 These concerts led took him all around the world, including aboard the liner "Canberra" as part of the D-Day 50th Anniversary Fleet in 1994.In 2009, he performed A1's hit version of the A-ha song "Take On Me" at Saint Edmund's Catholic School in Dover, Kent and also The Astor of Hever Community School in Maidstone, Kent

By the age of 19, Read was spotted at a music venue in Covent Garden, London, by Tim Byrne (manager of UK pop act Steps).At the time, Byrne was looking for suitable members to form a new pop group.