......... Perfect 10
He’s the guitarist with The Blues Band and The Manfreds, but how will he handle the 10 questions we ask everyone?
1 What was your first guitar and when did you get it? “It was a very cheap Spanish guitar from a music shop in South Wimbledon. I got it in about 1956 and we didn’t have a lot of money, so I imagine my father bought it on hire purchase. Quite a few of my friends from school and from youth club got guitars around the same time, so we all started strumming. First of all, Lonnie Donegan and then the rock ’n’ roll hits. Two of my friends got electric guitars, so I bought a pickup, or my parents did, and I put that on the Spanish guitar with steel strings. It didn’t last very long!”
2 Suppose the building’s burning down. What one guitar from your collection would you save? “I’ve got three contenders. A white early 60s Strat, a 1930s National Duolian that was played and broken by Son House, and a Telecaster that I bought in 1965 and that Klaus Voormann painted at the height of the psychedelic 60s. I’d grab all three – one under each arm and one held by the neck!”
3 What’s the oldest guitar that you own? “I’ve got a little Gibson that’s a bit like the Robert Johnson one, a tiny 1930s Gibson acoustic. I’ve also got the aforementioned 1930s National Duolian, and a Harmony Regal mandolin, teardrop shape. I didn’t think much of it until I saw a picture of Charlie McCoy playing one.”
4 When was the last time you changed your own strings? “Last Saturday. I carry two Strats on the road, both Eric Clapton models, and I hadn’t strung my spare one for a while. I don’t have a tech; I string my own guitar. I enjoy it, I find it quite therapeutic. It’s mindless, you know. I usually change them every five or maybe six gigs.”
5 If you could change one thing about a recording you’ve been on, what would it be and why? “There is a BBC recording, which I don’t think has come out, of a session where I take a solo in the middle of something and I hit exactly a semitone below the note I wanted to hit for the beginning of the solo. They insisted that had to be the one that would go out on the radio – we weren’t given much control back in the 60s. I’d like to make sure that never comes out. I don’t think it has!”
6 What are you doing five minutes before you go on stage and five minutes after? “Having a pee and making sure I have the right plectrums in the right pockets! I use different plectrums for strumming the acoustic, and then if I’m playing rhythm on the electric, I use a different plectrum, and if I’m playing lead or if I’m playing mandolin I use little stubby jazz picks. Five minutes after I’m changing my clothes. I like to change to go on stage, even though I just tend to wear jeans and stuff.”
7 What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you on stage? “I was in Rome opening for Dire Straits and it was a huge crowd in a big auditorium – tens of thousands. Ed Bicknell, who managed Dire Straits, only told me afterwards that the last time they’d had a support band in Rome they were chased off stage by the audience. We went on to a chorus of boos and jeers; they didn’t want anyone before Dire Straits. I was playing away and suddenly there was this immense blow to my chest and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve been shot!’ Someone had thrown one of those litre bottles of water at me, which had hit me full in the chest and exploded. I think that’s about the worst…”
8 What aspect of guitar would you like to be better at? “Just about every one. I learned so many bad habits when I was young. Better left-hand technique, better knowledge of the theory of music. I never learned to read properly, having a better sense of time. All these things. The one thing I know is that I’m learning all the time. I hear new people and I hear people who died before I was born and I’m learning from all of them.”
9 What advice would you give your younger self about the guitar if you had the chance? “Be more broad-minded. I went through these periods, certainly in my earliest years, of listening to a very narrow range of music. Rock ’n’ roll came out and I just loved it. Then I was led via Chuck Berry to Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, BB King, John Lee Hooker… From the early to mid-60s that was practically all I listened to, and ever since then I’ve been reaching backwards, forwards and sideways.”
10 Is there a myth about you or your playing you’d like to set the record straight on? “I was rung up by a newspaper trying to confirm the story that I’d committed suicide in the Clyde. I said, ‘Well no, this is me.’ They said, ‘Are you sure?’” [DM]
The Blues Band begin their next UK tour in February 2017 and The Manfreds tour in March www.thebluesband.net / www.themanfreds.com
“The one thing I know is I’m learning all the time. I hear new people and I hear people who died before I was born and I’m learning from all of them”