Yes you must aim to be brilliant. Yes you must be innovative. Yes you have to go the extra mile. But not yet, not until you've mastered the basics.

I was 15 when I started my first band. Oh yes, The Obnoxious Goblins were destined for great things. Especially with Nessy on guitar (a red flying V with red dots), Nonky on drums (bit like the bloke from Motorhead's but louder) and me on keyboards (a Roland SH101 with shoulder strap).

With coffees and many biscuits in hand, we planned for hours our global pop domination, including; our first gig, what we would wear, how we would sell the tickets, the number of tracks we'd have on our first cassette and the very best moment for the flash bombs to explode. At this point, with such lofty plans and early eighties style, you may be wondering why you never heard of the potentially chart topping Obnoxious Goblins. Simple, we couldn't play a note.

We knew what we wanted but the prospect of having to learn how to actually play (even the basics) put a real spanner in the works.

The basics are the foundation blocks for success; too many times we want the short cut, the quick fix or the easy route. I can assure you the only easy route is to get the basics down first - then, and only then, super success can come your way.

Writing this newsletter I thought of a dozen or so basics I wanted to share.  Then I edited the list, cut out the weakest two and was left with five - the real basics. Here they are, but be warned they are basic, so basic you might miss them.

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