Neil started playing guitar at 13 after having a go on his cousin's acoustic. Early influences included Ritchie Blackmore and Al Di Meola, then in later years the likes of Allan Holdsworth, Frank Gambale, Joe Satriani and Pat Metheny. He's played in local Portsmouth based bands since those early days covering everything from rock, pop, funk, soul to acoustic and jazz. In the 80s he played with the popular local soul outfit Big Brother Soul and also did some studio session work. Marriage and subsequently 4 children meant that music had to take a back seat role ! In the mid 2000s a successful function band that he had previously played in, Fay Wray, reformed and they had a successful 7/8 year spell playing all over the South coast including several appearances at the Gosport Festival. During that time he also had a short stint with melodic rock artist Steve Newman which included supporting John Waite at The Brook in Southampton and the Firefest Rock Festival.

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"Following the break-up of Fay Wray I came across Tony Bronsdon’s shout out for a guitarist for Bram Stoker. It wasn’t a band that I was familiar with, but listening to the Cold Reading album promo on Youtube I was blown away and contacted Tony straight away. " The rest, as they say …