A few days later, I met some people who had been in the pub and they were very complimentary about my singing and asked if I'd ever thought about taking it up as a second career. Well, I don't mind admitting my head and chest expanded considerably, but it did make me start to think. As long as I can remember, I had always fancied the idea of performing in front of an audience, but surely I had left it too late in life and would find it very hard to break into the pubs and clubs. I kept my thoughts to myself, but decided to continue to go to local Karaoke's just to see if I could get up there and sing without the help of copious amounts of alcohol! Much to my surprise, I found I could and, I usually didn't feel too nervous.

One evening, two lady's approached me and asked if I had any CD's for sale as they had enjoyed my singing so much. They seemed genuinely shocked when I told them I only sang at Karaoke's. They said I was wasting my talents and should seriously consider starting a singing career. I bounced the idea off the Karaoke host who said he had heard hundreds of people sing and I was definitely one of the better ones. The next step was to see how my family reacted.

My wife was and to this day is still tremendously supportive. My kids were slightly more sceptical, after all, here was their 53 year old Dad trying to break into a singing career! I often wonder if they were more worried what their friends might think, you know, street cred. and all that! However, my mind was made up, I was going to do it because I wanted to. Selfish maybe but thats how it was, back me or sack me!

I decided I wanted to go down the 'ELVIS TRIBUTE' route and duly spent 'loadsamoney' buying second hand equipment, material for the suit, gems etc., and of course spent many many hours practicing my routine in what was our dining room but had now been turned into my studio. Well, the audience reaction was great, the reviews even better, but there just was not enough work to warrant the investment made. I reluctantly decided to have a rethink.

I decided to re-invest in new tracks that could give me the option of reaching a far wider audience, in the shape of all the local and now not so local clubs/pubs. It was the right decision. My musical variations now cover Rock & Roll, 60's to Modern, Swing, Country, Line Dance, Soul, Mowtown, Reggae and the inevitable end of evening Ballads. I now have a very healthy diary and enjoy my work so much. My 'gigs' to date have taken me to many clubs in the South Staffordshire and Midland Counties areas, Worcestershire, Bridgend Recreation Centre in South Wales and Thirlestane Castle in Scotland.