Paul Higham
see also: Community . see also Global

My very very first 'on stage with guitar' thing before the songwriting came about came when I jumped up on stage to play a Housemartins song with a cabaret trio in my home village of Tintwistle. The man who handed me his guitar and stepped aside for this big chance to shine, was a chap called Barry Higham, who had a young kid son called Paul.

Barry was a local legend, and still is. Smiley, and kinda happy to oblige. I say kinda, because you kinda knew that behind the 'showbiz' side of playing the local pub circuit, there was a large sigh and resignation as it became another days' work, the same old songs. I hoped that 'young me' was a breath of fresh air, a change of scenery in what is, for those who work that circuit, at times a very tired scene indeed.

Paul became a superb musician and guitarist in his own right and it was a good few years later that he arrived at The Witchwood, playing guitar with a brilliant and influential band called Wilson. They got a deal and MTV play, audio recordings produced in-studio by Mark Tolle.

Then in 2003, I was set to record a live gig back in Glossop, and short of a recording engineer, I searched the contacts book, found Mark Tolle and he stepped in, aided by Paul who was now his multimedia business partner. They not only recorded it to multi-track and filmed the show, they then worked wonders with the recordings and footage back in the studio.

This work was the reason why we now have 'Global', probably one of my finest moments ...