I just HAD to have a go at trying to play the guitar.  So I saved up the grand total of 10 shillings (50p) and bought a second hand Spanish guitar.  I reversed the strings – as I play left handed – and I was away, learning to play “Apache”, accompanied by a friend who played rhythm.

It was not long before I was 15 and left school and moved away from my hometown of Bath, to Bristol, and started work.  

My next plan was to save up and buy an electric guitar that I had my eye on, at “Duck Son & Pinkers” in Bath.  It was a left-handed “Watkins Rapier” in fiesta red, and was £25.  After several weeks, I had the money and bought the guitar, which I still have to this day.

The next step was to have an amp - but that didn’t happen, as motorbikes were more appealing, and guitars “took a back seat” until many years later.

In about 1987, my wife bought me a “Fender Squire” for my birthday - the main guitar that I play in the band today.  I play it through an “Alesis Quadra Vend G T” with “Echoes of the past” programmed in to a “Vox AC 30 TB” (approx 1964).

After having been playing at home on my own for quite a while, I thought it would be great to find someone else with the same interest.  So, with a bit of searching, I found Dave Holbrook (our drummer), who ran the “Jet Harris Fan Club”, and lived “not a stones throw away” from us.

After meeting Dave, I met Glenn & James, through a round about way.  Glenn, James and myself used to get together regularly to play in my garage.  But we also needed a bass guitar and drums to make a more fuller sound.  So along comes Brian, our bass man, who was a neighbour of ours.  He still had his bass guitar and amp.  He liked what he heard, so came “on board”.

The next thing was to find a drummer.  Now our first drummer was Kevin Fitzsimons (who sadly passed away recently).  He was known to both Brian & myself, and “fitted the bill” perfectly.  He was with us for about 18 months, after which he decided to fulfil a lifelong ambition - and go diving out in the Kaman Islands.

So this is where Dave Holbrook fits in, who is now our man “on the pots and pans”.

www.midnightshadows.co.uk