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Pete grew up in Durban, South Africa in the '50s and, although listening to the songs of Elvis, Cliff Richard, Rick Nelson and then
the Beatles, Bee Gees, Otis Redding, Canned Heat and Hendrix in the '60s as well as Dylan, Cat Stevens, Donovan, Crosby-Stills-Nash-Young in the 70's, was never pulled toward performance until the 1st tune he ever
picked out on a guitar in 1963 - 'Satisfaction (can't get no)' by the Rolling Stones - then he was bitten by the bug!
He returned to his home town in 1971 after spending a year (involuntarily) in the South African armed forces and began gigging in folk clubs with his brother Syd and blues harpist Marc Maingard (now a world
renowned luthier based in Cape Town), under the name Strawberry Field. Towards the latter part of that period, Maingard left
the group to pursue spiritual enlightenment in India and they were joined by cellist, Rob Larsen at which time the band Kitchen was formed. They toured much of South Africa doing the 'Folk festivals' and clubs to critical accliam but were never able to secure that elusive record deal that most musicians of their generation had dreamed of at some stage or another.
In 1978, Kitchen split and Syd went on to pursue a successful solo career(check out his web site on www.sydkitchen.com or his Myspace page - he's developed into an Urban legend in South Africa in recent years and plays a mean jazz guitar and hose pipe), Rob Larsen sailed off to Denmark and Pete settled into suburbia with his family and built a business career, during which time he played the occasional folk club gig.
In January 2007, after more than 20 years of musical isolation, Pete returned to his folk roots and found that although musicians
still play the clubs and call it "folk" music, a whole new generation of guitarists has risen up and are playing the most amazing music - incredibly well!
Pete now gigs in numerous clubs around his home county of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire and wherever else he gets invited
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