About Me

Neil Williams
HNC (BEC), Cert HE (Mus), DipMus, BA (Hons) Hum, MA (Mus), MA (Hum), Dip. H (CECCH), LAPHP

Clinical Hypnotherapist, IBS Therapist, Counsellor and NLP Coach

MD of Ace Brains Consultancy Ltd

 

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Professional Memberships

 

Licentiate Member of the APHP (Association for Professional Hypnosis and Psychotherapy)

Member of the CNHC (Complementary & Natural Healthcare Council)

Member of the UK Register of IBS Therapists

Member of the Gut Trust (aka ‘The IBS Network’)

Member of the IFFGD (International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders)

Member of the Lichfield & Tamworth Chamber of Commerce

Member of the Birmingham Group Chamber of Commerce

Member of the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses)

Member of NABO (Nationwide Alliance of Business Owners)


 

 

 

 

 


 

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Vocational Qualifications from the Central College of Clinical Hypnosis (CECCH)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dip. H (CECCH) Practitioner Diploma in Hypno-psychotherapy

Certificate in Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy (CBH)

Certificate in Ericksonian Hypnosis

Certificate in Solution Focussed Hypno-psychotherapy

Certificate in Solution Focussed Counselling Skills

Certificate in Professional Coaching using NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming)

 

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Latest Continual Professional Development (CPD) Training

 

2011 - CPD Diploma in ‘Anorexia, Bulimia, Compulsive Eating Disorders & OCD’ - David Kato (Academy For Continued Hypnosis Education)

2010 - CPPD training in ‘Techniques and Procedures for Trance Induction and Termination 2’ - Bill Frost (London College of Clinical Hypnosis)

2010 - CPPD training in ‘Techniques and Procedures for Trance Induction and Termination 1’ - Matt Krouwel (London College of Clinical Hypnosis)

2010 - CPD Certificate in ‘PTSD: Trauma in the Family’ - John Roberts (Family Trauma Centre UK)

2010 - CPD Certificate in ‘Working with IBS’ - Alan Cooper & Carole Wan (Academy of Clinical & Medical Hypnosis Ltd)

2010 - CPD Certificate in ‘Rapid Cognitive Therapy’ - Terence Watts (Central England College of Clinical Hypnosis)

2010 - CPD Certificate in ‘Gambling Addiction’ - Hilary Norris-Evans (Central England College of Clinical Hypnosis)

2010 - CPD Certificate in ‘Working with Cancer Patients’ - Michael Mahoney (Register of Cancer Therapists)

2010 - CPD Certificate in ‘Hypnotherapy for Weight Reduction’ - Richard Nicholls (Central England College of Clinical Hypnosis)

2010 - CPD Certificate in ‘Working with Substance Misusers’ - John Castleton (Central England College of Clinical Hypnosis)

2009 - CPD Certificate in ‘Entrepreneurial Coaching’ - Nick Cooke (Central England College of Clinical Hypnosis)

2009 - CPD Certificate in ‘Hypnotherapy in the Treatment of IBS’ - Michael Mahoney (UK Register if IBS Therapists)

 


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Other Higher Education Academic Qualifications

 

2006 - Master of Arts in Humanities (Open University) - awarded with distinction

2005 - Master of Arts in Music (Open University) - awarded with distinction

2002 - Bachelor of Arts in ‘Humanities with Music’ (Open University) - awarded with first-class honours

2001 - Undergraduate Diploma in Music (Open University)

1999 - Certificate of Higher Eduction in Music (University of Birmingham)

1983 - BEC HNC in Business Studies (University of Central Lancashire)

 

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Clinical Supervision

Nicolas Cooke, D.Psy., FAPHP, MNCH (Acc), MICHT, Dip. Sup., Acc. Hyp. Sup
Principal of the Central England College of Clinical Hypnosis

It is a stipulation of the professional associations for clinical hypnotherapy to have a supervision contract with a suitably qualified and experienced clinical supervisor. As my main trainer and mentor, Nick Cooke holds specialist qualifications in hypnotherapy supervision as well as having over 20 years practice experience. He is an accredited member and former Director of Supervision of the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH), and an elected Fellow and former Director of the Association for Professional Hypnosis and Psychotherapy (APHP). He is also an accredited supervisor with both the NCH and APHP, and founder of the Central England College of Clinical Hypnosis. In October 2008, this college, where I trained, won the APHP award for “International Hypnotherapy School of the Year 2009”.

