A county artist is looking forward to his first exhibition tomorrow. He won’t actually be there, though. Lee Marlow discovers why

Simon Welford is feeling a bit apprehensive. It's the nervous excitement of an artist about to stage his first ever exhibition. He'd be even more nervy if he was going to actually be there when the doors open tomorrow. Unfortunately, he can't make it. The exhibition is at an art gallery more than 10,000 miles away, in Sydney, Australia.

Simon, 34, will be at home, in Earl Shilton, near Hinckley, constantly worrying how it's going, hoping a deep-pocketed Aussie is enjoying his distinctive work enough to whip out a chequebook and take one or two home.

"It's a brilliant thing – my own exhibition and I'm really pleased about it – but I haven't even had one in Hinckley or Leicester yet, so it all seems a bit surreal," says Simon, a father of two.

Simon is a former John Cleveland College student who studied art and media at Hinckley College before drifting into an office job at General Electric in his home town.

Making a living by drawing pictures and selling iconic images seemed little more than a distant dream back then, says Simon. Then fate stepped in.

Staff at General Electric were asked if they wanted to volunteer for redundancy.

Simon stepped forward, deciding this was the chance, the fork in the road which could take him away from anonymous clerical work and set him on his way as an artist.

"I got some redundancy money – it wasn't much, it was maybe £3,000 or £4,000," he says, "but it was enough to set me up on my own."

He bought some equipment and started his own website. Work was slow at first – selling the odd print here, the occasional picture there.

"I did a few CD covers for local bands, that kind of thing," he says. "You know, thinking about it, I can't even remember who those bands were now..."

One night, he stumbled upon the website of former Ride frontman, Mark Gardener.

Ride were a shoe-gazing indie band from Oxford who enjoyed a reasonable amount of success in the early-90s, before the explosion of Brit pop. Simon was a big fan.

"I remember walking into college in the mid-90s, listening to Ride on my personal stereo," he says. "I really liked them.

"I sent him a message just to say how much I enjoyed his new stuff and wished him luck."

A few hours later, Mark replied. He'd seen Simon's website and liked Simon's art. We could use some of that talent, said Mark. A meeting was arranged in Oxford.

Ride split up in 1996, with guitarist Andy Bell going on to become bass player in Oasis. Their cult status, however, meant their back catalogue continued to sell. Their old albums were being remastered, repackaged and resold.

Could they put some of Simon's artwork for the reissued Ride albums? They asked. Could he do something with some of their unused pictures? Could he also, while he was at it, polish up a few of their old covers, bring them to life with some magical computerised jiggery-pokery?

Simon was flattered to be asked. He set to work straight away.

"I was in Powerplay in the Highcross a few weeks ago and my eight-year-old daughter, Freya, found Nowhere, one of their early albums, in the racks there. 'Look Dad,' she said, 'this is your work'."

The original picture is a lovely shot of a meandering wave, says Simon.

"But it was such a low-res, fuzzy picture so I spent weeks cleaning it up and improving it."

The casual fan probably wouldn't notice the difference. But to Simon, and the band, the two images are a world apart.

Other pictures were used as inlays, never-before-seen pictures of the band have been given to Simon to play around with and distort. Simon was pleased with the results. So were the individual members of Ride.

He's met all of Ride now, apart from Bell, who, apparently, is busy working on Liam Gallagher's new project.

"They've all been great. It's all worked out pretty well, really," he says. "It's nice, although to be honest, it still feels a bit strange because I was such a fan of the band.

"It's fairly well paid, yes, although, clearly, those cheques would be a bit bigger if it was the Rolling Stones or U2. But it keeps me going. And I like doing it."

So how did the Sydney exhibition come about? More by accident than design, really. The organiser is former Creation records boss Alan McGee, who'll be DJing later this year in Sydney.

As part of those discussions Simon found himself with a booking for a one-night show at The World Bar, a gallery and venue in Syndey's boho Kings Cross area.

Simon, meanwhile, is currently working on new artwork from Ride's Carnival Of Light album.

"I'm working with legendary 60s photographer Gered Mankowitz who has worked with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones and, of course, Ride. We've got some old pics that Mankowitz didn't use from those sessions and I'm producing some new artwork from those."

When that's done, he'll set to work on a set of images of Tim Burgess, lead singer of The Charlatans.

"I'm working alongside a photographer and turning his photographs into a range of prints, which we will be hoping to exhibit some time in the near future."

Maybe, he says, that exhibition will be in Leicestershire or at least somewhere in this country; somewhere he can get to, not somewhere on the other side of the world. That would be nice wouldn't it, he laughs.

To see more of Simon's work, go to:

www.wayupthere.co.uk