WHEN musician David Boothroyd had his computer changed in June, disaster struck as songs he had recorded on it were inadvertently deleted on being transferred from his old machine.

However, the accident turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the 60-year-old leader of the HND music production course at Worcester College of Technology, as it gave him the impetus to polish up his old tunes and write new ones.

The end result is the album It Was A Dark And Stormy Night, which he released recently to mark his 60th birthday.

David said: "To start with, when I realised my songs had gone I was shocked and couldn't believe it but then I thought I could go back to them and record them properly.

"I'd never collected together all the songs I've written in one place and, because there was no pressure on me, a lot of my songs were not finished.

"I always find you really work harder when you have a gig that week - which I did - and I'm really happy with how it has come out."

Over the years, David has been involved with a number of largely folk-based bands, acting as the stand-in when other musicians did not turn up. Going under the name Darowyn - a name which he got from a computer programme he made to generate exotic' names for his son's role-playing games - the father-of-four spent the summer recording the songs for his album at his home in Malvern's Bosbury Road overlooking the Malvern Hills, a setting he says where "if you can't get inspiration from you might as well give up".

The opening track on his album - Doormat - came from a jamming session at the college and was written in about six minutes. David now has plans to record a second album.

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night is available on www.darowyn.co.uk.