Portwood is the brainchild of Gareth O'Connor a Scotsman who made the permanent move to Auckland in ZOO8. Before he moved out to NZ he spent 6 years in London playing on the London music scene. He had the romantic idea of playing around London with his trusty guitar in hand until a good Kiwi girl brought him back with her to Auckland. Whilst in his last year in London he was looking for players to help add to his acoustic sound but never quite found the time to find the right people. So upon landing in Auckland Portwood was born.

Portwood is still only a one-man band but with the recording of a full length album featuring more than just guitar and vocals the doors are now open for Gareth to find those players he was searching for. He would certainly need help to realise the album's potential in the live arena. A couple of Gareth's friends, Cy Winstanley and Vanessa McGowan did come down to visit and added their mark on a couple of tracks most notably with Vanessa adding vocals to "Loneliness Is Only Here" but have since returned to London to focus on their own musical commitments.

Once the recording process was finished Jason Hole at York Street Studios took up the mixing and mastering duties and now the finished article is available to you. It's an album of great beauty.

Gareth hope you enjoy.