I was aware of music from an early age, as the radio was always on at home. At the age of 8 or 9, I heard rock 'n roll and was hooked.

We had a floor-standing gramophone in the linoleum-floored front room, and it made an impressive racket considering it was something that you had to wind up. I started collecting 78rpm. discs, and played them repeatedly, trying to grasp the essence of this intoxicating rumpus.

One memory still rankles. A grown-up cousin sat on my brand new copy of Elvis's "King Creole", smashing the brittle shellac to fragments. He promised to replace it, but palmed me off with one of his Frankie Vaughan records. Even at that age, I realised it was shabby compensation.

The Beatles exploded on the world by the time I was 13, closely followed by The Rolling Stones. This led me to discover Blues, Jazz and Folk music. I had a guru, a friend who was a couple of years older and known as "The Prof". He kindly lent me his records, and I discovered John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Art Blakey, Charlie Mingus, Darrol Adams, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Bob Dylan and, (most significantly), Bert Jansch. I also had started sneaking into the" Twisted Wheel" club in Manchester, where you'd hear a healthy mix of Soul, Blues and electric Dylan. I can remember seeing "The Spencer Davis Group" perform, with a very young Stevie Winwood, also Charlie and Inez Fox , and "The Kinks".

In 1966 I left school, started work, and bought a guitar - (a £30 Harmony Sovereign) - on HP payments. I started attending a couple of folk-clubs, and worked at unravelling the mysteries of finger-picked guitar. I also blew a little Blues Harp, taking Sonny Terry and Sonny Boy Williamson as my main source of inspiration.

Nearly 40 years down the line, I'm still unravelling !