 

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Why Choose Neil Williams in Preference to other Practitioners?

 

Up to date professional qualifications and training are essential, and should be expected of any true professional. Certainly, I would always be among the first to voice my high regard for lifelong learning as an essential ongoing commitment to the causes of professional competence and self improvement. However, as any telephone directory or online Google search will reveal, so many practitioners have so many qualifications and so much training in conjunction with any number of colleges and different professional hypnotherapy associations of greater or lesser standing. Thus, fair and accurate comparisons between one practitioner and another are difficult and subjective at the best of times, particularly for members of the public.

Add to this the fact that the publishing of client testimonials is not permitted among the better professional associations of clinical hypnotherapy and you have a situation where members of the public largely have to choose their practitioner via word-of-mouth recommendation or by the lure of a practitioner’s advertising.

But this all begs the question: “What really differentiates one practitioner from another in their ability to be as effective as possible with clients and patients?” Training, qualifications, practice and work experience obviously play a huge part, but many practitioners hold the justifiable opinion that a substantial portion of their innate suitability for such people-orientated work also stems ultimately from the merits of their personality type in combination with the richness and relevance of their personal life experience. I certainly subscribe to this view, having worked in solution-focussed, people-orientated senior roles most of my working life and, as you will soon appreciate when you read on, I believe I am made of ‘the right stuff’ for working in my chosen fields of clinical hypnotherapy, counselling and coaching. Certainly, the delighted responses and referrals that I gain from my clients tell me that this must be true. I come from a career background where enthusiastic referrals and recommendations are the lifeblood of successful business, and so I am always keen to make sure that all my clients will want to recommend me to others when appropriate. However, that is a privilege that has to be earned; so you will be in very attentive and caring hands, I can assure you. If you read on you will get a few clues as to why this is so.

 

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Why Neil Williams is the Ideal Personality Type to Help You with Your Problems, Issues and Challenges (according to the studies of Professor David Keirsey, Ph.D. and Mr J.D. Rhodes)

 

These days, I enjoy my life and career helping others to achieve their dreams and to overcome their personal problems and issues. I feel that I was literally born to work as a clinical hypnotherapist, counsellor and coach, and have been independently vindicated in this personal view by a recent professional personality profiling assessment, as developed by renowned clinical psychologist, author and professor of California State University, David Keirsey Ph.D. It combines Isabel Briggs-Myers’ Jungian model of eight functional personality types with Kretschmer’s model of four temperaments, to produce a total of sixteen distinct personality types. I emerged as an ‘INFJ’ category of personality. Without wishing to get too embroiled in the technicalities of Jungian/Kretschmer psychology and philosophy, ‘INFJ’ is the rarest personality type, and is nicknamed ‘The Confidant’, ‘The Counsellor’ or ‘The Empath’. The following excerpts from descriptions of an ‘INFJ’ personality should provide you with some degree of reassurance as to what you will be getting for your money if you decide to engage me as your clinical hypnotherapist, counsellor and/or coach:

“INFJs are introspective, caring, sensitive, gentle and complex people that strive for peace and derive satisfaction from helping others. INFJs are highly intuitive, empathetic and dedicated listeners. These traits tend to act as a “Tell me what’s wrong?” sign on their forehead; hence the nicknames ‘Confidant’, ‘Counsellor’ or ‘Empath’ ... Artistic and creative, they live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities. Only one percent of the population has an INFJ personality type, making it the rarest of all the types (and even rarer in males than in females) ... INFJs enjoy a greater clarity of perception of inner, unconscious processes ... INFJs readily grasp the hidden psychological stimuli behind the more observable dynamics of behaviour and affect ... INFJs desire to contribute to the welfare of others and genuinely enjoy helping their companions.”

