Colin Salter

I started playing in 1971, teaching myself from a really bad teach-yourself-guitar book. Learnt lots of bad habits. Started performing in local pantomimes in 1975. First band probably The Stick Insects, around 1976 - we came third in the Melody Maker Glasgow heats, having formed 30 minutes earlier in the dressing room.Spent most of the 80s and early 90s writing and recording ambient music for stage plays. Band blips, mostly playing bass - Jump The Pig 1991, excellent Hull jazz-folk outfit; After Hours 1994, Sheffield 60s blues covers; Yoda in Kendal, cracking indy covers, in 2004; and my duo with Linnhe Catlow, 2004-6, ridiculously good fun leftfield acoustic takes on pop classics in Cumbria. In Cumbria I was involved in setting up and/or running a number of open mic events including a full band electric jam night.I first DJ'd (for Radio Claudine) in Edinburgh in 1975, and ran my own cheesey golden oldies mobile disco "Blame It on the Boogie!" in Cumbria 1999-2006. In 2006 I moved to Edinburgh, where I have spent far too long rehearsing with various bands that managed to split before playing a gig.Meanwhile I'm establishing myself as a freelance non-fiction writer. Titles in 2006 include The Little Book of Birdwatching, The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock (60s soul section) and Chambers Biographical Dictionary (light entertainment, science and health entries). In 2007 it was "Crafting Crativity: 52 Brilliant Ideas for Awakening the Artistic Genius Within" (really!) and a contribution to the Chambers Sports Factfinder. I've also contributed 100 entries to the online project OEDILF, an attempt to define every word in the OED in limerick form. Latest work has been a website about Pictish stones for Histporic Scotland, due online in Summer 2009.