I have been playing Guitar since I was 8 years old
I trained classically for a few years, taking lessons in a group of four, once a week for one hour after school. We also learned some folk stylings, guided by one of John Pearce’s instruction manuals. My Dad was a big influence too (he was a great guitarist) and I asked him to show me a few things. He never professed to being much of a teacher, but I learned a huge amount from him.
At 9, Dad took me to see Andres Segovia perform in concert at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon. Totally awe-inspiring, seeing and hearing one man, aged 89, playing a two hour set of incredible music. A year or so later we went to see John Williams during his ‘The Guitar Is The Song’ tour. I got to meet John Williams after the concert and he signed my programme. We had a little chat about learning guitar! Memories like that really stick. My dad realised I was in this for the long haul and in every way encouraged and nurtured me at this impressionable age.
Listening to ‘Sky’ and buying all their albums by way of pocket money, inspired me to want my first electric guitar at age 11. According to the cassette inlaycard details, Kevin Peek played a Gibson L5-S (solid body). That’s what I really wanted, but a reasonably priced Aria Pro II Stratocaster copy (from Bootleg Music in Epsom) was the realistic choice in the end. That was the very start of my amplified guitar path.
A couple of years later, I got to see Al Di Meola playing most of the acoustic material for his groundbreaking Cielo E Terra album. I then realised the true scope of the guitar as a standalone instrument. Its voice was immense.
Opportunities to watch Chet Atkins perform from just 6 feet away, and another intimate concert seeing Tommy Emmanuel do his thing, just reinforced to me how varied, expressive and truly awe-inspiring the guitar really could be.
Inspiring teens
By 12 or 13, I had already started learning the material played by Sky, some Al Di Meola, The Shadows, Buddy Holly chords, Chuck Berry riffs and got into Dire Straits, Eric Clapton, Cream, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix and Iron Maiden quite early on. I have some older friends to thank for lending their LP’s out to me so I could get them onto tape. I then got heavily into Eric Johnson after hearing a flexi-disc that was included in a 1986 edition of Guitar Player magazine. I was 14 at the time, and I had a hand-me-down record player, that could switch to 16rpm. I spent endless hours in my bedroom learning this live version of ‘Cliffs Of Dover’ at half-speed. Got most of it down too! Once I got his album ‘Tones’, I devoured everything he played.
My first Gibson Les Paul
After showing some real promise on the guitar, with significant help from my Dad, I bought my first vintage guitar, a 1956 Gibson Les Paul Custom! It had a few minor issues, but it was a great price and opportunities like that do not knock everyday. The sheer elation and enjoyment of owning such a prestigious, inspiring guitar, ensured life was never to be quite the same after this.
Gigging in the official Blues Brothers Tribute Band Revue
I played my Les Paul Custom for years as a gigging guitar in any number of school bands and in the first official Blue Brothers Tribute Band Revue. A 16-piece band! We were all studying for CSE’s, GCSE’s and A-levels at that time.
We played a few big town halls and at some prestigious London venues and clubs and little by little, over about two years, the band somewhat lessened, from 16 to 6 members. Even with diminutive numbers we were still packing out pubs and function rooms all over Surrey and London. I was among the last band members before we called it a day.
By this point, I had also acquired a very cool 1971 Fender Stratocaster in custom colour ‘Olympic white’. I kept this for a couple of years but stupidly traded it for a prototype Jackson Soloist. This was because I was now listening to Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani – and craved to learn their styles. It was clear I needed a pointy-headed guitar with a whammy bar! (A big regret. I have agonised with seller’s remorse for years).
I played in other rock and covers bands throughout school, 6th form and college playing various pubs and rooms in the South East. I also taught guitar to a few school friends and gradually over time I had pupils aged 8-45 to teach – while studying A-levels and then during my time at Epsom School of Art & Design. I did my best to save as much as I could to afford to trade-up the odd guitar here and there. Of course, buying records, cassettes and then CD’s became an expensive pastime too. This was all soul fodder and deep music research for me. I got into a huge array of music.
Invited to join a European tour
I do slightly kick myself, because it was around this time I was invited to join a successful, established band for a European tour! I had this instrumental fusion rock band at the time. Just 18 and 19 years old, we were performing Allman Brothers, Al Di Meola, Eric Johnson and Pink Floyd tracks – quite sophisticated stuff. Two members of this other ‘established band’ happened to be in the audience that night listening to us. They approached me during our interval, stating how much they loved my playing and told me about this European tour they had planned. We swapped details and a few days passed. I had two weeks to mull this decision over. I declined them, after having recently been notified that I had been accepted onto my 1st choice degree course! This was a deep and soul-searching time for me and probably the longest fortnight of my life.
Fall back
My Dad’s advice was to get my head down and ‘fall back’ on the music scene some other time. It was the early 1990’s recession, and my Dad’s architectural practice was struggling, and he said “Get your head down for 3 years and hopefully the economy will be better by the time you finish.” It was a very uneasy time for a lot of people then. I took the advice and it helped sway my decision.
