If Only

Canadian born, but raised in Stockton-on-Tees, an industrial town in the North East of England, Rob’s first musical memories and influences were of The Shadows, The Beatles, The Kinks ect. Later, in the late 60's early 70's the bluesy/soulful sound of Free would have a lasting affect on his love of listening and playing music, as would the music of Neil Young, all these early influences are heard in Rob’s music. Though learning some crude guitar, when very young it was when Rob got into a band, his instrument of choice being the bass, as no one else wanted to. As teenager, those bands did no more than 3 or 4 youth club gigs, then, life got in the way...
Rob’s next band involvement was with an outfit that became (eventually) The CB Quills. This was be the late 80's and although lots of song-writing was done, the band never gigged and once again, life got in the way. But all through these fallow periods of no band involvement, Rob started to hone his skills at song-writing and composition so he was always musically active. Fast forward to 2007, Rob managed to get The CB Quills back together, but the band had a different vibe this time so Rob felt I should leave the guys and let them carry on in their chosen direction. Since 2010 He been a member of The Angry Amigos, The Ghost of Smokey Joe, Hanged As Traitors and latterly a very satisfactory stint in a band called Charabanc Dreams.
Unfortunately, in 2018 Rob was diagnosed with a very serious illness, which, prompted him to getting some of his catalogue of songs professionally recorded (he confessed to Steve his engineer “I should have done it years ago”), since late last year he has been recording some of his work which has ended up being his first full album “If Only...” with the help of 27D Music Productions Steve Hoggart, this CD is the result.
A Big thank you from Rob for giving it a listen. Hopefully it can be heard as an honest account of the musical ideas I have put together over the years and be enjoyed, at this time Rob is still working with Steve let us see what the next phase brings.