When I was a kid growing up in the early fifties, the radio in our house was on in the background all the time but nothing musical really grabbed me. Then suddenly, the universe changed. Along came rock 'n' roll and around the same time, skiffle. I bought a stack of records by Lonnie Donegan and his Skiffle Group, bought a guitar, learned my first three chords and away we go.
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| Brian at I.C. Folk Club |
Then, while bluffing my way through a degree course at Imperial College in London in the early sixties I got together with a few friends to start a folk club. At first our repertoire was all American but soon we began to hear English folk songs for the first time, thanks to our various guest artists such as Ian Campbell, Ewan McColl, Cyril Tawney and Louis Killen.
Of all the great singers I heard back in the sixties, Martin Carthy particularly impressed me and, like many others, I latched on to his idea of using open tunings to create a more English guitar sound. As time went by, I tried out various other instruments too (autoharp, banjo, melodeon and fiddle), eventually settling on the English concertina after being inspired by the wonderful music of Alistair Anderson. The other instruments fell by the wayside and I made a policy decision to stick to guitar and English concertina. In addition to Martin Carthy, others who influenced me greatly were Nic Jones and Tony Rose. Over the years I've tried to synthesize all that I admired in their music into a style of my own.
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| Brian at Rhyl Folk Club (September 2016) |
For many years, I did my day job, came home each day to my wife and two children and sang in my local folk club whenever I could. Now the day job is history and I can sing as much as I like, anytime, anywhere...Yippee!
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| Brian's favourite boots |
