More about me and how I got into this music stuff...Part 1

Part one.

I was born in the early 80's, in a time of mourning for the music I love. In fact the year I was born, both The Who and The Jam officially split. I would later come to love both those bands, as they played a huge part in putting me where I am now (so they're the bastards that did it!)

I grew up in a house with my parents, my brother, my uncle and both my mum's parents. I should have known it all along, the house was full of music.
We had an upright piano in the living room. Only no one played it because years earlier a conman of a piano tuner had ruined the whole thing! Sometimes I'd push the keys from underneath and they'd make this horrible out of tune tinkling... (my first foray into modern jazz!) This was such a shame because my mother was a fantastic pianist. Very good at classical stuff (grade eight) I have memories of her playing but it was damn hard on that clapped-out upright. She was also a pretty good singer. She used to do opera and jazz, in fact in later years she nearly drove me insane by singing various Doris Day and Barbara Streisand songs 500 times in a row every day. I like Babs, but please don't get me started on "Woman In Love"...
My grandfather loved jazz. I remember he had loads of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Arty Shaw, Glen Miller and other swing records. He had a big reel to reel recorder (in fact he had several) I wish I still had that. I remember all the splicing kits and BASF reels in the second room which was dedicated to playing music. It also had other fantastic audio equipment - Amplifiers, tape decks, turntables and incredible speakers though never a CD player, not even in the 90's.
According to my mother though, his love of 40's music did not stop him from proclaiming Jimi Hendrix a fantastic guitarist or liking certain modern songs like The Who's "Squeeze Box"
My grandfather didn't play any musical instruments but he still knew a lot about music and the way it should be played. He died when I was about 6, so he never really got to see me pick up my passion, I often wish he could've.
My uncle was also into jazz, but more the Miles Davis type of stuff, he also liked a lot of the 80's disco and pop stuff (no, I'm not sure why either..) various rock stuff like Hendrix, Thin Lizzy and bands like The Jam, The Eagles and Billy Joel.
I have to have a lot of thanks for him playing Billy Joel. A lot of people think he's uncool and all he did was "Uptown Girl" and stuff like that, but If you listen to albums like "The Stranger" "The Nylon Curtain" and "Turnstiles" he's written some damn good stuff. His stuff is so cleverly done (even "Uptown Girl" has a tricky and clever structure) that sometimes you don't realise what's going on. But if you are a musician and you understand about the way music works, try and play some of this stuff and you'll realise how it really is. This gave me a lot inspiration songwriting wise, I started thinking about the possibilities of writing something that didn't stick to one key, stuff that changed mood.
My dad didn't play a lot of music but he always wanted to play drums, I on the other hand harboured no desire to play anything, I was a young artist and it was my brother who was the musician.

My brother was 10 years older than me. He was born in the good old 70's and at some point after "The Buddy Holly Story" film was released he became obsessed with the bespectacled 50s rocker. He got a guitar and at age seven was better than a lot of adults learning to play! He then got into the Beatles and at the time I was born he was still playing their records night and day. Thus from my first day, my earliest memory, the Beatles were there. To me their existence has been constant and forever (like the universe) I never discovered them, they were always there!
I came to love them and many other rock groups, I listened to practically nothing from the modern scene. At some point I sort of accepted that all the music I like had been made before I was born.
Then my brother got into Gun's N' Roses and so I did too. I went to see them at Wembley Stadium in 1992 (my first gig had been Billy Joel in 1990)

One day when I was about 7, I was watching TV and on comes this band with a great song that instantly hooks me. The band is called The Jam, it's an advert for their greatest hits CD and the song is "Going Underground" I want the CD, this is the first band that I've gotten into myself. My Uncle and brother know about The Jam and get me the CD that Christmas. I love it, so many great songs, I even like the soul influenced ones simply because I don't know that it's soul.
Over the coming years I grew up listening to a variety of bands but especially Queen and Led Zeppelin. There was also Beatles Live At The BBC, and a song called "The Kids Are Alright" by The Who which I used to hear on my dad's radio when he took me to school. That song has something in it, a feeling which I understood. It still has that power on me today.

By the time I was about 10 I'd had a few attempts at learning guitar. Thing is, although we had a few guitars around the house, I felt more comfortable left handed. I always thought this was because I mirrored the people I saw playing so I did it left handed, but according to my parents, I used to write and draw left handed too. I don't anymore and eventually I learned a few chords right handed on guitar too. Not fantastic at all.
So one day when I'm about 11 I find out that all my cousins are getting guitar lessons, I sign up too and have a few lessons before it stops (and I can't remember why) Anyway it was all classical stuff, English Country Garden, In The Hall Of The Mountain King, etc. I was less than thrilled, oh if only I'd known at the time that The Who had covered In The Hall Of The Mountain King! However, I did get some enjoyment out of it by playing it much too fast and behind my head - a true showoff in the making.
For one lesson I got "Mexican Hat Dance" I later heard Status Quo break into this on one of their live albums, however the version presented to me required complex multiple string finger plucking. I laughed in disbelief...
One week I had a one off rock lesson as a treat, "Layla", "Sweet Child O' Mine" and some other stuff. It was great, and I could play it! I mean even slash had problems with the intro riff to "Sweet Child O' Mine" but I nailed it pretty well! However it was only a one off lesson.

So I quit. I carried on trying to play (I was awful) I got into the idea of wring songs and began writing (again, awful) Then my brother accidentally broke my guitar by accident and I spent a few years without one. It seemed like the end of my guitar playing days...