I CAME UP WITH THE idea of what would become my Lo-Fi Acoustic Excursions album. The process of compiling it involved grouping these disparate acoustic recordings together as a kind of audio diary of two decades, spanning the years 1983–2003.

Compiling it, I was again staggered to think that I'd survived in the music ‘industry’ in one form or other for twenty years without a manager or even a regular record label in the traditional sense of either term. But there it was. I formed my own independent Generator label to release my songs. It might have been a little indulgent of me to have gone through Viper – say the album took a while to recoup?

I described the record as ‘lo-fi, high-flying, inter-planetary, previously unreleased ballads, rockers and laments’ and the songs included everything from outtakes, alternate and stripped-down versions of Onset tunes like ‘Walking Tall’ (from an early Spencer Leigh BBC Radio Merseyside session) through to an early version of Double Zero's ‘Autumn in the Mind’ recorded at the Gossamer Dome, Ynys Mon (Anglesey) with Paul and Henry Priestman in support.

I also included the acoustic, Hank Williams-style version of the classic country ballad ‘Cool Water’ recorded by Lee and myself in 1986. Listening to it again made me smile and reminded me of when Lee and I were meeting up every day, playing guitars and writing songs – being open to all kinds of music before the nonsense kicked in.

For years, I'd dreamed of playing in America and had often felt that if The Onset had made it over there the sky would have been the limit. We'd been close to getting there for the Woodstock ’94, but it never happened.

Finally, the chance of a stateside trip presented itself and it came through music, though not the way I'd imagined it. The opportunity came my way via a trade mission that Viper were eligible for, which provided the funding for return flights and a hotel. (This was the first time I had received external funding for anything, some people make very good careers out of it … thank you very much.) The trip took place in October 2003 and (typically) provided no new trade at all for Viper. However, some very interesting incidents took place on the periphery and several chance meetings would end up opening doors for me for the future.