Adventures of an amateur musician

[stevecookguitar]

Bar Musicians!

Saturday 15th March 2025

This is my first blog post, and I've pinned it, so it stays here, at the top. The rest of the posts are listed 'newest first'. This does create some issues: The 13 part 'Musical Journey Through Life' series is best read in chronological order, of course! To do that you'll have to scroll right to the end and work your way up, one post at a time. Other posts could be read in any order you like (or not at all) - that's up to you and my other reader!

I'm Steve Cook. I live in Suffolk, UK. I first picked up an acoustic guitar with serious intent aged 17. More than 50 years later I'm still at it. Over the years I have played in various local acoustic combos, sung first tenor in a good Male Voice Choir (30 years!) and still try to get out and strut my stuff in public on a fairly regular basis. Events this week have made me think about what I'm doing. When I first moved here in 1979, two of my work colleagues played in a local pub every Thursday evening. They were good, but not complicated. Two acoustic guitars, some harmony singing and the usual Americana/Folk 1970s repertoire. There was no internet, no social media as a tool for promoting the gigs, just a poster in the bar and word of mouth....... On Thursdays you could hardly move in there, it was packed!

Fast forward to 2025 and this week I stepped in to help some friends out. It was a gig in a local wine bar. Three different musicians played for 40 minutes each, providing 2 hours of entertainment, for which we charged nothing at all. We didn't even get free drinks! When I knew I'd be playing as a lateish replacement I plastered Facebook Live Music Pages with notices, didn't seem to make a lot of difference.

The three guitar playing singers attracted just 5 people who'd come specifically for the music. There were a couple of other tables with people who were there just to drink wine, chat, joke and laugh with each other....... I hope we didn't put them off their conversations. The three performances were all very decent. Such a shame that we find it so hard to find an audience. The world has changed a lot since 1979. I wonder what other bar players (in UK and beyond) are experiencing these days?

Here's something from a previous gig at the same venue. This time playing along with my good friend Anthony Sharpe as part of The Sharpe Cookies.

[stevecookguitar]

Laying a Fifty-Year-Old Musical Ghost

This post is directly related to the latter part of the post entitled 'A Musical Journey Through Life, Part 4'. In that one I am 18 years old and just learning to play guitar. As I explained there, once you'd got a few chords and a couple of songs under your belt then would come the wondering about what to do with it all. The obvious thing would be to play for people, but frankly, that was very scary! I can't imagine ever trying to play solo at that time, and so it was a case of safety in numbers. Three of us sixth formers thought we'd have a go in the local Folk Club. This weekend (26th September 2025) was the fiftieth anniversary of my last performance at Bingham Folk Club, a night when it all went wrong for me and almost ended my association with guitar playing for good. I'll let the 68-year-old Steve Cook tell you the story!

So, what about the song itself? It was one I'd grown up with. A simple song from Donovan's 'Gift from a Flower to a Garden' album. Back then I'd had to learn it by listening to the record. It's a skill I hadn't mastered then and still haven't! These days, courtesy of the internet I know the chord progression, and found a video of someone playing the instrumental interlude (albeit in a different key) so I was able to work out a far more complete, and complex version of the song. I worked on it quite a bit before I travelled down to Bingham and even had a bit of a dry run by telling the story then playing the song at a local acoustic session last month. When I did this in the Six Bells, Horringer last month, the story affected me to a point where I was extremely nervous about playing the song and fluffed the opening. I had hoped that having had the dry run, I'd be in a better state of mind to carry it off in Bingham in front of a room of total strangers.

It didn't go quite to plan. I told the story, felt reasonably relaxed when I started, but still fluffed the opening very badly...... Here's the song itself without the fluffed intro!

Oh well, the interlude in the middle gives you the idea of how the song should have started. My dog knows I can play it perfectly!

Many thanks to the organisers and members of Bingham Folk Club for the very warm welcome received, and to my oldest schoolmates David and Tim who came along to provide moral support!

A couple of days after I returned to Suffolk, the Folk Club put a montage of photos from the night onto Facebook, with a backing track that those who know me might find rather familiar!

Facebook

[stevecookguitar]

When Busking is problematic

A couple of posts ago I wrote about my busking experience with a group of friends, collecting money for charity. I said at the time that I wouldn't do a post for every busk, only when there was something noteworthy.

There was.

On Tuesday 20th May, a rather depleted bunch of buskers (just three of us this time) set of for M&S in Bury St. Edmunds. We'd already checked with Nigel Ashcroft, who is a regular at that spot, to make sure we wouldn't clash. We thought we'd get there early for a leisurely set up and to have a better chance of securing the spot. That was the first mistake! In the past we'd made use of some free parking on offer near the town centre and trolleyed the gear in. This was not an option this time. We parked up outside M&S to unload and would park the car later. We had unloaded when we were approached by a man. He wanted to know if we were playing in this spot and when. It turned out he was a busker and he, too, had plans to play in this spot.

