Derek Lark started playing the blues with his best mate, Mark Cooper in the mid '70's after Mark introduced him to John Mayall's Room to Move.

Like most kids he started out playing guitar, a nice Les Paul copy and a rare Ibanez 12 string acoustic complete with the fender headstock and later during the university years Mark's Hofhner bass.  He still plays guitar, most recently taking up lap steel, but he soon found the best music was when he left the guitar to Mark and he filled in on harmonica.

Again, like most young adults, career and family took him away from regular music but a sea change in 2004 found him with time on his hands and a visit to the Canberra Blues Festival and then the Canberra Blues Music jam at PJ O'Reillys in Tuggeranong re-introduced him to live blues.

With the encouragement from the blues guys and girls, people like Dave Buckmaster and Steve Russell, Chris Tomacivich,  Dean Edgecombe, Mike Hardy and the boys from Backbeat Drivers and Jonno Zilber Derek started jamming both at PJ's and then the Spanish Club when the gig moved and also at the Old Canberra Inn.

In the last year Derek has been invited to play with Jonno Zilber at his CD launch, local rock band "Covered Up", Tony Jaggers at the National Press Club and Platform 3, played in the finale at the Canberra Blues Society Katrina relief appeal concert and played in the harmonica super session at the Roomful O Blues with Blind Lemon and regularly sits in in with rising star Stevie Paige when she is in town.

Dereks project with David Grey, Black Hat Band is now performing regularly around Canberra.

And he is looking forward to visiting Mark in Perth sometime soon to renew that early sound.

Some 30 years after starting out, the road ahead is now clear ........