Born in Wokingham, Berkshire, England, Read first came to prominence in 1975 with his debut album A Friend of Mine Is Going Blind, released on Chrysalis Records.
[1] The album's title song was written by Read for a friend of his who suffered from muscular dystrophy.
[2] Around this time, his song Such Is the Mystery was featured on Cliff Richard's acclaimed album I'm Nearly Famous.
Fans had little success finding information on Read until singer-songwriter Michael Johnson put an MP3 of "A Friend of Mine Is Going Blind" on his website.
Read credits his discovery of Pristine Audio as being "the second most influential factor in ‘getting back into it.’" Andrew Rose of Pristine Audio remastered A Friend of Mine Is Going Blind and Read On.