Where I am now
Learning to be in the now, come what may, has become the central path
for me in recent years. I believe it is through constantly committing
to being fully, truly present - and not runnning from ourselves - that transformation comes, and that we find meaning and healing.
In my life, I practise the three, related, core disciplines of psychotherapy, yoga and music.
For me, humanity and spirituality lie at the heart of all of these. As
well as following these disciplines separately in their own right, I
have, perhaps inevitably, found myself looking for a way to combine
them in one process. This is currently the central focus of my musical
activities, and is expressed through my work with Four, and At-Ma a collaboration with Craig Pruess through which I have produced a CD, the Gathering of the Tribes in 2007.
Musical beginnings - singing and writing
Born in 1946 in Norwich, I was educated at Loddon Primary School and
Wymondham College, leaving at the age of 18 to join show business in
1964. Working my way from being a chorus boy in the Black & White
Minstrel Show, I toured with bands, and made my way into recording
studios, radio/TV work.
During that time as a session singer, producers I worked with included
George Martin (producer for the Beatles), Tommy LiPuma, Georgio
Moroder, Michel Colombier and Henry Mancini. I accompanied a wide
variety of artistes including Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder,
Adam Ant, Tony Bennett, Twisted Sister, Cliff Richard and Right Said
Fred. I also found time to lend my voice to many TV and radio
commercials including McDonalds, Lloyds Bank, Midland Bank, The Halifax
Building Society, Delta Airlines, Pacific Airlines, Capital Radio and
BBC Radio 1.
In 1977 I achieved huge success with the act R & J Stone with the
self-penned, worldwide hit 'We Do It'. Following the death of my late
wife Joanne, the J of R & J Stone, in 1979, I went back to studio
work and touring.
Psychotherapy, counseling and teaching
In 1994, having successfully addressed an alcohol abuse problem with
help from a Hampshire clinic and counselling, I began counselling
training and completed a Diploma in 1998. I took a sabbatical from
singing professionally in 1995 in order to focus on this, and
established a private therapy practice in 1999, which I have maintained
to this day.
I began teaching counselling at Farnborough College in 2000 through
Skills to the Advanced Diploma level. During this time I also began
facilitating workshops using vocal sound to explore within.
It was when I had stopped drinking that I realised the old ways were
not enough, and that being sober was definitely by no means enough for
me. At that time I intuited that spirituality, whatever that meant, was
the way forward, and have maintained a commitment to studying this ever
since. Having completed a Certificate of Education in 2002, I decided
to combine the interests of therapy and spirituality by embarking on an
MA.
Sounding
My MA also served the purpose of coming back to music in a very
different way. I combined my therapeutic and musical skills in running
a long term group,
with whom I explored the question for my 2004 thesis, "What is the
transpersonal experience of the vocal method of Sounding?" (view article)
Sounding is the expression of spontaneous and improvisational vocal
sounds that might or might not involve musical structures. They could
be vowel sounds, expressions of pain/joy: anything that the mind or
body seem to want to voice.
Something of my musical, therapeutic, and spiritual journey was
expressed in my article for the Journal of the Music and Psyche Network
in A Soul Song.
I finished teaching in at the end of the academic year in 2005 in order
to concentrate more on this, and have also put on hold doing a PhD at
Chichester University in Transpersonal Arts, for the same reason.
I now work with musicians of all different kinds in this
improvisational way, to explore meditatively within while others are a
witness. Working this way has promoted the return of the muse and At-Ma
is the natural coming together of many strands, drawing on my life
experience, and friends and colleagues who share my vision of stepping
into just being. 2006 was devoted to developing material generated
during Soundings sessions, and using this technique when recording
tracks for the CD 'Gathering of hte Tribes'.
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