A lot of these links go to sites using the Real Audio format. If you are not familiar with this it is a streaming format that starts to play almost as soon as you click on the links. It's dead simple to use. All you have to do first is download the software. This can usually be found for free on the front of a magazine, but if you need to download it heres the link - click here to download Real Player. It's free and it's brill...! and it includes video !!

Music has always been very important to me. My earliest memory of recorded music is probably "Forces Family Favourites" on Sunday lunchtimes. That would be around 1959. I can also remember listening to Edmundo Ross and his Latin American something or other. I can also remember having a go on a "Cat's Whiskers" crystal radio set. I don't know what I listened to, but I can remember hearing the sound of voices coming through the earpiece. My first transistor radio (tranny) was a Pye Poppet. It was a remarkable bit of kit in those days seeing as it was small enough to fit in your shirt pocket. The earpiece that came with the tranny was like something you'd get from a Hearing Centre.

When I was in junior school I was already a Beatles fan. Their music was constantly in my head, and I was always humming, whistling or singing one of their songs. A great influence. I also liked The Dave Clark Five, The Troggs and The Kinks. We had an old wind-up gramophone in our house and I loved to get out the well worn 78's. My favourite 78 was "Reelin and a Rockin" by Chuck Berry. The other side was "Johnny B Goode" and was supposed to be the "A" side.

For the benefit of the ones that don't know what I'm talking about, 78's were double sided recorded discs made from a brittle plastic sort of material. (Sometimes they were recorded on one side only, leaving the other side blank). Drop one of these on the floor and your record was broken to pieces. If you were lucky, you may have just chipped the edge and it was still playable if you missed out the first bit ! Another novel use for the records you didn't like was warming them a little in the oven, and then bending the edges up to make a nice flower pot. You can't do that with your compact discs. (Can you ?)

In my late teens and early twenties I started to play guitar and sing around some of the local folk clubs. Sometimes "Traditional folk", (whatever that is) but often I would slip in a James Taylor, Don McClean or Donovan song. I liked Donovan a lot...(come to think of it I still do).

After the folk scene I went through a bit of a transitional period. Listening to a wide variety of styles. Albums played a lot included "Five Bridges by The Nice", "Space Odditty by David Bowie", "The Easy Rider sound track" and "Blues from Laurel Canyon" by John Mayall (an absolutely brilliant album which my son now refuses to give back ! ! !)

Sometimes I would tape record a borrowed album. That wasn't quite as easy as it is now. I had to put the record on the player and then rest a microphone close to the speaker. The results were never predictable, and these recording sessions could be frustrating if someone entered your makeshift recording studio just near the end of taping a track. The recorded sound of your mum yelling that your tea was ready did nothing for your esteem. Also, if I wanted to take my recording round to a friends house it meant trudgeing along with this Reel to Reel tape recorder the size of a small suitcase and twice as heavy.

My next musical interest was Country. This style really has suffered from some bad press in the UK. It is a music which is very diverse, with styles of Rock, Swing, Cajun, Folk and lots more. There are some great musicians in the Country music world. I would recomend any budding guitarist to give a listen to the likes of Albert Lee, Willie Nelson Guy Clark, or Rodney Crowell. They're great musicians and terrific song writers. I wrote a few songs but never played in a Country band...(There's loads of RA tracks on these links)

Somehow I started to get an interest in Be-Bop jazz. A friend of mine (John Sparry) plays Vibes, Drums and Piano (no, not at the same time) and we played one or two local gigs. These were usually with a few other friends and aquaintances. Performances consisted of impromptu eights here and there in the middle of a few of the Be-Bop standards. My role in this was one of very much a background rhythm guitar, but I enjoyed it at the time.

Right then, before any of you youngsters write me off as just another wrinkly, let me tell you who I listen to now. My current favourite bands are:

Radiohead
Massive Attack
Prodigy
Radiohead
Blur
Pavement
The Chemical Brothers
Radiohead
Fat Boy Slim

and most of the British Indie scene, plus Trip-Hop, and lots of other stuff. Gruvee eh ! I havn't been to Glastonbury for the last three years, but I'm hoping to go to the year 2000 event. For info about wheelchair access to Glastonbury, check out this link.

Here are some bostin' links to the music world...
Radiohead...( Top Band )
Lifestory of a Superstar...
Indie World...
The Orb...
Beatles...
The Kinks...
Donovan...
David Bowie...
Albert Lee...
Willie Nelson...
Guy Clark...