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Local to someone, that's for sure. Deep in the Essex Delta actually!
Born in Ely, Cambs, grew up nearby, but have lived in Essex for 30+ years.
Red wine.
Woke up this morning...
Probably "Old, New, Borrowed and Blue" by Slade.
No - unless it's buried somewhere in a box in the loft with all the other albums that won't fit in my CD player!
Yes.
Oh, you want to know what? Walking, photography, reading... all disappointingly dull, really.
Embarassing... The Glitter Band and Geordie at Bournmouth Winter Gardens in about 1973. Seemed rather exciting at the time, though.
The one I'm doing now - the hours are unsocial, the work is dull and pointless, they treat us like crap and it seems to get worse each day!
You'd have to ask someone else that...
Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Kirsty McColl (it'd be the only chance to meet them) plus my dear old friends Lee Brilleaux and Ray Bartrip. God, it'd be good to see those guys again - and think of the jam we could have afterwards!
Since about 9 o'clock. Oh you're serious, right? First gig with a band was in 1978 - a punk band called The Rabid Corgis (somewhat anti-monarchist!) - but I was a boy soprano and chorister as a kid and my mum also used to drag me out to sing in talent contests and concert parties.
Yes, a few. The aforementioned Rabid Corgis, then a rock covers band called Vieux Chapeau (all the stuff we covered really was old hat!!!), then an original pop band called Emotion Pictures, then Automatic Slim (17 years on the road and 3,000+ gigs), then The Rockin' Armadillos (13 years and about 800 gigs), now WOLFPACK. Also any number of side projects like T-Bird Rhythm and the Tim Aves-Son Henry Band.
Dr Feelgood.
Good new country, classic rock, some folk-roots stuff.
...and on and on!
Joe Ely, Steve Earle, Kirsty McColl, Georgia Satellites, Black Crowes, Spinal Tap, Zappa.
Automatic Slim toured with Dr Feelgood in 1987 - Lee Brilleaux became a friend in the years before his sad death. Played a couple of gigs recently in a band with Gypie Mayo (the best guitarist Dr Feelgood ever had IMO). Once opened for the T-Birds (in Basildon !!!) Met and interviewed Sonny Landreth (what a nice guy!).
I also get to meet, work with and interview a lot of the current crop of great Brit blues guys through the Warner Blues weekends I work at and on my radio show: 8-10pm every Sunday night on SAINT FM 94.7 (if you're within gobbing distance of Burnham) and online at www.saintfm.org.uk.
It changes a lot...
At the moment. my sunburst 1983 Squier JV Strat - cost me about a third of what it's worth and although it doesn't have the F-word on the head it's the best Strat I've ever played. My USA surf green 62 reissue Strat, my 52 reissue Tele, my Squier 51 with the Hipshot bridge - shit-hot slide machine! - my Gibson Firebird....I have a few guitars!
Ampwise: My 83 Paul Rivera Fender Super Champ (converted into head). It's an 18w amp that kills most 50w combos dead. Matchless Chieftain 2x12 combo, Fender 75 1x15 combo. My new harp amp - a Sonny Junior Four Ten, which is basically a very high spec American handwired 59 Bassman clone.
My Mackie PA. Hard to get excited about a PA, but I really notice the difference when I'm not using it.
All-consuming (OK, that's two, but at least they're hyphenated!)
Quite happy with the guys I've got now, thanks.
Well, that would be telling, wouldn't it? Being forced by my mum to sing Neil Reed's “Mother of Mine” in front of an audience of pensioners, aged about 13? The numerous occasions I've bounded on stage and realised halfway through the first number my flies were undone? Or maybe the night I inadvertently ended up £40 worse off after a gig in Colchester... but then, you'd have to ask the guys from Automatic Slim about that one!
Seeing my boy Owen win Young Guitarist Of The Year, aged 15 - every single time I see the clever little bastard play, actually!
Reg, Terry and Stevie are great people to play with - good musicians and terrific "listeners".
Any time and any place I could see Howlin' Wolf performing in his prime. Sadly, he died long before I really discovered what he was all about.
No idea. Somebody thinner and better-looking, no doubt. They usually do that in movies! Failing that, how about John Goodman? He's brilliantly sweary in that marvellous HBO series about New Orleans, post-Katrina, "Treme".
Categorically YES!
A wind-up radio permanently tuned to Radio 4.
Have a good time - ALL the time.
Well I could... But then I'd have to kill you.