It’s hard to know when you’re good or when you’re bad, but one thing is definite – I’m much happier doing it now, than when I was 20.
How did you become interested in music?
My father died when I started university, and I was left alone for much of my teenage years. My father had been a musician – he was from a small city in south-west England. The thing I always admired about him was that he always gave it his best try. I was always pretty scared about doing what he wanted me to do, but I’m glad I did.
What brought you to music?
I grew up in a fairly typical middle-class family in the south-west of England. The music of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and Neil Young, and a lot of other musicians – these types of musicians were the stuff I loved.
How did the Beatles influence your music at that initial stage?
I listened to a lot of music at the beginning. There was this group, The Beatles, based in the same area, and I knew these guys through the local paper, The Daily Post. They had a monthly newspaper, and they sold it at these big events in Newcastle, so they were very well-known in Newcastle area. I went to their gigs, and in addition to being a student and a bit of a loner, I was also kind of a loner.
So it had got to the stage of just going along and listening to them, and then going home on the radio afterwards and just listening to the songs?
When you’re a teenager, there’s a lot of social pressure to be doing different things. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have a real and strong interest. I used to sit at the radio and listen to these bands, and you’re kind of just absorbing everything that comes through the speakers, and the lyrics of the band. One thing always seemed to work with my friends, or with music in general, was that if they were doing something good, I think the same sort of thing always would work – if they were doing something good.
The Beatles were one of the ones that appealed to me, that I can remember.
Yes. And there would be lots of these big events – like this big gig at the Sportsground every Saturday. You might get all sorts of people coming to the gigs, or seeing one band and they would go home, and I’m sure
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