(Sourced and quoted from the MyPersonality.Info website as used by many psychologists and Human Resources professionals of leading blue-chip companies).

One must be fair in stating that not all people who fall into this rare personality type would automatically make excellent hypnotherapists, counsellors or coaches. Conversely, there is no suggestion that not having this personality type would be any kind of bar to someone achieving excellence in such ‘mind-related’ professions. In particular, there are three other closely-related Jungian personality types that display many of the characteristics that would also be helpful in these kinds of careers including the ‘SJ Protector’ personalities of ‘ESFJ’ (‘The Supporter’) and ‘ISFJ’ (‘The Defender’), and the ‘NF Visionary’ personality type of ‘ENFJ’ (‘The Mentor’). Nevertheless, in general terms, of all the sixteen main Jungian personality types, there is none better suited to this range of work than my ‘NF Visionary’ personality type of ‘INFJ’ (‘The Confidant’). Moreover, my profiling score was anything but borderline, and indeed was deemed heavily inclined towards ‘INFJ’ personality traits. Certainly, I feel that every word of the above descriptions of this rare personality type fit me like a glove. And it was in being true to these traits and inclinations in combination with some deep reflections upon my life experiences and learning that led me to decide to train as a clinical hypnotherapist, counsellor and coach in order that I could find true working contentment and fulfilment in helping other people.

I was also once independently assessed, in 1994, by Mr J.D. Rhodes, principal of the leading management consultancy firm J.D. Rhodes Associates, and founder of 'JDR Thinking Intentions Profiling' and 'Effective Intelligence' (methodologies that were used in training by many major organisations, ranging from blue-chip companies to a number of County Councils). The performance of hypnotherapy, counselling and coaching to a high standard requires a fair amount of brain power and the focussed application of a keen imagination. Fortunately for my clients at Ace Brains Consultancy, they have J.D. Rhodes' personal assessment of me as being both unusually highly creative (to be able to imagine, feel, visualise and symbolise) and ingeneous (to be able to challenge, re-describe, invent and pursue). In fact, Mr Rhodes was so instantly overawed by the rarity, value and usefulness of my personality profile that he immediately announced to the entire board of directors and senior managers of my then employer, Bank of Ireland Mortgages Ltd, that (and I quote) "You should all listen to Neil ... listen to his ideas and don't ever dismiss them without giving his suggestions due thought and thorough consideration ... because he will regularly get ideas that all of you collectively would not think of in a month of Sundays!" He followed up with, "Granted some of his ideas might be completely 'off the wall' but among them will be some absolute gems that will cost your business dearly if you don't listen to them." It was something of a moment of jaw-dropping shock for them and an absolute epiphany for me. Complete independent vindication in front of my Head Office superiors and colleagues! I was always known for being an ideas man, but now, at last, someone of independent high standing truly understood what I was all about! In truth, I had already been personally responsible for making my employer some serious amounts of profit through many of my thoroughly applied creative approaches to business. However, my contributions were not always quite as well recognised and rewarded as they might have been, and creative credit was even stolen by certain Machiavellian superiors on more than one occasion (has that ever happened to you? ... frustrating, isn't it!). J.D. Rhodes later confessed to me in a candid conversation over a lunchtime drink that my profile was very similar to his, and that he did not see my longer term career future as being best served by remaining where I was at the time (even though they were an excellent company and employer in so many respects). Mr Rhodes saw my career as one that would develop towards working in a self-employed consultancy role, a prediction of some considerable accuracy, for which I remain eternally grateful, because I absolutely love what I do now ... helping people to overcome their challenges, issues and problems while coaching people to raise their performance to succeed in achieving their goals and dreams.

In this regard, I hope, in due course, you will allow me the opportunity to add my brain power to your brain power, for your personal development and improvement, so that I can help you to get what you want out of life or help you achieve whatever changes you need to make. I do not share my personality profiling or the following personal background information to brag in any way, but merely to give you an insight as to what you will be getting for your money when you have me on your case. The focus of Ace Brains Consultancy is squarely upon your ace brain and the task of helping you make it work better for you in a way that will most suit your aims, your needs and your life.

