WHY THE LONGTIME WISHBONE ASH GUITARIST HAS BEEN BRUSHING UP ON HIS RAGTIME CHOPS
What was the first guitar you ever had?
It was a borrowed Höfner Colorama when I was about 12. There was a fad in the Sixties for guitars to be covered in a kind of vinyl material that we called Fablon, which this guitar had, in red. But the first guitar I bought with my own money was an acoustic for £3. I used to make my own guitars, too, as I couldn’t afford them. When I was 15, I made a sort of Strat, which was pretty good, and I used that in the bands I was playing in at the time.
What was your first gig?
I was around 12. We used to have something called Saturday-morning pictures in the U.K., at a cinema that was in the town I lived in at the time. Movies were big back then, so I was playing a matinee show between movies, like Bambi or some other Disney thing. I got on stage with my friends, and we stood on what was really a shelf because the screen was behind us. We had about six feet to stand on and to put our little amps on. We performed for kids, because it was in the summer holidays, and I was absolutely crapping myself, but it was my first taste of performing.
Ever had an embarrassing moment on stage?
We weren’t averse to being a bit high on stage sometimes. I remember this one time in Zurich where I walked out in front of the monitor speakers to take a solo. And as I stepped back and leaned back, the monitor wedge was right behind me and it got right behind my knees and I went flat on my back, but I continued playing, so I kind of made it part of the show.
A building is burning down; what one guitar from your collection do you save?
This happened to me. We were not in a building, though; we were in a van, and I was with my fiancée, who’s now my wife. It was before Wishbone, in a band called the Sugar Band, one of the soul bands I was in. We were coming back from a gig and the van caught fire, so I rescued the guita
