When the internet that is now carrying you this information was not even the merest flicker of a dead insect in a large computer valve, Justin was playing Chuck Berry licks in his native land of Tasmania. He was only 8 when he started learning the guitar, and he was playing regular gigs with semi-pro blues bands by the age of 12, amazing the local towns people with a raw passion for music that was a rare sight on the small island.

Many of his schoolteachers were fans during his teenage years (he played in a very popular covers band) and forgave his glazed eyes in the daylight hours and he managed to pass his exams and gain entrance to the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music. Posing as a classical boffin with long nails, a black polo neck jumper and good posture for a couple of years, he received top marks in every subject but, almost inevitably, the big city lights and rock ’n’ roll of London lured him across the oceans.

His journey from Tasmania took in the usual rock ’n’ roll methods of transportation: donkey caravan, canoe, car and then jumbo jet (joining the mile high club on the way!); and eventually he touched down at Heathrow. His first year in London was spent in a “cockroach infested piss hole in Acton”, where his flatmates could not believe that he stayed alive on his diet of coffee, pita bread, hummus and dope. Justin had not noticed his deteriorating condition because his head was too full of music, he spent every waking moment studying his favourite musicians and playing guitar.

By the end of the year Justin had collected many bits of paper with gold edging proving what a learned muso he was, but he was also running out of money and health. So he was thrilled to get a gig at Butlin’s Somerwest World in the house band where he would sing and play six nights a week and get the chance to earn good money and be near the sea again (something that he missed dearly and still to this day makes regular pilgrimages to).

This change of scene also made a huge change in Justin’s career path, for it was a sunny summer morning when Justin woke and realised that all this guitar was kinda useless without a great song to put it in. It was quite a realisation for him and from that day he gave up guitar practice and focused fully on song writing and production.

Homesick for the touring life he swapped Cider with Rosie for Spiders with Roadies, and joined the Counterfeit Stones. This outfit, much loved by the British public, kept him pretty busy for a while, and he got the opportunity to play many of Europe’s finest venues and play for big audiences. It also gave him the money and time to continue his song writing and build a studio to record in.

Justin had been teaching guitar pretty much as long as he had been playing, and over the years he has had many students. One of them, a young lady called Katie Melua, picked his song Turn To Tell as the b-side of her single Call Off The Search, which led to much music industry interest in him as a songwriter and as a performer. He is currently writing with Katie and much acclaimed writer Jim Cregan for her next album.

Although he has arguably explored more musical styles than most of us have had hot dinners, he has returned to his roots in his song writing. His live set up at the moment is a quartet of Andrew McKinney on acoustic bass, Tommy “Two Dinners” Meadows on drums, Tanita on backing vocals and percussion and Justin on vocals, acoustic guitar and harmonica.

The songs are simply arranged and recorded using acoustic instruments and an analogue attitude. He loves music that strives for honesty and simplicity in its expression. His music is melodic, spare in arrangement but always definite; his face is turned out to the world as well as into his own inspiration. He doesn’t cloister himself in ‘art’, instead he tries to formulate a response to all of the urban maelstrom that surrounds the urban life of ordinary existence.