 

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A Very Experienced Counsellor, Trainer and Presenter

 

Long before I ever qualified as a professional practitioner of Clinical Hypnotherapy, Counselling, IBS Therapy and NLP Coaching, my deep-seated love of helping people deal with life’s challenges and problems was first realised in the early 1980s. It was then that I first found discovered the enormous satisfaction of such people-orientated work in a three-year spell spent providing counselling support to long-term unemployed jobseekers. While doing this work, I completed a four-year Business Studies scholarship under the Business Education Council (BEC). This, in turn, led to a highly successful twelve-year stint in the Financial Services Industry. Quite aside from dealing with thousands of members of the public, I delivered, during this time, group training sessions and sales presentations to well in excess of 10,000 Financial Services Industry professionals and related professionals. This included insurance company senior management and staff, insurance inspectors, insurance brokers, mortgage brokers, estate agents, solicitors and chartered surveyors. Offering great levels of customer service, communication and care was key to my success, which is an approach to business that is no less relevant to me now.

This period also included an eight-year spell working with the Bank of Ireland Group as both a National Account Manager and a roving Mortgage Debt Counsellor. And it was during the notorious period of homeowners’ ‘negative equity’ in the early 1990s that I achieved record-breaking success in the very serious task of counselling beleaguered customers who were deeply in arrears. This often involved negotiating ad-hoc working partnerships with the Citizens’ Advice Bureau in a way that almost invariably brought about healthy cooperation and successful outcomes for all concerned. During this difficult economic period, I managed to save almost all such ‘legal list’ customers from financial devastation, throwing them a ‘last chance’ lifeline and pulling them back from the brink of having their homes repossessed. This was achieved by empathetically analysing their situation and personal needs in fine detail, before devising a tailor-made, structured financial plan that would put them back on the road to financial recovery in as little as six months. This role was enormously satisfying until the ensuing upturn in property values eventually largely negated the need for such work, whereupon I returned to my sales and training management function.

Over the last couple of decades, this passion for helping people has spilled over into various types of charitable work and support. This has included raising funds for Oxfam and Friends of the Earth, putting on charity shows for Water Aid and Age Concern, as well as supporting a number of smaller charities for causes ranging from local cancer care to the purchase of baby incubator units.

 

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Media Appearances on a Journey of Creative Discovery

 

Then, in 1997, in a spirit of adventure and creative-discovery, I embarked upon an eight-year journey of mature academic study and research in conjunction with the pursuit of realising my creative and artistic talents in writing and composing on a self-employed basis. This resulted in me emerging as a qualified musicologist and cultural historian, classical music picture archivist, internationally published freelance writer of commissioned magazine articles and CD liner notes, local music festival-winning composer, and an academic success coach equipped with two rare MA distinctions in both Music and Humanities.

Since 2002, I have appeared on a range a TV and radio programmes in connection with music, arts and entertainment on a number of the main broadcasting channels including BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, Channel 4, E4, Channel 5, Sky Legal TV, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service. This ranges from my appearance in 2007 as a qualified musicologist on two episodes of Channel 4’s and E4’s Harvey Goldsmith Presents ... (one sat next to Classic FM opera star Alfie Boe, and the other alongside Harvey Goldsmith interviewing pop singer/actress Samantha Mumba), to appearing on BBC Radio 2 and the BBC World Service in 2002 as a contestant on the late, great Ned Sherrin’s much-loved radio music quiz Counterpoint. In addition, in 2011, I was the subject of the last in a 5-part BBC Radio 4 series about serious collectors called The Completists in which my collections covering everything to do with the great English composer Gustav Holst and his masterwork The Planets was discussed with pesenter Ian Marchant. At a more local level, I support Tamworth and the surrounding region's community radio TCR FM (Total Choice Radio) with a few 1-minute adverts for my various services, for which I produce the adverts myself including the voice overs.

