Born in Llanberis, North Wales at the foot of Snowdon were the railway starts, and attended Dolbadarn school in the village then, Brynrefail Grammar School in Llanrug before going into music exile in Corby Northants. A fluent Welsh Speaker now a Reading based exponent of Swing/Jazz guitar.
"My early influences"... were Bert Weedon, Les Bennetts, and Hank Marvin, ....Hank still has a wonderful touch and feel to his playing and has ventured into playing "gypsy jazz" style .I bought my first "sunburst" Fender Stratocaster from Jennings Musical Industries Charing Cross Road London in 1960....here is a picture of my son Nathan with a much later USA model which I use mostly for teaching.
During my "teens" I played in several rock and Shadows type bands in Corby where my family moved to in 1959.......and together with all of Corby's bands at that time, I am featured in two published books "It's Steel Rock'n'Roll to Me" and "Alive in the Dead of Night" by Clive Smith and David Black of "Chrome Molly" publications. Corby during this period had the largest number of bands per square mile than anywhere else in the country.
My transition towards jazz came when a friend gave me a tape of Django Reinhardt which had such a profound influence on me, I sold my 1960 Fender Stratocaster and after a lengthy search bought my first original 1934 Selmer Maccaferri "D" hole #281 from Selmer's in Charing Cross Rd. London on 7th August 1963.
"Samois" festival 1991. NYE 1971 Red Cow Hammersmith.
Having lived in North Wales, Corby, London, Cyprus and worked all over the UK, Europe and Middle East I am now based in Reading and work as a musician and guitar teacher.
This is a Selmer replica guitar which I built from scratch using the plans supplied by Francois Charle'
in Paris. I attach a Dearmond pickup to the sound hole for Hot Club gigs.
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