few friends.

A fun romp that doesn't take itself too seriously; designed to open the album with a bang. Dan has a challenging bass line, the always brilliant Neil gets a guitar solo... and I try out a few things on my acoustic rhythm guitar part. Indecisive over asking a girl out? Me? Never!

This was originally written for an indie group I was in many years ago called Red Set. It was at the height of Oasis' career and Red Set were heavily influenced by them... the lead singer even looked and sounded a little like Liam Gallagher! So I went for a straight out rock tune about typical teenage angst.

A very dark tune, the early drafts have been cited as a favourite by several people. Written at 3am when I was 18 from a stream of consciousness that could be described as very 'Freudian'. I play almost all the instruments; although Dan had a huge influence on the drums, arrangement and final 3rd of the keyboard solo.

The first ballad of the album, it's about really liking (and having been involved with) someone who doesn't feel the same way. Heart breaking!

A short instrumental and deliberate change of style. The melody came about by simply trying new sounds out with the computer, lord knows where the title came from!

The first depressing song I ever wrote! It's about realising that the object of your crush has moved away from you and the fantasy will never happen. The drum pattern is heavily inspired by Phil Collins, indeed there is a slight variation of the famous drum pattern from In the Air Tonight in the complete version.

Dan calls this my 'John Deacon' piece, i.e. the bass player from Queen who wrote You're My Best Friend. Happy and upbeat, placed here it's a nice change of pace. I always wanted a big vocal harmony on the chorus and it was Dan who helped make it happen. OK there is a little white lie... in real life I didn't actually get the girl!

Another short instrumental and - ironically given the title of my album - this piece almost didn't feature me at all. It's a reprise of What I Mean To Say with a new melody being mostly Dan, Chris and Chas' baby... I insisted on playing and writing some of the guitar solo, because well it is my album!

The epic progressive rock tune of this album. The lyrical ideas came from the film Highlander and are a firm favourite of mine. DJ Flywheel had a heavy hand in the arrangement and directed my vocal performance. The long instrumental was a chord sequence of mine (written much later than the rest of the song) and Chris wrote the keyboard solo ontop of it.

Another ballad and my oldest song written when I was 14. A friend wrote the opening line ("when I first saw you") and I developed it into a full song. A Love Never To Be? Think long distance relationships! Originally on guitar, it felt to me like it should be on piano but I am not much of a piano player. So in stepped Dan with some gorgeous playing and wrote himself a beautiful bass solo. Finally Chris added a soaring violin part.

Another epic that took 3 years to record! I wrote the lyrics in 1995 but couldn't get the music, over to Chris... who wrote the tune in the time it took to read it. I was gobsmacked! Years later I presented it to Dan and asked him to make it sound a bit 'like Meatloaf'... in his finest moment (so far) he produced an awesome arrangement. Another Victim? It's about being dumped for the first time, cheerful!

This is dedicated to the memory of John Jackson, who was like a second father to me when I was 16. He sadly died of a heart attack on the 14th August 1994. To come to terms with the loss I wrote this piece of music and knew my first album just had to end with it. Dan orchestrated my melody to create this rousing and moving finale.