 

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A Great New Beginning in Clinical Hypnotherapy

 

However, for a number of sound reasons (not least, to be frank, the financial precariousness of such a totally Arts-based career), I eventually took the sensible decision to demote such artistic and creative endeavours to ‘part-time freelance’ status and to re-focus my main professional career back towards my first love of helping people in counselling and coaching roles. After a period of intense soul-searching and research I eventually gravitated towards a major course of study at the Central England College of Clinical Hypnosis (CECCH) in Birmingham. In the year of my graduation, this prestigious college won the APHP (Association for Professional Hypnosis and Psychotherapy) international award for ‘Hypnotherapy Training School of the Year’. I am very proud to have been trained personally by the College’s Principal, Nicholas Cooke, who is one the most respected and renowned hypnotherapy trainers, practitioners and clinical supervisors in the UK. I also very proud to have received tuition from other leading industry professionals, including the equally renowned and multi-award-winning medical hypnotherapy expert Michael Mahoney, who trained me to work with both cancer patients and sufferers of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), as well as being taught Rapid Cognitive Therapy by industry legend Terence Watts, the Chairman of the APHP (Association for Professional Hypnosis and Psychotherapy).

 

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How I First Discovered the Immense Power and Value of Hypnotherapy

 

As you might have gathered by now, I have lived a very full, interesting and varied life through which I have developed a great compassion for the needs of individual people. My first introduction to clinical hypnotherapy was back in 1985, at the age of just 23, after reading a newspaper article about a local hypnotherapist who was helping company directors, managers, business owners and sales people to enhance their careers and income by reducing their stress levels while boosting their confidence and positive mental attitude. At this particular time, just two years into a career trying to scratch a humble living as a commission-only sales agent of several life assurance and pension companies, I was under some considerable work and financial pressure. Not to put too fine a point on it, I was beginning to succumb to the emotional battering typical of the high level of rejection that one can reasonably expect when engaged in the unenviable daily direct-selling work of mass telephone cold-calling and doorstep canvassing. In retrospect, I now have some level of sympathy for all those people who shut their front doors in my face or hung up the phone on me when I was disturbing their private time in an evening! Although, to be fair to myself, I truly believed in my then personal crusade to make sure that people owned good life insurance for family protection ... and I still do.

But working in such a tough, lonely and sometimes even hostile sales environment, I needed some serious mental reinforcing of my self-esteem and motivation levels. I consequently developed a deep fondness for a variety of rather cheesy but very useful American self-help books and audio tapes by the likes of Success Motivation Inc. (SMI), which typically espoused a positive mental attitude (PMA) and a ‘winning state of mind’. At this time, I also became an avid fan of confidence-boosting hypnosis tapes by a Southport-based stage hypnotist named Frank Ray. You will therefore appreciate how the aforementioned newspaper article about a local hypnotherapist who could help sales people towards greater success almost leapt from the page as a possible solution to all my self-employed business ambitions.

So I rang this hypnotherapist, and after a brief and reassuring telephone conversation, I immediately decided to hire him to inject some calming confidence into my somewhat besieged self-esteem over a number of weekly sessions. Thankfully, I found that I not only benefitted from the very comforting and relaxing nature of these hypnotherapy sessions, but also found that the resulting positive effect on my sales success and income were both immediate and substantial (which ended up equating to an increase in my sales income of over 60 percent in the following 12 months). The therapy had paid for itself in no time at all and has paid for itself many times over since then. Now that’s what I call a ‘win/win’ investment ... I am sure we would all like more slices of that!

What’s more, friends and family were taken aback at my new, calm, and confident persona; I was beginning to behave more as I wanted to behave, and people noticed this without me having given them any knowledge of my hypnotherapy sessions. “You seem different ... so much more relaxed, happy and laid-back” was typical of the kind of unsolicited comments that started to come my way.

 

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Hypnotherapy Rescued Me When a Major Personal Tragedy Struck

 

However, in a very tragic turn of events towards the end of my planned course of six sessions of hypnotherapy, my joy quickly turned to profound shock and deep sadness. A few days prior to my fifth session, my fourteen year-old sister Dawn suddenly dropped dead from a congenital heart and lung defect without any prior warning. Although her serious medical condition had been known and treated from shortly after birth, her sudden death was completely unexpected. One minute she was laughing with her school friends while watching a television show, the next moment she was dead. Shocked and devastated beyond belief, I informed my hypnotherapist of the terrible news, subsequently taking the sensible advice offered to use the remaining two booked sessions of hypnotherapy to help bolster my somewhat fragile and traumatised emotional state of mind, both before and after the funeral. The treatment was very timely and really helped keep me strong through the difficult six-month period that followed. Indeed, I am very grateful to this day that I was in the emotionally-protective care of a very kind and empathetic clinical hypnotherapist at the time of my sister’s death.