What followed was unpleasant!

I explained that we wouldn't be playing for at least an hour as we were waiting for others and had gear to set up. I told him we did this once a month to raise money for charity and from that point on the conversation became rather tricky. He had many objections to us as buskers, and whilst at least some of the points he made were perfectly valid, I didn't much like the way he was making them. He definitely felt he held the moral high ground and in the three conversations (which felt a bit more like lectures) I had with him during the morning he 'put me straight' on everything I was doing wrong in terms of busking etiquette. He knew all this because he'd been busking for 40 years, apparently. He'd first visited Bury 38 years ago as a busker he said, although in my 45 years of living here I don't think I'd ever seen or heard him before. He was a bagpiping busker.... I'd have remembered that. He was wrong on a couple of points, though. The local council have a leaflet of do's and don'ts for buskers which contradicts things he was saying about the length of a busk. It must be said that we did eventually part on friendlier terms than we started, but it really took the edge off my day! I guess it did the same for his.

His objections to us were manyfold. We got there early, thus preventing others from using that spot. Once he knew were doing this for charity, he was annoyed. He said busking was dying. He was a professional, doing this to earn a living. The unstated implication was that people doing a charity busk were somehow taking money from his pocket. Even worse we had a sign saying it was a charity busk. This was unfair competition! We were encouraging a disproportionate amount of donations by doing that. There's only a limited amount of money and there'd be less for the proper buskers. Worse still, we had a sign giving the running total that we'd raised so far. I'm guessing some might perceive that as boastful? Mainly a device to make us buskers feel good? (In my mind it was there as a means of being transparent.... 'This is what you've given us, and we've done exactly what we said we would with it.') He suggested that we should play without the sign and give the money to charity anyway. This does raise a moral issue, of course. Our intrepid band of do-gooders is giving up some spare time each month with the thought of making a few quid to make some people's lives a bit better. If, by doing that, we're making some other people's lives worse, where's the advantage? He didn't like that we were using amplification, the bane of the high street, he said.

The long and the short of it was that he decided he'd play in this spot now, anyway! He did so. No doubting his skill on his instrument. Not a sound I especially enjoy, but he certainly picked up a decent share of tips. We waited patiently until he'd done his 90 minutes or so. He packed up, went to get some food and planned to set up elsewhere in town later on.

Before describing our busk, I would like to say something about the decisions we made as a busking troupe. We always do Tuesday. The end of the week is tricky for me, and Tuesday seems to be a day when there are fewer street performers. I am aware that too many doing this at the same time can be counterproductive. We do use amplification and have song sheets in front of us. We're not loud, we're not professional. We're competent players and singers who are just trying to do some good in a very small way.

The weather was very kind to us. While waiting to start several people stopped and chatted with us. Some remembered seeing us before. We even picked up donations before we'd started.....'Oh I'll be home before you start, put this in your box.'

Despite only having three of us this time, we managed to put on a decent show of varied music. We played some solo, some duo and received some very pleasant feedback. Towards the end of our set the bagpiper had started up again somewhere else in the town. We couldn't see him, but despite the fact that we were amplified and he was not, the people outside M&S could probably hear both sets of buskers equally well.

We'd noted from last time that donations were rather harder to come by this year. Both of the 2024 busks brought in well over £150 each time for our charities. So far in 2025 we're getting less than £90 per busk. Still, we've clocked up £486 now for local and national charities.

I do feel rather deflated by the experience this time. It's supposed to be a 'feel good' experience. Will have to give future busks further thought.....

[stevecookguitar]

An outdoor performance for Pakenham Water Mill

This was the second time I'd been asked to provide some musical entertainment for the Water Mill's annual Wildlife Day in May. Last year, playing alongside Anthony as 'The Sharpe Cookies' we did our very best in truly terrible weather. It was bitterly cold, with driving rain and wind. Good job we were housed under canvas! The event, understandably, flopped. We did what we'd been engaged to do, but apart from the stallholders and a couple of friends who braved the weather, virtually no one came. Our last 40 minute set was performed to the stallholders and three blades of grass. To their credit, the organisers, despite losing a lot of money on this 'fundraiser', paid the agreed fee. No, we weren't tempted to forgo the payment. We'd practised, turned up, our gear and instruments were at risk all afternoon in the bad weather..... we'd earned the fee!

Hopefully, this year would be different.

