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Despite his less than voluntary introduction into music, Iain made his first foray into the world of performing with Sunday Mile, a band evolved in the murky depths of the Eastbourne College Jazz Club premises. With guitarist Rick Cardinale and erstwhile reprobate Isaac Nossel playing a strange instrument known affectionately as the "Mongol Bass", lack of equipment, severe naivety and ‘o’ levels didn’t prevent Iain leaving school and turning professional at the age of sixteen. Whilst the band was well received (now with the drummist skills of the late and great Nigel Winner) – they even supported Pink Floyd at Brighton’s prestigious "Big Apple" venue – money was less than forthcoming, so Iain went back to continue his formal musical training during the early seventies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trent Park College. In and amongst this, Iain got married and divorced, had a daughter, (Emma) continued to play with a variety of local bands, bought and sold cars to survive, and even worked for the Midland Bank.
His return to Brighton marked the start of some 5 years on and off in the resident band at Jenkinsons – a 2000 seat cabaret bar on the sea front where he worked with virtually every major artist on the circuit at the time – Jim Davidson, Lenny Henry, Carol Lee Scott, Diana Dors, Mike Reid, Gary Wilmot, the late great Dustin Gee, and many more. Towards the end of the Jenkinsons era, he went back to session playing, mostly in London and the North, and ended up working for Paul Brett, (independent label pioneer and former Strawbs Guitarist) at a small inde label in Sutherland Avenue. This saw him working with Peter Haycock (formerly Climax blues band) Roger Whittaker, John Walker (Walker Brothers) and others, and proved to be a particularly formative time for him. "Paul brought to my session work what Jenks had given to my stagework – proficiency, efficiency, and professionalism. I was recovering from quite a serious illness, and just when I was realising that I was still alive, he threw me head first into the studio and expected me to swim. I did, pretty much, and found that I wasn’t as experienced as I had thought." A second marriage in 1987 introduced him via his new brother-in-law to psychosis (commonly referred to as schizophrenia), and although heavily armed to take the music world by storm, Iain abruptly changed course (quite literally) and trained as a psychiatric nurse. Despite these seemingly diametrically opposed disciplines, one could say that this extra qualification was taken on as a necessary precaution. After all, how many musicians do you read about these days ending up in therapy? In any case, after 5 years of practising in this field, Iain returned to his principle passion, music. The transition back from nursing to music was facilitated through Iain's involvement with music therapy. As both disciplines are full of head-cases requiring lots of hard work, Iain's re-entry into the music industry was like a fish to water! Iain, a long-time resident of Brighton, and happily married to Joy, is a familiar name amongst the UK musical community. As a songwriter, through his record/production company Dunnet Wright Music, he has seen significant chart success in the last few years all over Europe as well as in his native New Zealand with the haunting "Ta Muid" which has featured on countless albums around the world including Celtic Dreams, Celtic Myst (Veronica goes Ireland), Lyra, Dreams, Mystera, Mystera II, Fantastica 1999, Zen, Eurodance 2000, Lyra Maxi (Single), Celtica (Magie des ballades Celtes), Spirits of the World, Spirits of the World III, Celtic Dream Dance, The Celtic Album Of The Century, Amazone Raindance, Native Voices and several TV advertisements to date. (See Projects - Ta Muid for details)
There were two further highly successful collaborations with Andy in 02 - The BBC adaptation of the classic William Gibson novel Neuromancer, and the play "An Immaculate Misconception". In addition, Iain was collaborating with Eva Turkoni and helping her to develop her writing and performing skills, writing and recording new songs with DWM artist Charlie, producing the first of two Vivian Jones albums - "the Vivian Jones Songbook ", and finishing off the new Steve Ellis album, A Sort of Innocence, released in 2004, by co-writing and producing with Steve several new tracks for the album including an outstanding new version of Steve's classic hit "Everlasting Love" and New Clear Bloes, featuring great harmonica playing by Roger Daltrey. Towards the end of 02, Iain started work as an arranger and writer on a major album project for the team that brought Russell Watson and the Opera Babes to the world. He and Joy watched from a hospitality box at Twickenham as the five members of the new act, now known as Amici Forever, performed his contemporary arrangement of Land of Hope and Glory to a capacity audience of 78000 people before the England New Zealand match. With Iain's recordings, Amici signed a £6,000,000 deal with BMG, one of the largest ever for an unknown act. After moving to Brittany in France in 2004 Iain contracted leukaemia in 2007, and spent the year in and out of hospital in Nantes undergoing chemotherapy. Against the odds he went into remission, and has spent the last few years rebuilding his health and his life. "Leukaemia is one of those things that never really goes away. The longer I stay in remission, the better my chances, but every time I get a cold or a sore throat I can't help wondering if it's come back. As a result I live for the day. Life is precious - so are friends and family. Don't waste them."
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