Despite having grown up in a highly musical family , Tim himself had had minimal guitar tuition and no training on any other instrument, but he did have loads of enthusiasm and a big ego! And fortunately, the punk ethic of the time declared that anyone could be in a band, regardless of whether you could actually play or not. Tim was joined by Graham Botwright (guitar), Nigel Fox (bass) and Steve Coussens (on biscuit tins, but eventually he bought a drum kit!), under the name Rainbow Warrior which soon turned to Om or Om Band. Playing mainly their own songs, the band played their only headliner on 22nd November 1978 (a date chosen by Tim for its numerological significance) at the Elgiva Hall, a local theatre in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, just across the road from the Burness residence. With A levels looming, Nigel and Graham left the band.

By July 1979, guitarist Rick Lawley and temporary bassist Tim Heal (from local punk band The Beez) had joined to do one gig as Ultraviolet.

This evolved further into Perfect Strangers, another four-piece consisting of Jim Marr (bass), Rick Lawley (guitar and vocal), Steve Coussens (drums) and Tim. With Rick's additional songwriting and singing input, Perfect Strangers had much to offer. However, they played just a handful of gigs and disbanded in early 1980.

Tim first met guitarist Ric Adamson while working in a wholefood shop in Portobello Road, London. Brought together by their love of Steve Hillage, and probably even greater love of tahini with strawberry jam on bread, Tim and Ric began working together during 1980. Together with drummer Alastair Bruce, they went into an 8-track studio in Chorleywood with engineer Richard Joseph to record four tracks: Love Light and Happiness, Rainbows, See Right Through, and Creative Annihilation. Early in January 1981, now calling the project Crossover, Tim and Ric approached several record companies with the songs. They met with mainly positive but essentially disinterested reactions but they had earlier received a very encouraging letter from bass player Herbie Flowers that gave hope for the future. Soon after this, Tim decided he wished to be completely free to pursue his own musical direction, and Tim and Ric parted company.

Two more bursts of recording took place during 1981, again at the Chorleywood studio. Tim was now playing all instruments, including his new Wasp synthesiser, with Alastair Bruce again providing the drums. Tracks recorded at this time included the first version of Mumbling In The House Of Commons, The Silly Song (inspired by Tiswas, a Saturday morning children's television programme) and other tracks which were to later form the basis for some of the Burnessence material. As the rejection letters from record companies continued to pile up, Tim continued to write and recorded more material on a 4-track with the help of Rob Boughton (who as Bobby Boughton later went on to become a successful recording engineer, working with Lisa Stansfield and others).

In 1982, Tim contributed guitar parts to two songs recorded by Australian singer Karen Halliday in a 16-track studio in Hayes, West London. Round about the same time, while sharing a squat in Camden Town in London, he had a few attempts at playing music with fellow squatter Beverley Craven, but they decided their styles were incompatible!