My Musical Journey - Part 1

I took accordion lessons as a young boy and was actually quite good at it, but I never really enjoyed that instrument. I still don't. No offence to all you accordion players out there; it just wasn't for me.

My folks told me later that they wanted me and my brother to learn piano, but that was never on the cards, so piano accordion seemed like the obvious choice. I knew I was musical, because I never really learned to read music; instead I would learn to play everything the teacher gave me by ear.

Awakenings

My cousins came up from Wales to visit in 1981, so I was 9 or 10. They came to the house one Sunday and, at 4 in the afternoon, they demanded the we put on the charts. This was the first time I'd listened to the top 40 on BBC Radio 1. Thus began my musical awakening, away from accordion music and BBC Radio Scotland, my parents' station of choice. I was mesmerised. I soon bought my first single, Ghost Town by the Specials and my first album, Adam and the Ants' Prince Charming. After that, Radio 1 was on in our house every Sunday from 4 till 7. I would sit there with a cassette tape on record, pausing to cut out Tommy Vance's chatter, and then listen to that tape all week long whilst out delivering papers in the mornings.

I started high school in 1983, whereupon my parents decided that I was old enough to quit accordion of I wanted to. I did, and I did. I never played another instrument until I was 20. More on that later.

All through high school I had personal stereo cassette players, beginning with el-cheapos that would last a month and later fancier ones with auto-reverse and FM tuners. I listened to music constantly. One of my favourite artists was Suzanne Vega, and still is. I listened to her folky guitar playing for years, but somehow the idea of actually learning guitar didn't come to me till later. I still wonder why that was -- probably my obsession with BMX freestyle.

I Got a Guitar!

I met Stuart in 1991 and he became a life-long friend. He played guitar and we used to sit in his flat playing video games on the Amiga 500+ and he would pick some tunes on his acoustic guitar. So I and another friend of mine decided that we'd learn together, and the three of us headed into Glasgow to pick out an acoustic guitar each.

Stuart showed us some basics, we got some instruction books and off we went. I took to it quite quickly and, in 1993, I discovered the music of Bert Jansch on a documentary celebrating his life. Produced by Jan Leman, Acoustic Routes looked at Bert's life through his contemporaries and followed his journey from a folk club in Edinburgh, through London and finally fulfilling a life-long dream of playing with Brownie McGhee. I was introduced to Jackson C. Frank, Martin Carthy, Wizz Jones, John Renbourn, Ralph McTell, Davey Graham and a bunch of other wonderful guitar players. So began my obsession with that so called British folk style.

The guitar travelled with me all through university, coming out to beach bonfires and parties. It was left behind when I went to Ukraine for a year, but I soon found a cheap one there and even did a bit of teaching. Again, that guitar came out to parties and jams and helped me through what was in many ways a difficult year.

My own guitar then went with me back to uni to do my post grad and I remember wooing a girl on the upper floor in my halls with it, singing Suzanne Vega's The Queen and the Soldier. That girl and I have now been together since 1998. I guess guitars really do get the chicks!

The guitar then came with me to Almaty in Kazakhstan, where I had my first job after graduation. It came out to parties and bonfires and gatherings once again.

With my wife-to-be and work colleagues in Almaty

And finally it followed me to my new home in Luxembourg in 2001 and stayed my main guitar until I upgraded to a nicer one in December 2002. I gave my first guitar away to my nephew then. I'm not sure whether he plays it or not. I should ask.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for part 2 of my musical journey.