Blog - July 2026

Hello, and welcome to my blog! I may use this as a platform for my various interests and opinions about stuff but for the moment I’ll be talking about “Lost and Found”.

 

It’s my first solo album, but by no means my first attempt. In fact, I’ve tried on and off since my early twenties, just after the Battle of Agincourt. 

 

Making a solo album is harder than you’d think. Or maybe not. Perhaps it’s about as difficult as you’d expect it to be.

 

The problem with solo albums is this:

 

Like most musicians, my influences are very diverse, and that tends to be the way I write music as well.

 

I like rock, prog rock, pop. folk, jazz, fusion, classical (from Palestrina to Stravinsky), Latin, Trip Hop, Synthwave and all possible combinations. And although they are less represented on my virtual music library, I also have Hip Hop, Heavy Metal and Country. 

 

And all of those things can pop up in my writing at any time. In a sense it’s easier to write when you’re collaborating with someone. For instance, when I’m writing with Tony Patterson, I have a general idea of what a Tony Patterson/Doug Melbourne album sounds like. So although we too use  a wide and varied palette, it’s not quite a blank sheet of paper. 

 

So that’s one problem for me as a would be solo artist. “Come and buy my rock/prog/jazz/electronic/other stuff album!”.

 

Secondly - competence. I’m a good keyboard player with a decent technique and my programming skills are passable. But there’s a whole bunch of skills needed beyond that. So I would either have to develop those skills or get someone else to do it - which means begging favours or paying large amounts of cash.

 

Thirdly - singing. Do I get a singer? Would they be able to interpret the meaning the way I intended? I can sing a bit but good enough for a professional sounding album? 

 

With these problems and others (such as real life) in my way, it’s not surprising that it’s taken me until the age of 107 to complete the project.

 

In the end, a number of things changed to make “Lost and Found” possible.

 

Firstly, it was the right time. After three highly enjoyable albums with Tony and a last triumphant UK tour with ReGenesis, finishing at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London, I was ready for something different. Following ReGenesis I had changed a lot of my live and studio gear and that presented lots of new sonic opportunities. 

 

Secondly, I had learned a lot. Tony is a brilliant music maker and I had been lucky enough to understand some of what he had done with our three collaborations, so I felt more confident with things like mixing and audio processing.

 

Thirdly, I had opportunity - I was ‘between contracts’ and was able to focus on the writing for the last three months of 2025. I created around 20 ideas in the studio and 9 of them finished up on the album, along with 2 that I’d had hanging around for years, and a song of Carrie’s called ‘Arbella’.

 

Writing and recording took me through to March ’26. For final mixing, I was able to take advice from Nick Davis, whose credits include Genesis, XTC and Marillion! And through his connections, I had the fantastic opportunity to master the album at Abbey Road!  

 

Carrie helped out on lead and backing vocals. Steve Anderson provided a fantastic guitar solo, and my best friend Nigel Appleton was able to provide fantastic drums, backing vocals and some acoustic guitar. 

 

Voila!