This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
that I now bitterly regret), but most of the boys I knew played the guitar, so I used to learn from them. I moved to Leeds in 1982 to go to University here and much to my delight, discovered people sitting down and playing jigs and reels in pubs. There was a very vibrant Irish music culture in Leeds at the time, and a whole group of fantastic players, so I bought myself


a mandolin and started to join in. It’s great to see that a lot of the crowd from this time, who still remain my friends today, have gone on to do great things musically – Karen Twe ed, Tom Napper, Alistair Russell, Troy Donockley etc. I feel blessed to have been a part of it all.


I also ran the University Folk Club at this time, and used to write a new song


every week so that I could perform it on the Wednesday evening! Gradual ly, I started performing properly, and got invited to support some really great people around this time – John Martyn, Christy Moore (who changed the strings on my guitar for me!), Roy Harper, Dick Gaughan, Nico etc – so I just sort of went on from there. I won a songwriting competition at


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92