A short history of me as a musician 60's - 2001

Way back in the mists of time, long before The Beatles,there was a kind of music they called skiffle, and yer man was Lonnie Donegan. The best thing about skiffle was that, a bit like punk,anyone could do it. Not only that, you didn't have to go to a music shop to buy an instrument,you could make your own.I made my first bass from an old tea chest, a broom handle and a length of thick string, A 'T' chest bass was a must for a skiffle group. along with a washboard.Back then in the late fifties these were easy to come by, although today you'ld be hard pressedto find either. I was never in a skiffle group but I used to have fun just thumping away on it in our dads garage pretending I was on that old rock island line. I remember being dead chuffed whenI learned how to play the opening bass part to Roy Orbisons' Sweet dream baby, not skiffle,but pop music of the time, and a number 1, so my appitite was wetted. 

By the age of 12 or 13 me and my friend Mala used to go to St Perrins, a church hall near us in Roose, where every Friday they would put on local groups. I used to stand at the front by the stage just aching to take part in this amazing music the groups made. As I recall it was all, or mostly Americanmusic that you never heard on the radio, what they used to call rhythm & blues, and of course Rock n roll. Chuck Berry was a staple of all the bands and itwas at St Perrins that for me it all began. The joint was a rockin, and being an old timber building it would shake tothe sound of the bass. Not that amps were that big back then, 30watts being the biggest you could buy.The top group, back then was The tornadoes, who changed their name to Johnny and the Trendsetters, and my hero was the guy called Johnny, who played a Jazz bass, although I didn't know what its name was, but I knew what it sounded like and it was what I now aspired to, the t chest was not going to get me into a group, what I needed was an electric

bass guitar, the problem was going to be persuading my parents to buy me one, or save up my meagre pocket money for years to get one.

Finally some time in about 1963 I bought a RED Hofner senetor from a lad down the road, I think it cost me 20 quid, but that sounds like a lot of money for back in 63, but I now owned an electric bass, all I had to do now was learn how to play it