Many people know my name and voice from listening to Classic FM, but far fewer are aware of my work as a composer and musician, which predate my radio career by a couple of decades. On this site you can listen to examples of my music, purchase downloads or CDs to listen to, or scores if you'd like to perform it. Do feel free to get in touch through the links below, and I will post updates of developments and news of performances as they occur.

My musical tastes have always been and remain eclectic. For instance, the first records I owned were Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D minor, Frankie Laine singing 'Rawhide' and the debut album by 'The Shadows' - it doesn't get much more catholic than that!

I taught myself to play the guitar when I was a boy, and would spend hours listening to and aping my heroes such as Chuck Berry, Joe Brown & Hank Marvin. But whilst much of my pocket money went on pop records, I was also buying a lot of classical music, & when the budget was overtaxed, I would borrow classical & jazz albums from the local library.

One of the things I like least is the pigeonholing of music, and I like to think that my open-mindedness in this regard is reflected in my work.

While my activities as a performer in rock bands such as Mungo Jerry & Boy Bastin were gradually overtaken by my developing career as a radio presenter, my love of composing has remained a constant. Nowadays, I write mostly in a classical idiom, but music and melody will always be indivisible for me, and I'm sure the 'DNA' of the multifarious styles I've been exposed to over the years continues to influence my compositions.

My music has been recorded and performed by Elin Manahan Thomas, Tasmin Little, Craig Ogden, Paul Phoenix, Katherine Jenkins, The King's Singers and All Angels amongst others, but I couldn’t be more delighted that Xuefei has recorded my Complete Works for Guitar with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, although for obvious reasons, I prefer to think of it as my Complete Works for Guitar so far.

The centrepiece of the album, Concerto Magna Carta, was written specifically for Fei, whom I had met & interviewed several years earlier for Classic FM. The work evolved over several years in reverse order: the third movement first, then the second & finally, the first. Without consciously seeking to steer clear of the very strong Spanish tradition of the classical guitar, I hope to have created something quintessentially British with the Concerto & I was so pleased that Fei picked up on this when I asked her to contribute a cadenza, something she has clearly given a great deal of thought to.

I wrote the Five Romances between 2007 and 2019, and they all started with different intentions. I originally only thought of 1 and 4 as guitar pieces, while 2 and 5 were conceived as choral works and 3 as a piece for strings. However, as I compose from the guitar, it’s been a natural and satisfying process to take them all back to their origins and treat them in a similar manner with the fabulous strings of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

I began writing the Lacrimosa as a piece for solo guitar some while ago, and only recently returned to it with the idea of scoring it for guitar and cello; a combination I particularly like, and I see it as an intensely emotional conversation between those two instruments. I’m thrilled that the cellist Johannes Moser was available to join Fei on this premiere recording.

I hope you enjoy exploring my music as much as I enjoy creating it.