Of course, I always intended to be a pop star.

When I was very young, I was given a toy guitar for my Christmas prezzie. Clearly, I had been a very good boy that year. I remember being up in my bedroom, almost tunefully wailing away, whilst strumming with some vigour. I plucked a little too hard at one point and a sting bust. I cried for an hour.

Not quite “the day the music died,” but you could already sense the passion.

Like most of us, I was always there in front of the telly for Top Of The Pops. The thing is, I really didn’t care who was on, what genre of music they were doing or how good, bad or indifferent their performance was. Music just seeped into my very being and I quickly progressed from knackered toy guitar to using a fat marker pen as a “microphone.”

At school, I always enjoyed hymns in assembly and for four years in a row, I was a lead feature in the annual pantomime. You should see my Buttons! As a teen, I joined my local church choir. We were not the most angelic bunch in our behaviour but me and the lads could melt candles when we sang. We got paid for weddings. More for funerals. I suppose that means I was semi-pro?

Around this time, I got involved in Hospital Radio in my hometown of Derby. Something else ignited. Now, being a DJ was all I wanted to be. Picking out those 7 inch singles, dropping the needle on the run-in track, talking up to the vocal and basically showing off was my calling. Not much changes! For now, my own musical ambitions were put to rest…

Fast-forward the cassette. After getting away with being a professional radio presenter for many years, life unexpectedly took me in a different direction and - long story short, because this is a newsletter and not my actual biography - I moved overseas to live in New York.

I finally decided to give the song writing and singing a proper go. I was very lucky to meet some really amazing musicians and producers who could help me develop further. I’d gone from tiny guitar-wrecker to three-fingered keyboard player but it was enough for me to get in some serious trouble.

Over the course of a few years, my confidence grew and I was encouraged by my friends to record some EPs and singles of my own music. One of my producers - a lovely man named Joe McGinty - was playing regular piano karaoke dates in Manhattan and Brooklyn and was dreaming of setting up his own dedicated bar. He approached a few people, including me, to invest in the project and a few months later Sid Gold’s Request Room was launched. (It’s still going - do call in if you’re ever on your jollies there!)

There is nothing like doing hours and hours of karaoke, with a skilled piano accompanist, to really hone your singing and performing skills. I took to it like a duck to Wonder Loaf and soaked up the welcoming, non-judgmental atmosphere.

One of Joe’s other projects is the New York cabaret-scene fixture of over twenty-five years, known as the Losers’ Lounge. A crack group of players and back up singers accompany a broad selection of performers, pay tribute to a different group or artist each show. My time had truly come. I was invited to get on a real stage, with top musicians and sing songs by everyone form Frank Sinatra to Bob Dylan, ELO to the Monkees and Carole King to George Harrison. In front of a paying crowd. At last - I felt like a pop star!

Now I’m back living in the UK and have joined this wonderful Boom Radio family. I can guarantee our Christmas parties will never be the same! Just don’t ask me to play guitar. It’ll end in tears.

Gary.