For all the time this writing nonsense consumes, I probably spend just as much time doing music of sorts. So what’s my story with music?
Well, first of all if we’re ever in a pub that’s the worst question to ask me as I’ll be rambling on for hours. Me, me, me, me… and then I played Princes St Gardens and I broke my guitar on a roof bar and I remember this time when the amp went on fire and the other guitarist gave himself a hernia – and then my arse fell off and then I met Kylie and the Marshall stack scattered – blah blah blah etc. Seriously, just don’t go there unless you can’t afford to buy Nytol.
A short version of my musical history is this: I’ve been playing guitar since about age eleven – been playing in bands of sorts since I was fourteen (I think) and playing in bands actually decent enough to be paid since around sixteen. Had a real blast around the Edinburgh pub rock scene all the way through the 80s, started doing more sensible things (ahem) like club and student union residencies in the 90s and despite a bit of a break in the early 2000s there’s always been some music project on the go. I managed to get a ‘proper’ record deal for a solo indie rock CD in 2000 – though it was an internet sales based company and I made zero from it – and around 2008 I got into recording and production myself and ended up independently releasing a surf rock CD (seriously) along with an old bass playing pal. Then, a few years later I recorded and released an album of solo acoustic guitar instrumental music which I did umpteen gigs in support of.
Worth noting that none of the foregoing has ever resulted in me buying a country mansion, a roller, a swimming pool or even a large Latte in Costas. These days I play in a couple of covers bands with good mates and we still have a great time – its just that we have slightly less hair now and have to be careful to land sensibly when we do those mid air splits things on stage…
There are a load of stories from all this music nonsense over the years – some might even be amusing to folk other than just me, so if there’s a bit of a slow time with the writing or the music thing overtakes everything else (which it still does sometimes) I might get round to recounting them in this bloggy thing at some point.
Oh, and I really did meet Kylie once after one of our gigs by the way…
