Music.
Writing music's a bit like making a crispy duck pancake roll.
You start off with the scrap of duck - that’s the basic idea.
You tease it around a bit then pop it on a neat pancake – that’s the structure, the form.
Then you dress it up with nicely trimmed bits of spring onion and cucumber and add a final dash of sauce – that’s the arrangement.
You roll it all up creating a finished product that gives the sense of wholeness, of the completion of a plan.
I decided to immortalise the better stuff and have released 4 x twelve-track CD’s:
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HIghway to the Lowlife
But how did I get into music in the first place?
My dad was very active in the folk revival of the early sixties. He threw himself into it, learning hundreds of songs and teaching himself how to read music.
I fooled around with his guitar a bit but never considered singing. Dad was the singer. Not me.
When I was sixteen, I came across a guy who did Strawbs numbers and handled the guitar like no one I’d seen before.
It fired me up and I bought a cheap acoustic and got stuck in, learning tunes directly from records by the likes of John Renbourn, Bert Jansch and Martin Carthy, often from memory given how many times I’d spun the discs.
At the tail end of the eighties, I stood in for the guitar player with cult band Don Valley and the Rotherhides for a couple of months.
When he came back, I stuck around on as banjo player and extra van driver (a much more important job!). Many joyful times up and down the country followed until the band split up. By that time, I’d taken a job with the local council.
I keep my performing hand in these days with The Bungalow Band, along with my brother and other gnarled troubadours of mixed heritage and remain available for gigs and sessions as soloist or accompanist.
