About Me

Hello and welcome to my personal page.

My life started in Watford just North of London as the youngest of six children. My mother was born in Ardara, County Donegal and father came from Edinburgh… somehow I ended up living in Germany.

The first whistle encounter was when I was about 14 years old, about the same time discovering Irish Music mainly through Horslips, The Bothy Band and Planxty.

In 1993 I decided to build myself a Low D whistle which was named "Frankenstein" due to its nuts and bolts through the head.

During the making of my second Low D whistle I met Bernard Overton. This led to myself learning how to make his design and have been making it ever since adding further developments and designing new keys and models as time went by to the point in where customizing a whistle to a player's specifications is second nature.

I have also made a few wooden flutes and plan to take that further when time allows. To widen my instrument making skills I have been fortunate to have visited and learned from respected makers such as Andreas Rogge, Brendan Ring, Chris Wilkes, Juergen Ross, Mollenhauer and the Von Huene Workshops in Boston, USA. Many of these skills are incorporated into the work that I do.

Over the years I have played different instruments in bands but stick to wind instruments these days. After playing a few hundred concerts in the last 20 years and recording on several albums my understanding of what a musician needs in the live and recording situation has helped me making the instruments I build.

Gallery

I am a passionate flute and whistle player and love taking photographs. Have a little look what I do in my rare spare time.