Dane is from Colchester in Essex. Coming from a musical family, her was playing guitar and piano at an early age and although raised on country music he enjoyed his teenage years too by forming a skiffle group which later developed into a rockabilly type band called “The Deepbeats”, complete with double bass and Elvis hairstyles. With them he won a “New Faces” type of competition on Anglia Television and was soon appearing on local television and radio plus touring the East Anglia area and the Air Force bases. He then went on to gain experience with various 60’s groups with a single out on the Decca record label. He then went solo and began writing songs for a publishing company and his first success came when he was signed to Parlophone and recorded two singles at the famous Abbey Road studios.
In the early 70’s Dane moved to Wales and was soon on the club circuit playing mainly as a solo artiste but picking up a band on the way called “Dealer”. However, it was as a solo entertainer that Dane excelled and he became a very well respected artiste on the Mid Wales and Border Counties circuit plus seasons in Spain and Portugal. By now Dane was writing country music & in 1976 was signed to do an album for Tank records and in the 80’s for Mentra Records, a Welsh label. He was in fact the first English artiste to record at the Sain Studios in Caenarfon with an album called “Raised on Country”, which contained 11 of his own songs.
In 1990 Dane moved back to Colchester and he now travels nation wide, having developed into one of the most sought after solo entertainers on the British Country Circuit with regular appearances in Spain and Tenerife. In 1996 Dane won the prestigious UK Radio Awards with his album of self -penned songs “Across the Miles” winning best album recorded in the UK.
In the years Dane has been on the country scene he has recorded 14 albums, and has seen many changes, but he has stayed essentially “country”, appealing to both” dancers” and “listeners” his album “These Days” celebrating 25 years on the country circuit.
Dane has won numerous country club awards all over the UK for “Entertainer of the year”, “Solo of the year” and even two separate “Band of the year” awards where he was competing against four and five piece bands. He was also nominated in the Country Music Gazette awards for “Best Solo Artiste”.
One of Dane’s early influences was Roy Orbison and he now presents a Roy Orbison tribute show as well, which is gaining popularity all over the UK. He has also recorded a whole 14 track album of Orbie songs called “In Dreams - Dane sings Roy Orbison” which has also proved very popular.
When on stage Dane plays guitar and harmonica and as well as his own compositions, sings old country favourites plus the latest popular country tunes. He also composes and plays every note of his backing tracks with a keyboard and sequencer and thus creates a full “band” sound. He is what can be termed as a “Complete Country Entertainer”.
