WALRUS was my first band (as such), originally formed in 1977 as mainly a song-writing partnership between myself and Randal McAlister.

  Randal (then a fourth form student at Rathkeale College in Masterton) used to send me (the equivalent at Wellington College) audio cassettes of compositions that he had come up with on an acoustic guitar. Not always, but often with just a title.

  I would then add lyrics from one of a collection of note-books of poetry, thoughts and scribblings that I had been working on and - using this formula - we pretty soon had a burgeoning repertoire of original song compositions. To me personally, it was more about getting my 'words' out there...music for me was more of a necessity and far more natural for Randal.

  We'd always talked of putting a proper band together when we eventually left school and when I did, we added Nigel Simpson on drums and used to jam and work on originals in my flat in Mein Street, Newtown, Wellington City (the photo at left taken by Euan McCabe in the upstairs hallway of that flat).

  Although WALRUS always had a lot of fun, nothing more than the odd self organised gig ever eventuated, Randal in fact, attending Victoria University as a medical student before deciding that dentistry would be his choice of vocation.

  By that stage, 1982 - when we decided to call it a day - we had compiled (together or  I alone) some forty odd compositions, the first of which were 70's rock or ballad standards and the last were definitively 'new wave'.

  The lyrics contained within the WALRUS section of this website, were all written by myself between the age of 14 and 19.