Lost years
So I went to Kingston Uni to do my Graphics/Illustration (Hons) degree at Kingston. This area of SW London was the stamping ground of many of my heroes. It was in an area of London that was associated with the British Blues Boom of the mid-late 1960s. I was hugely into ’60’s music at the time; Yardbirds, Mayall, Page, Clapton, Small Faces, The Who, etc. Also, I was romantically caught up in the whole music mythology of the area… the old blues and jazz clubs, Eel Pie Island, Pete Townsend with his studio just down river, Dave Gilmour being just up the river, the whole Richmond scene – Crawdaddy Club, Peter Green’s tramp-like silhouette sometimes being spotted on the way into Richmond, spotting Ronnie Wood quite often on Richmond Green. This was (still) very much The Thames Delta to my mind. Eric Clapton had studied here. Brian Eno currently lectured here. I truly thought I would meet up with like-minded musicians here, in my year group. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. Really rotten luck. I was dumbfounded, got myself a girlfriend and decided to knuckle down. At least I felt grounded here. I was actually raised in Richmond up until I was 2-years old. My father still had his office in Richmond when I studied at Kingston, so I’d occasionally meet up with him for a beer and a catch-up by the river Thames.
During this time I actually became quite despondent about my guitar playing. It was getting neglected due to other stuff (life) going on. Being in general study mode, did mean that I immersed myself in a lot of music history and wider reading. I bought MOJO magazine regularly and it became an absorbent scholarly read for me… just part of a massive portal to a wider world of music. In hindsight, I wish I had aimed to study Music for my degree.
Whys and Wherefores
Being able to emulate Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Al Di Meola, to rip-off Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen licks and generally copy-cat my heroes somehow wasn’t enough for me – nor did it even feel right. It became apparent that I needed to take time out to develop my own styles and exercise what felt right for me to be a guitarist in Britain, not as a California-tanned, spandex-clad axe hero! Earlier on, that WAS the fantasy of course… the stadium tours, the mad life on the road. Hmm, now perhaps not so much. Show some integrity!
The rocker in me had favoured all the usual ‘heavier’ suspects – the Wagner’s and Beethoven’s of Rock… Cream, Hendrix, Led Zep, Free, Bad Company, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, The David Lee Roth Band, Whitesnake, The Cult, Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne plus many others. Influences that are still here with me today. All the while, and in stark contrast, I was listening to instrumental guitar music from Wes Montgomery, Barney Kessel, Kenny Burrell, Tal Farlow, John Williams, Al Di Meola, John Scofield, Jeff Beck, Chet Atkins and many more besides. I almost confused myself by being interested in so much different and disparate music styles. More questions arose out of this than helpful answers. Why and What did I really want to play, as a guitarist?
Being in a band meant that you learned your parts, played your parts and performed the same set each gig. Occasionally you’d get the opportunity to take a 10 or 20 second solo, to then be rewarded by the usual whoops and ripples of audience applause during a song. Night after night, I found this routine became rather repetitive and somewhat boring. Plus, I’d already been performing live in bands for a few years and fancied a bit of a change. A rest, even. Was I jaded? The fun element was great, but after a while, the wild lifestyle really didn’t appeal too much anymore.
The Graduate
Upon graduating, I was broke and desperate to earn some (serious) money doing what I liked to do. Above all, this needed to be related to what I was now formally trained in and skilled at – and to justify the time and money myself and my family had invested in me.
Blessed (or cursed) with creative skills, not just in music but also in art and design, I chose to pursue a job in graphic design. The prospects and the money seemed pretty good. The notion of doing something I liked and happened to be good at, became less like ‘work’, compared to most of my peers who were catching trains at 6am, in their suits and working in very grey sales and financial sectors. I was an Art Director, no less. A bit later, I got headhunted and joined an up and coming web design and ‘new media’ company as their Senior Designer. 1994-1995. This is before most people in the UK had even heard of or used the Internet. Whichever way I looked at it, this ‘day job’ idea seemed credible and sensible. The latter was something I usually wasn’t at the time.
To become oneself
I had convinced myself that the longer I waited to get out there as a real guitarist, the better I would evolve and mature as a guitar player over time. To my mind, more years delaying equated to more thoughtful and considered guitar playing. Also, this was the chance to save for some dream guitars and equipment. I had also caught the collectors bug by now.
Of course, the day job took over for many years and for a while there, I was quite seriously involved in the internet ‘boom-to-bust’ period of the mid-1990s to early 2000’s. The events of 9/11 and the recession that came afterwards killed off many companies, but I hung in there and started up my own design business.
I got a few guitars I’d always wanted, tracked down some old, long out-of-print LP records and continued practicing and playing guitar, for only a few to hear.
Learning the genres
I had continually been developing my playing techniques and educating myself to differing styles of guitar music – always hungry to devour the material performed by my favourite players, across all genres; Rock, old-school Metal, Rock n Roll, R&B, Blues, Jazz, Classical, World Music – even Country! I believe they call this rather spiritual, soul-searching, selfish practice period wood-shedding.
And now…
Fast forward to 2017, I’m now embarking on some solo guitar performances, starting up a duo, plus some session work and more guitar tutoring… I never thought that one day I would be aware of getting older!