NEW SOUND COMING SOON! 
After starting my music career as a 16 year old with an acoustic guitar and a love for gentle folky pop, I have taken a few years out from writing/creating/playing to focus on developing a new sound for myself. It’s taken a little while, but I’ve fallen in love with a new genre and a new skill set, and I’m looking forward to experimenting with and focusing on writing and producing some ELECTRO POP :-) 
Please stay tuned as I gather the necessary equipment and resources needed to make this music. I’m so excited to get started and to share something special with you all soon. Thanks to everyone who supported me with the acoustic music- the best is yet to come on my musical journey!


“Combining raw, emotional lyrics with strong, instantly memorable melodies, Beth Angharad is a fresh new talent on the Welsh music scene. Blurring the line between classical songwriting and pop, her tender vocals & warm, endearing stage presence melt the heart and lift the soul."

SORRY BUT CAN'T FOLLOW ANY MORE PPL BACK HAVE HIT 2000 LIMIT...ARTIST BIO: Started playing guitar young, also piano, bass, drums and singing, also harmonica. Began tape recording and taking Classical Guitar lessons in Gamlin's Pianos music shop in the centre of Cardiff, capital city of Wales. Began to write songs and go to gigs aged 13 or so, also to jam frequently around town. I was given a reel-to-reel and took some jazz lessons, continually jamming guitar and bass and going out drinking. Got me a steel-string and a four-track...not much changed ever since! I'm now 42 years old and a lot wiser, which means I don't drink much...fell ill a couple of years ago and emerged with Nerve Damage (painful) to the left arm, also the bicep, forearm and shoulder muscles had wasted away. Undaunted by the negativity of some experts who said I was henceforth stuck unable to play guitar ever again, I received physiotherapy here in West Wales where I now live and worked hard to redevelop the muscles and feeling in the left arm and, especially, left hand. But the Doctors were half-right. Because I can't turn my arm at the wrist properly or move the hand up and down the neck, I've had to develop a capacity to play over-the-top of the neck, as opposed to underneath, with my fretting hand. It ain't easy! But I love music, and hope to make sounds for the rest of my life.


Yo, I'm Simon John and I play & record a Mix of Blues, Acid-Rock, Jazz and Stoner Psychedelia-type Music, featuring Acoustic & Electric Guitars & Bass, Piano/Keyboards, Drum-machines & Vocals...

The "Guitar" in my Name is just to identify me, there's a few different "Simon John"s on the web who play music. I'm not especially fast or fluent on the guitar, there's thousands of people who can play better than me, but at one point in my life, when I'd just come out of a Coma, one of the Doctors said "Son, you'll never play again" so I've been busy proving the guy wrong ever since. My Guitar-playing is limited, but I always give it my best shot, same when I'm playing Bass, or Piano, or Singing, even Harmonica. 

My stuff is done using a Zoom 8-track, a Yamaha keyboard, a Vintage bass and various guitars, percussion and microphones.I've used other equipment before, and will use different stuff in the Future.

I'm a 43 year-old multi-track recording artist with nerve-damage in the left arm. Ouch.

I started playing guitar and piano and writing songs (and recording) as a child in Cardiff in the 70s

These are some of the works I've put together over the last few years...

The Martial Arts are releasing their new album ‘In There Like Swimwear’, on Friday 9 August 2024, on the Where It’s At Is Where You Are label.  It contains the singles, ‘No Victory’, ‘Not Coming Down’, ‘Exploding Crushing Inevitable’ and ‘Friends For Fools’.

The album links the neighboring worlds of power pop / indie pop / classic pop, and would sit comfortably in the collections of Daniel Johnston, XTC, Eno, Of Montreal, The Lemon Twigs or The Apples In Stereo fans.

The Martial Arts is Paul Kelly, who for over 15 years has been a mainstay of the Scottish music scene.   He was a full-time member of BMX Bandits for five years and is a long-time collaborator and bandmate of the SAY Award-nominated artist Carla J Easton (The Vaselines / Poster Paints / TeenCanteen).  He has performed with Raveloe, TeenCanteen, Kim Richey, The Primary 5, Dr. Cosmo’s Tape Lab, How to Swim and The Hector Collectors.  He has been using the name The Martial Arts since 2003.

John Lawrence is following