About Myself, YouTube links and my Fun page
(Click the (<-) back button on your web-browser to get back here if you click on a You-Tube link)
Born: 1952, Bognor Regis, Sussex, England.
1970 - 1974: Chichester Technical College - ONC/HNC in Electronic Engineering.
1975 - 1976: Employed at Wayne Kerr Ltd. - development Engineer
1977 - 1980: Self-employed in the Music industry in London. Music keyboards supplier to Rock Bands. (including Yes, Led Zeppelin, Vangelis, Genesis etc, etc...) This was in my "I wanna be a rock'n roll star too" days. My talents as a keyboard player myself however weren't sufficient to earn a living ( let alone get to rock-star status) so, after a while, I quit and sold all my equipment. And as I sold them for more than the purchase price I actually made a profit which was the first time I'd ever made any money in the music business. Because I knew so many other loser musicians around in those days in London that were also desperate for money (we all used to hang out together in the Kings Road in Chelsea), I started to make them offers for their equipment too. The next month I sold them for a handsome profit to the winner musicians.
My first big deal was with the famous Canadian group "Bachman Turner Overdrive" where I made 500 British pounds in one afternoon selling then two EMS synthesizers. I got them from Roger Waters of Pink Floyd (well, his roadie anyway - at least he said he was his roadie) and that they were used on the Darkside of the Moon album. They're probably worth quite a bit now to collectors I can imagine.
But I had to stop that business after a while because of my bad conscious. I seemed to have had become a sort of Robin Hood in reverse because I was taking from the poor and giving to the rich. Sometimes even the famous musicians hit hard times too. (so if Tony Kaye of Yes is wondering what happened to his big old Hammond B3 organ - I cut it in half for easier transportation and sold it to some bloke with a truck).
Good fun while it lasted though. I met some really interesting people and the now famous Vangelis was my best customer. Vangelis -Echoes, Vangelis-Ask the mountains Vangelis -Dream of Surf
Yes singer (Jon Anderson) and Vangelis together
1981 - 1985: Moved to Frankfurt/Germany - employed as development engineer at the Mania Corporation. Played a major role in the development of the Mania range of optical circuit-card test scanners - hardware and software. This is where I gained my knowledge of optical sensors.
1986 - 2002: Freelance IT consultant, analyst and programmer for various software companies and Banks - including: LHS software corporation, the Bank of Tokyo and the Metzler Investment Bank - Frankfurt.
As of January 2003: Working full time in the Golf Simulator business
(click on image for E-Type video)
Before I played golf, I used to spend my spare time restoring classic cars. What do you think of the paint job here? Not too bad is it, considering I did it myself in the yard without a screen to stop the bugs from flying into the wet paint. Of course, the bugs did fly into it but I managed to polish them out with some polishing paste. With a magnifying glass you can still see the remnants of their little feet in the paint though.
This car used to be a coupe until I got my hands on it.
I cut the roof off because I wanted a convertible but couldn't afford one at the time.
Gore blimey! What a mess! ...but with a little welding it soon looked better
Cutting the roof off was a very rewarding experience. A real man's (or utter fool's) challenge. I remember standing there with the hack saw in my hand thinking...
"Am I really going to do this? This is such a nice car".
However, my past experience in cutting Hammond organs in half gave me the necessary courage.
I couldn't get the doors open afterwards ( apparently the roof in this car helps hold it together) but everything turned out well in the end. A bit sloppy in corners now though so I prefer to avoid them where possible and just drive in straight lines. (Otherwise I might lose a passenger because the door has a tendency to fly open when you least expect it).
(click on image for XK8 video)
I drive a factory made convertible now though.
If you're a car nut like me then check out this 3 part test from Top Gear on the Isle of Man. Very entertaining!
Aston Martin vs BMW M6 vs Porsche 911 Part 1
Aston Martin vs BMW M6 vs Porsche 911 Part 2
Aston Martin vs BMW M6 vs Porsche 911 Part 3
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My first love however (before I discovered girls) was Electronic Music
This all started for me back in 1968 with the release of the album Switched-on-Bach
featuring Walter Carlos on the famous Moog analog synthesizer
Couldn't find any original Switched-On-Bach on Youtube but
Click above image for a short intro
Click above image for a really great demo
This was back in the days when a synthesizer was a synthesizer and not a computer wave-sampling machine.
This is what my old setup used to look like.
I used to spend hours playing around with these things and eventually started a business buying, selling and actually building them in London.
Then came the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, of which I sold many.
(click on image for video)
In the 80's came the advent of digital syntheziers. Notably the Fairlight synthesizer.
Click above image for a Fairlight demo.
It was then that I started developing my own music syntethesizer and started a company called DMS (Digital Music Systems).
