Once upon a time I was someone else

Once upon a time not so very long ago I was someone else. I wasn't known as I am now as the Bard of Ely but was known as the Legendary Steve Andrews or simply The Legend.

These names still are official in my PRS royalty collection details and I used to be referred to by these monikers when I was a guest on local radio and on posters advertising my gigs back in Cardiff, the Welsh city where I was born and bred.

This was back in the '90s before Big Issue Cymru decided to dub me the Bard of Ely. So I have had two lives and identities within the same life. It's a bit confusing but I have got used to coping with it!

At the Myspace and Facebook social networking sites several old friends from that time period have come back into my life recently, including a woman artist I know as Sioned but who is choosing to be called Blodwen at Myspace. Amazingly she still has some old posters for my gigs back at the Chapter Arts Centre in Canton, Cardiff, which was a venue I used to often play at. The posters can be viewed in the gallery of my new site.

Sioned is going to be helping out with artwork for forthcoming releases. I am already using a new picture of hers as my artist image at the Myspace site.

My friend Alan Craw, who runs a fanzine and record label as well as many other projects, recently got back in touch too and Alan said he could remaster all my old cassette recordings into WAV and mp3s so they could be re-released on CD format. In particular, there was an album that went out on tape called Dive in Deep, and it was actually a best-seller on Mick Magic's Music & Elsewhere underground tape label.

So inspired by all these friends coming back into my life as well as the news of Alan's proposal, I decided to create a new Myspace site to celebrate my songs and friends from that period. It has been a lot of fun creating it and has quite a number of the acts, who used to be part of the music scene in South Wales back when I was the Legendary Steve Andrews.

A local journalist then, by the name of Dave Owens, once called me "South Wales most cosmic hippy guru" in a review in the South Wales Echo. I never really liked being called a hippy but as I began my quest for fame and fortune as a singer-songwriter and rock star I was happy to forgive him and enjoy the publicity.

Welcome to my past life and the songs I used to sing!