Biography
Born in London as Colin France.
The son of an engineer, he was educated in science.
He became inspired by the songs of Bob Dylan and started busking in a subway next to St. Mary's market, Southampton in 1986, singing Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and his own compositions.
Research at Bristol University 1988 - 1990.
Singing and playing at Folk Clubs and Acoustic Venues in Bristol.
By mid 1990 he had stopped science and sang and played full-time, making a little money busking and teaching guitar.
1991 - 1992 With a friend he helped run an acoustic venue at the Bishopstone Community Centre for musicians, singers and poets.
1993 Moved to West Ireland and lived on the coast at Galway Bay.
Busking in the streets of Galway, busking up and down the West Coast from Bantry Bay to Donegal Town. Favourite places outside of Galway were Bantry, Kenmare, Westport and Donegal Town. Favourite place in Galway was Buttermilk Lane.
Some solo gigs at the end of 1993 / early 1994 at the Arthive (Cork City), Seventh Heaven (Galway) and Galway University. Played at the Athenry Festival and in the Singer/Songwriter competition at the Letterkenny Folk Festival.Spring 1994 London. Getting to know London venues and people.
First gig June 1994 at The Forge (now the 12Bar Club) Denmark Street, WC2.
Played regularly at Bunjies, Litchfield Street, off Leicester Square, until it closed as a venue in July 1998. Met many good people there and had many a magic evening. Bunjies was like no other!July 1994 played in the club tent at The Cambridge Folk Festival.
September 1994 New York. Mad monster metropolis. Too much and couldn't get enough. Intense! Arranged some gigs for the following Spring.
Played many places including McGovern's on Spring, Sidewalk at A & 6th, Continental on 3rd Avenue and some quiet untitled place in Tribeca.December 1994 Played The Duchess in Leeds (now sadly closed).
Steve's club at the Queen's Head in Colney Heath, North London.1995 Playing all over London from South to North and East to West.
April 1995 Back to New York.
Gigs at Sin é and The Sun Mountain Café.
On to San Francisco, paradise oasis after Manhattan madness.
Played Mick's Lounge, Mad Dog in the Fog, Blue Lamp (some songs with The Reptiles) and the Coffee Zone.
The wonderful couple at the Café Francisco took me under their wing and had me entertaining lunchtime customers. Their kindness and tips paid for my food, accommodation and transport.Late 1995 some gigs with Jaki Windmill in London, and Bristol in early 1996.
April 1996 to October 1996, some gigs with Jim Dawson (now with Naked Angel), including Terry O'Neals (Holborn), Barnardos (Finchley) and The Grove (Back Row, Leeds). September 1996 became the Guitar Teacher at Manor Lodge School (Shenley, North London).1997 A lot of time at Bunjies. Gigs at The Glastonbury Festival, The Big Green Gathering and the Earth Spirit Festival with Jaki Windmill. Playing at Glastonbury was really a dream come true.
1998 More London gigs including Victoria Park (Finchley), Kool Eddies (Tottenham Court Road) and The White Hart (Hammersmith).
1999 Concentrating more on writing, teaching and struggling to make ends meet. Some London gigs.
2000 Started work as a science tutor.
Spent much of the year developing the gcsescience.com website, based on the UK GCSE examinations, taken at the age of 16.
Gigs at The Chill on the Hill (Crouch End, London), The Spring Music Festival (Queen's Head, Colney Heath) and the Barnet Festival (Oakhill Park, London).2001 Continuing work on the website at
gcsescience.com.