About Me
The mutant offspring of a son of Grimethorpe, the Yorkshire mining community,and the wayward daughter of a French Gascon peasant rabble, I live in a bloody great big City, namely London.
Mired in sin , for breaking the ultimate Yorkshire taboo and taking up with a Lancashire lass. Play guitar, Lap Steel guitar, Harmonica, and (sadly limited)keyboards...
Someone played me 'Voodoo Chile slight return' when I was 12 and it genuinely scared the hell out of me, but it must have unlocked something A year or two later I took up the guitar on the basis of some of my dad's records, which was a disaster as he had a lot of Django Rheinhardt and Charlie Christian('Swing to Bop' floored me), so it was hard getting off the ground - then I found his Big Bill Broonzy stuff and went hell for leather for Blues and early Rock'n'Roll, veered off into T.Rex, David Bowie, Steely Dan, Focus and Bob Marley among others and then Punk came along, then 2-tone so I played a little a lot for a long time, if you get my drift.
Spent time on the London pub rock scene and went to the great Gaz's Rockin Blues club night a lot; did stints with ska - type band Potato 5, "Cowpunk" outfit Cut Loose, somehow spent a year in an all girl gay punk-pop band, The Renees and all-girl-except-guitar popsters Coming Up Roses, fell in with all-purpose squeezebox tart Slim and his Cyder Co, did a lot of time with revamped 2 tone veterans The Selecter. Somehow through all of this I got lucky and did gigs, tours and sessions with Bad Manners, BJ Cole, Joe Ely, the much-missed Austin luminary Jesse Taylor, cajun rocker Pierre Le Rue, the wise and wonderful Prince Buster, the sadly departed Laurel Aitken, Dave Barker, Rico Rodriguez, Roddy Radiation and Ranking Roger, some oo-er missus ska with the late Judge Dread, some sweating moments trying to keep up with the sheer energy and verve of James Hunter when he guests with Slim and blows us away ( thank God he's gone off to the USA to be successful!). Have gigged as far afield as Honolulu, the wastes of northern Alberta and Scunthorpe.
Once did a week of workshops with avant garde musician and incredible teacher John Stevens who made me realise there are no boundaries if your ears and your mind are open(and both can be hard work, believe me)
Have now taken up the Steel Guitar as well, on the basis that you can sit down on the gig; you can find me betraying this instrument's wonderful tradition (as well as that of the regular guitar )with Slim, on occasion with unwashed vaudevillians The Fleapit Orchestra, Rockabilly ace Spike, Andrew Ranken's (of Pogues notoriety) Mysterious Wheels, among others. Recently recorded with Andrew and his Wheels, and have done sessions for former Fierce Panda prodigies Pullover, and film/tv Library Music giants Carlin Music. Also now learning to grapple with a mandolin and a ukelele - not enough time in the world!!
.......Sharing my profile a bit with my son , Luc, aged 11, as he's a fledgling cartoonist, animator, and comedian . Check his stuff out and , if you're in animation - GET HIM WORKING - I can make more cash out of this than sending him to clean chimneys.
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