It took years and I got as far as production prototype that I even exhibited it at the Frankfurt Music trade show
but got bogged down with all the software development so it never made final production.
Very close though.
Today, synthesizers are so close to the real instruments, you can't tell the difference anymore.
see Vangelis - Spanish Habour - for an example
Apart from the harps and other instruments,
there's spanish guitar solo in here that's so real you couldn't tell if it's a synthesizer or not. But it's really a synthesizer.
The master himself today
In 1974 an album called Spectrum from drummer Billy Cobham came out
which featured a completely new sounding electric guitar - or so people thought.
I had many guitar players contact me in my London shop at the time asking me how to get this great guitar sound (Even Pink Floyd).
"It must be going through some kind of synthesizer" they said.
In reality it was Jan Hammer playing the mini-moog keyboard synthesizer so they were rather dissapointed.
This guy pioneered the electric guitar style of playing on a synthesizer with the pitch and vibrato wheels.
Hear for yourself:
Startus (Billy Cobham/Jan Hammer 1974)
Even better: See and hear for yourself:
Miami Vice Theme from Jan Hammer
Oh!, by-the-way, I'm a big jazz fan too.
Here's Billy Cobham with the George Duke Band live
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Synthesizers Today
Check the above really incredible tracks out to hear what today's synthesizers are capable of.
Remember, all sounds (including drums, guitars, bass, electric and accoustic pianos and horns) are all synthesized sounds.
I bet you can't tell the difference.
Today I just use two keyboards. The S90ES for piano and the KX61 controlling the the S90ES for organ and synthesizer.
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The best keyboard player in the world? Judge for yourself...
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Rick Wakeman Today
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Probably the most important music statement of the last 50 years
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
(released 1973)
The making of Dark Side of the Moon part 1
The making of Dark Side of the Moon part 2
The making of Dark Side of the Moon part 3
The making of Dark Side of the Moon part 4
The making of Dark Side of the Moon part 5
The making of Dark Side of the Moon part 6
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Some old favourites
KLF - Justified & Ancient (1992 )
Kate Bush - Running up that Hill
I've seen all good people - Yes - 1971
-I've seen all good people- Yes- live Lugano 2004
Die Fantastischen Vier - Tag am Mir (german)
Die Fantastschen Vier - Sie ist Weg (german)
Lasse Redn -Die Artze (german)
Avalon -Bryan Ferry / Roxy Music
Smoke gets in your eyes - Bryan Ferry (live)
There's no voice like Celine's. Absolutely perfect.
Because I loved you - Celine Dion
It's all coming back to me Now - Celine Dion
Don't answer me - Alan Parsons Project
A fantastic live performance
Video Killed the Radio Star - Buggles (1979)
I was driving through the Alps on my way to Italy in the night
when I first heard this song on my car radio back in 1979..
"Video Killed the Radio Star"
was the the first of a whole series of "Radio" songs
performed and written by many artists for many years after-
This is great tune - Progressive Latin /Rock Jazz at it's best
The Healer - Santana / John Lee Hooker (1989)
Along the same lines from Santana
Girl Power at its best
Johnny Hates Jazz - Turn back the clock (brilliant)
Johnny Hates Jazz - Turn Back The Clock (studio version)
OMD - So in love (even more brilliant)
The boys of Summer - Don Henly
My all time favorite from the Moody Blues
Song for whoever - Beautiful South
Here comes the Sun - The Beatles
Sie sieht mich einfach nicht - Xavier Naidoo
Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straights
This is perfect. Romeo and Juliet sung in a London cockney accent.
Hey romeo, you shouldn't come around here singing up at people like that.
You nearly gave me a heart attack.
Oh, Yeah. Romeo. I used to have a scene with him
Romeo:
"You and me babe - How about it?"
One of my all time favorites
Great memories of dancing in the Ritz Carlton disco in Naples, Florida with this.
Human Nature - Michael Jackson
My all time favorite from Michael Jackson
I'm on fire - Bruce Springsteen
The best from the boss
Superb song - Amazing video
One of my all time favorites
Dont't dream it's over - Crowded House
A Classic
Don't dream it's over - Video 2
Dont't dream it's over - Video 3
Don't dream it's over - Video 4
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In the Arms of an Angel - City of Angels - Sarah McLachlan
In the Arms of an Angel - ASPCA commercial from Sarah McLachlan
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Always look on the bright side of life - Monty Python
A song dedicated to all my competitors in the golf simulation business
More great memories of dancing in the Ritz Carlton disco in Naples, Florida with this.
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Life in Frankfurt/ Germany.
It’s hard to believe but Frankfurt / Germany was voted Best City in the World to live and work in.
60 years ago it needed a bit of work though.
