NEVILLE’S ADVOCATE

With this issue’s focus on Peter Green, Nev looks back on his own memories of the man, his playing, and that iconic guitar

One of the cool things about being a‘certain age’is I was there when so much great music emerged.At 13 years old I heard The Beatles’ She Loves You, at 14 The Who’s My Generation and The Kinks’ You Really Got Me. At 15 it was (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, at 16 it was Mayall, Cream and Hendrix; at 17 Sergeant Pepper; at 18 Led Zep’s first radio broadcast; at 19 it was James and Joni… and so on.

Luckily for me, my sister’s boyfriend at the time was a fine musician who played drums in a blues and soul band. He brought round the John Mayall albums Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton, and AHard Road (with Peter Green). As a budding guitarist those albums floored me.When I heard Clapton play like that, I thought he was doing the impossible.

Gary Moore and I discussed the impact of these albums many times.And while we both adored what Eric did, and tried our best to emulate him (Gary perhaps a little better than me!), Peter’s rather more laconic playing on AHard Road had a certain something else. Was it more authentic? More heartfelt? More attainable? Neither Gary nor I could ever answer that question, but while Eric was our number one, in his own way Peter always held a special place for me, and I believe I can speak for Gary here, too.

Of course the late, great Mr Moore had a unique connection to Green. Peter all but gifted his original Bluesbreakers/Fleetwood Mac Les Paul to his‘protégé’, who used it throughout his career. I remember Gary telling me how a truck had gone into the back of his car with the Les Paul in the boot; it broke the headstock, so it was repaired by Chandler Guitars in Kew. Gary later bought another ’Burst in order to take‘Greeny’off the road, although he still used it on record when he needed that sound.

During one of my early interviews with Gary I did briefly play it. I recall it felt light in weight compared with my own Les Paul at the time.And the neck was huge – as Peter also confirmed in one of my interviews with him.

But on my first meeting with Gary, he was rather cool and aloof. It was to talk about his After The War album, in January 1989. On it I’d noticed a few licks played on the out-of-phase Greeny Les Paul, and mentioned it in one of my questions. He instantly changed. It was suddenly like we were talking on the same level, and he realised I wasn’t some spotty oik who knew nothing about him, his history, influences, guitars and music.We hit it off from then on.And all because of Peter Green.

But going back 20 years… In 1969 I worked as a kitchen porter in a hotel in Cornwall. I was headlong into blues guitar by then, and still trying to learn the licks of Clapton and Green on those two albums. I used to stand at my sink, washing these huge aluminium porridge saucepans and greasy egg, bacon and sausage trays after breakfast, all the while working out in my head where these licks were being played on the neck.

I’d go back to my staff accommodation hovel when the shift was over, and try what I’d worked out in my head. If I was right, brilliant; if not, it was back to the drawing board – or perhaps make a slight adjustment if I’d just gone a bit wobbly. I got pretty good at it, and actually learned more about intervals, fretboard positions, scale shapes and so on, away from the guitar than when playing it. It was the best ear training I could have asked for.

I hope you enjoy all the Greeny stuff in this issue and learn as much new info as I did. And I’ll see you next month.