Yes, at the young age of just 23, I had learned the high value and immense power of both extremes of the wide range of treatments available under clinical hypnotherapy. I can remember the admiration I immediately gained for hypnotherapy at that time. And although I idly fancied giving hypnotherapy to others myself, I knew I was probably a little too young and inexperienced at this point in my life to consider such a career move. Little did I realise that around quarter of a century later I would be dealing with the very same kinds of issues and problems with many other people, only this time sitting in the other chair.

 

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My Very Eclectic Chronological List of Lifetime Successes & Achievements (with possible relevance to NLP coaching for success in Life, Business, Sport and the Performing Arts)

  • Grammar School Champion and regular County Athletics Competitor for Discus and Shot-put events (aged 12-16).
  • Recipient of the ‘Brierley Prize for Spoken English’ for my schooldays acting abilities (aged 15).
  • Trained lead male dancer achieving record-breaking audience numbers for Preston Guild Hall’s Charter Theatre in ‘Woman’s World 80’ dance show (aged 18).
  • Champion disco/soul dancer, winning the 1979 ‘Boogie Bus’ LP album disco dancing competition and later winning heats in regional dancing finals (aged 17-20).
  • Performed in many professionally produced amateur comedy shows and theatrical musicals (aged 16-19) having received acting lessons from Michael Melia who went on to star in BBC1’s EastEnders as Queen Vic landlord ‘Eddie Royle’ [1990-91].
  • Territorial Army infantry soldier and rifle marksman in the 4th Queen’s Lancashire Regiment (aged 19-21). I was a member of an elite team of competitors in the 1983 (Lord) Derby Trophy for testing infantry skills among the regiments of northern England. My section’s ‘platoon attack’ exercise was deemed ‘the best they had ever seen’ by the regulars of the Royal Irish Rangers with a score of 175 out of a possible 180 points.
  • Youngest-ever Sales Associate of Abbey Life Assurance Company (aged 21).
  • Youngest-ever Sales Associate of Pioneer Mutual Life Assurance Company (aged 23).
  • Youngest-ever National Account Manager for the Head Office Sales Department of Bank of Ireland Mortgages Ltd (aged 25).
  • Gave sales presentations and training to around 10,000 people in the Financial Services Industry in group sessions with up to 70 people at a time (1988-1996)
  • First-ever person to successfully (and single-handedly) mass market and promote a Mortgage Stabilizer product throughout the UK (1989/90).
  • Most successful-ever Debt Counsellor for Bank of Ireland Mortgages Ltd single-handedly saving them £1.2 million in net profits in just 6 months (1992/3).
  • Winner of the Bank of Ireland Mortgages Ltd company karaoke competition (1994).
  • Worked as a freelance actor for Roleplay UK Ltd in a variety of business training and recruitment assignments (1996-1997).
  • Designed and produced official British First Day Covers and hand stamps for the tercentenary of the death of the composer Henry Purcell (1995) and for the death of Lord Yehudi Menuhin (1999) on behalf of the international thematic stamp society the Philatelic Music Circle.
  • Outright winner of the ‘Overall Best Composer Trophy’ and ‘Best Late-Starter Musician Trophy’ of the Tamworth Millennium Music Festival (March 2000).
  • Between 2002 and 2003, performed a number of one-man shows for charity in which I sang and played various instruments for both Water Aid and Age Concern.
  • Awarded The Open University’s ‘top international music student’ for 2004/5 out of 67 mature students in my intake year studying for an MA in Music. My second-year thesis project received a rare ‘A1’ mark of 95 percent.
  • Awarded the Open University’s first-ever recipient of an MA in Music with distinction, which I received personally from former Leader of the House of Commons, Baroness (Betty) Boothroyd (2005).
  • The following year, awarded a second MA with distinction from the Open University for Humanities in respect of my studies of 18th-Century European cultural history, 19th-Century British popular culture, and 20th-Century American film history. Again, my second-year thesis project received a rare ‘A1’ mark of 95 percent. This time, though I received my MA from legendary former film producer, Lord (David) Puttnam [Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, The Killing Fields, etc.] (2006).