Click on image for video
Today things look a whole lot better. As you can see, the bridge has been repaired, and the addition of a few high rise office blocks really make difference to the skyline. In fact, Frankfurt is the city with the most high rise buildings in the whole of Europe. More than London and Paris but it's population (750,000) is amongst the lowest. (London alone has 11 million inhabitants).
Light Show night shots of Frankurt
Here in Frankfurt the traditional alcoholic beverage is known as
Apfelwein (or Apple Wine in English).
To the unaccustomed, a positively vile substance that takes quite a bit
of overcoming to consume at first. On average, it takes around 5
years for those new to it to actually start liking it. ( I know it did with
me).
Rumor has it that the panel that voted Frankfurt as the best city in the world to live in, spent a night drinking this before hand.
Years ago I would spend many a merry night slurping this substance in the
Apfelwein Kneipen or Pubs here (pictured above) but I’ve come down a bit since
then.
Other topics of little interest
My favorite book:
(the smallest book in the world in fact)
Great British Lovers
My favorite song:
by Christopher Cross
When in Naples, Florida I really enjoy taking the boat out (or rather, the tide taking me out. There's not much wind on the west coast of Florida unless a hurrican comes through)
and I always play this CD on the on-board stereo while floating out to sea..
"May day, May day"
is also a favorite.
"Ahoi there! Can somebody throw me a rope or call the coast guard?
I'll be out here all night at this rate".
Another full blown sail day in South West Florida comes to an end.
From a sailers point of view the wind on the south west coast of Florida doesn't blow, it sucks!
Still a lot of fun though.
Golfing in Naples, Florida (my winter home) is just great.
This is the Lely course in Naples. A great course if you can get on it with a tee time.
A small Naples home in Florida
Favorite Comedians
Mike Myers , This is brilliant!
and
John Cleese ---- Monty ---- Python
more Monty Python
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Favorite Actress
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Favorite Actor
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(click on image for PGA video, music by Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
High spirits at this year's Golf Europe (& last years PGA, Orlando, Florida) trade show with
Dennis (ProTee United - President & CEO) and Gabriele (Golf Simulators of America LLC - Florida).
How I got started in the golf simulation business.
(Well, I guess if you have got down this far and are still reading this then you must be in the office bored out of your mind.)
OK, well it was like this:
Back in the 90's I bought this wonderful house on a golf course in Naples Florida that came with a full golf course membership.
Problem was, I had never hit a golf ball in my life before and under normal circumstances I would have been banned from going out on the course but as I was a home owner with full membership they had to give in and let me out there.
Jesus, those first 9 holes were really tough I can tell you. The other 3 guys in the flight were all single digit handicapers from up-state New York but somehow kept their sense of humor. I think they just thought I was some kind of Mr. Bean form England and so we all had a great time.
Anyway, I wasn't about to let my 72 stroke score ( on the hole 1 ) get me down in the dumps and decided that no-matter-what I will do my best to improve.
So after I had got back from all my golf escapades to my home in Europe in the winter I found myself hooked and desperately wanted to continue working on my astronomical handicap. I thought well "wouldn't it be great if you could buy a machine that would allow you to practice golf at home".
So I checked out the internet and lo-and-behold there were all these machines on the market that would do just that.
Problem was, they all had price tags that were a thousand times my handicap so I thought, "well blow this, I'll just build my own golf simulator. After all I'm an electronics and software engineer, and I could knock something like this up in a couple of months. A piece-of-cake as we say here in merry old England."
Well that was 11 years ago and even after 50,000 hours development, I'm still working on it.
Problem is, I keep coming up with new feature ideas (flashes of inspiration at 3 a.m. in the morning) so I will probably never be finished.
(I think Bill Gates and his crew have the same problem too with their Windows operating system. At least I get that impression from all the on-line updates I'm getting every week from MS)
What had started out as just a hobby has now become a very successful commercial business with numerous employees world wide and is simply the greatest challenge (apart from Mrs. Jones) that I have ever had the fortune to encounter.
From an engineers point of view the combination of digital electronics with complicated ball trajectory flight physics and even more complicated 3D graphics software plus all the fun of the game element represents the perfect challenge for me. A challenge that consumes me 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.
On rare occasions - when I have the time - I stand in front of my car.
(I used to drive it but I don't have the time for that anymore)
Excuse the stance here, I was standing on a hill for a while just before this shot was taken.
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Getting Old
First you forget names, then you forget faces. Then you forget to pull up your zipper.
It's worse when you forget to pull it down.
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Golf
Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft.
Today, it's called golf .
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Robin Williams Viagra
Robin Williams Golf and other sports
Robin Williams At the Zoo
Caution: Strong language used in the Robin Williams videos which may not be to everyone's taste.
After about the 40th f word you get used to it though.