Well here goes! Put the kettle on and make a lot of coffee! I was born at a very early age in Liverpool in 1958. My earliest memory is sitting up in the Silver Cross pram bouncing to the "Rawhide" theme music!. I reckon I was about 4 or 5 when I discovered my parents record collection. It included The Crew Cuts version of Earth Angel b/w Ko Ko Mo, Singing the Blues by Tommy Steele and Friendly Persuasion by Pat Boone. I'd sit for hours listening to them and soon knew them off by heart. My road was set but I didn't know that then. A few months later when a local band hit the scene and even at the age of 5, I could feel a buzz about Liverpool. Other local bands appeared and my older siblings started buying Beatles records. As I got older and went through school, I was still listening intently to every song I could. High school was a blast as both Paul McCartney and George Harrison had been there so the Liverpool Institute High School for boys was already steeped in history which I gulped down in buckets. I still hadn't picked up an instrument but knew I wanted to sing. I decided to take lessons on the double bass at age 13 but the school only had right-handed instruments which were backwards to me. The school said I should try the trumpet! That just wasn't cool to me and I'd discovered the girls school across the road from our school!! The years went by and Led Zeppelin came along. They changed the game for me. Now my influences were doo wop, crooners skiffle and rock and roll. (Mainly rock and roll). I was given a Vox Rapier 22 at 20 It was a leftie so I could play the one string that was fitted to it. (I wish I'd kept THAT baby!!!). I'd started going to the pubs by then and watching local bands. I met a local musician and one night we were sat in his house getting wrecked when he produced a Gibson J200 and played Classical Gas faultlessly. I was even more stunned when he played Stack o' Lee by Mississippi John Hurt. By this time 'd been unemployed for 5 years and Liverpool was on its knees so I moved away and bought a cheap guitar to practice on. I learned Stack o' lee and Freight Train 'cos I liked finger picking. That was it, I'd found the vehicle to drive my voice around. I moved to the Midlands and joined my first band. That's when I stopped learning how to play the guitar and instead started learnig to play songs on the guitar. 3 months ago I bought a J200. HOORAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!