  • Had my first internationally commissioned freelance writings published with two double-page articles for Classic FM Magazine (2007).
  • Lecturer on the Hollywood and Broadway actor of the 1930s and 1940s Ernest Cossart (aka Emil von Holst, actor brother of English composer Gustav Holst) for the Holst Birthplace Museum, Cheltenham (2008).
  • I both performed one of my own piano compositions live and played a demo CD of a couple of dozen of my synthesizer compositions in a private audience with my very famous personal friend, the legendary composer/music producer Jeff Wayne [yes, he of The Musical Version of The War of the Worlds multi-Platinum album and sell-out worldwide arena tours fame!] This ‘dream one-to-one’ meeting with one of my all-time musical heroes took place on 16th January 2008 at Jeff Wayne’s rather splendid Hertfordshire home and private estate. The meeting with Jeff lasted over four amazing hours, and included him very graciously making me cheese on toast for my lunch complete with a piping hot mug of tea. Now not too many people can lay claim to that little treat! He was very complimentary about my abilities as a composer, and I still feel very privileged to be keeping in touch with him on a fairly regular basis, particularly as he is so incredibly busy with his UK and World Arena Tours of his utterly brilliant stage version of his War of the Worlds album (my favourite rock/pop album of all time). I have met up with Jeff a number of times now, and a nicer, kinder, more decent and more talented man you will never meet.
  • Commissioned to write CD liner notes for top international classical piano duettists (David) Nettle & (Richard) Markham for their re-mastered re-release of their award-winning recording of Gustav Holst’s original two-piano version of The Planets, op.32 (2008/9).
  • Performed two premieres of my piano compositions for the Holst Birthplace Museum Trust Members’ Annual Concert in Cheltenham (2009 and 2010).
  • Music lecturer on the English composer Gustav Holst for a pre-concert talk for the 2010 English Music Festival in Dorchester-on-Thames.
  • From 2002 onwards, I have made appearances on a wide variety of TV and radio shows in connection with music, arts and entertainment, shown on channels BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, Channel 4, E4, Channel 5, Sky Legal TV, and aired on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service ranging from my appearance in 2007 as a musicologist on two instalments of Channel 4’s and E4’s Harvey Goldsmith Presents ... to appearing in 2002 on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service as a contestant on the late, great Ned Sherrin’s much-loved music quiz Counterpoint.
  • In addition, in 2011, I was the subject of the last in a 5-part BBC Radio 4 series about serious collectors called The Completists in which my collections covering everything to do with the great English composer Gustav Holst and his masterwork The Planets was discussed with pesenter Ian Marchant.
  • At a more local level, I support Tamworth and the surrounding region's community radio TCR FM (Total Choice Radio) with a few 1-minute adverts for my various services, for which I produce the adverts myself including the voice overs as well as being interviewed about human psychology and human thought processes throughout a 90-minute edition of TCR FM's Wild Time with Thomas Janak.
  • Released my debut MP3 single 'Royal Party' from my debut MP3 album 'The Hand Of OMG - 34 Eclectic Instrumentals 1997-2011' digitally distributed worldwide via CDBaby.com, iTunes, Amazon, Napster and many other digital retailers. The 'Royal Party' track, which is a pop/rock arrangement of 'God Save The Queen', was released to coincide with the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on 29th April 2011. My present to the Royal couple of a CD set of the music received a personal letter of thanks from Prince William via St. James's Palace. Associated videos on YouTube were watched by over 13,000 people as at 3rd May 2011. I was also interviewed about it on several local radio stations including BBC Radio WM with Joanne Malin, and Touch FM Radio with Mark O'Sullivan, and received local press coverage in the Tamworth Herald.

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