He had a band in school with odd combinations of instruments. He has worked as a session musician for unmentionable acts as well as a recording engineer and spent 8 years working in a psychiatric hospital as a staff nurse.
As engineer, he met Julian Cope. They got along very well, both being Krautrock fans and Cope asked him to join his group. He worked with Cope until 2004. He was also a member of Spiritualized from 1997 to 2008.
Also in 1997, John Balance met Thighpaulsandra at a concert. Both had been fans of each other and Balance asked him to join Coil. Balance said "He is a wonderful bright Pagan STAR in his own rite and I are very happy he accepted my invitation. Now we are 5 sided. Pentagrammatical. Complete." His involvement with Coil lasted till the death of John Balance in 2004 when the group split up. He has an ongoing project to remaster and release live Coil material that he was part of through his website.
Since August 2021 he has been playing live and recording as a member of Hawkwind.