Creating large soundscapes of brass with the use of electronics, looping his trumpet in multiple echo machines, and with the ingenious use of harmonisers he builds not just washes of sound but also pulsating rhythms.

[3] Spending much of the 1980s in Manchester, England, he recorded and toured with a range of bands on the rock, pop and jazz scenes (from Diagram Brothers, Dislocation Dance and Pale Fountains) before joining James in 1989.

Moving to London in 1992 he became a founder member of The Honkies (Diagram, Richard Harrison, Caroline Kraabel and Kathy Hulme), whose high energy style, reminiscent of post-punk, was married to an experimental approach derived partly from the more adventurous American jazz such as Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and had an acknowledged kinship with such bands as The Pop Group and This Heat - which found a certain success/notoriety in the London improvised music scene of the early 1990s.

He now records and tours the world with his own, much acclaimed band Spaceheads, where his unique sound and melodic sense are complemented by the emotive rhythms of drummer Richard Harrison.

Diagram performed with Pale Fountains at their 25th anniversary reunion concerts in Liverpool and London on 2 and 3 February 2008 and worked with Michael Head and the Red Elastic Band on their 2017 record, Adios, Señor Pussycat.