It wouldn't be a repeat performance, as Anthony wasn't available. Rather than turn it down, I decided I'd fly solo for part of the afternoon, which is something I don't do often. I knew my voice wouldn't last two hours of singing, so I invited Emma Goodman along. We'd each do 20 minutes in the three sets played during the afternoon. It would provide some variety!

The setting at the Mill is delightful. There's a lawn at the back which they use for events. The first time I ever played here, along with John Amos as part of 'All Fingers and Thumbs' was around twelve years ago, when we were surprised to find rock superstar Rick Wakeman in our audience, sitting directly in front of us! Scroll down to part 9 of the 'Musical Journey Through Life' posts below to read a full account of that! So, this would be the third time in total that I've sung on this lawn, but my first as a solo performer. Luckily, although the weather wasn't great (we'd had a really warm April) it was infinitely better than last year. There were visitors throughout the day. Too chilly perhaps for people to want to sit and listen for any length of time, but there were ripples of applause from people for most of the songs.

As far as I'm aware it was the first time that Emma had ever received any sort of payment for performance. She claimed she was rather nervous, though you'd hardly have noticed. Her performances were assured and well polished. I'm sure the organisers would be delighted to see her again. She'd brought along supporters (as had I) so between us we had swelled the crowd a bit - good news for the organisers! It was also nice to see a number of the local guitar fraternity who'd come along to support the event (and listen to us!)

Well done, Emma.... well, that's your next couple of sets of strings paid for!

Outdoors is always a bit tricky in terms of getting the sound right. The wind (and there was a fair bit) tends to carry the sound away. I was told to turn it up several times, but frankly, we were only there to provide background atmosphere, not to give a concert. Hopefully we got the sound right most of the time. On the recordings I made, the sound level is rather low, largely due to the tiny microphones on my blogger's camera. The clip below will give something of the flavour of the event.

It seems that the event was a success this year! At the end the organisers gave us a little more money that had been agreed upon. Thanks to Pakenham Water Mill for the opportunity to play at the event. Hopefully we'll be back next year.

[stevecookguitar]

A tale of two (music) venues....

So, a couple of posts back I was bemoaning the fate of the five perfectly competent musicians who gave up an entire evening (following rehearsals over several days, of course) to set up in a town centre bar and play for two hours, completely unpaid, not even a free drink. It would have been fine, I suppose, if the musicians hadn't outnumbered the audience. That's right, at no point during the evening were there more than four people watching the performance.

Fast forward to now.

The exact same five perfectly competent musicians had been engaged to give a performance in aid of a village library. The differences were stark.

On arrival, our seating had been put out already, a complimentary bottle of water by each chair. The room was full; each person having paid £10 to attend. The audience was most appreciative, and warmed to the task of joining in with the music.

There was plenty of good-natured banter between the acts and the audience and the atmosphere in the room was warm and welcoming.

At the interval I wandered into the bar to get a drink. No charge for the performers! Wow! The evening progressed and the tempo of songs generally increased a little. Absolutely everything about the evening seemed to fit perfectly. The five players were all on form and our audience, even if I say so myself, were getting good value for their tenners!

At the end we were even offered expenses!

It's hard to imagine how different the two experiences were. The same musicians, (playing in a slightly different format, true) playing very much the same repertoire (a couple of changes - not many). One performance to a virtually empty room, where absolutely anyone could have attended just for the price of a drink, and the other to a room full of appreciative people who had all paid to be there! I guess that with bar receipts the Library Friends' Association would have netted between £300 and £400 pounds for the evening and we all had a really good, positive experience.

So, why the differences? Maybe you and my other reader will have an opinion. Is it simply to do with the 'village mentality'? ('There's something on at the library, let's go and support it.') Villages do seem to engender more of a community spirit. Is it perhaps that if something is 'free' it isn't seen as worthwhile? 'I won't bother this time'; 'it won't be up to much if it's free'/'there'll be another opportunity next month'.... Maybe, 'I haven't had to pay for it, and I'm feeling a bit lazy this evening, I won't bother; I haven't lost anything'. Whereas, if you've bought a ticket, you're more likely to make the effort rather than waste your money. Is it simply down to how important the venue sees the event? How much effort they put into promoting it? Who knows? I wish I did!

[stevecookguitar]

The Busking Experience

I've always admired buskers. Watching skilled buskers, as I have done over the years, playing and singing really well and often being largely ignored, I've come to the conclusion that it takes a special sort of mindset to take it on. Yes, I fancied having a go, but somehow the thought of setting up in a very public place seemed quite nerve wracking. Playing indoors seems easier, and I've no idea why. In a pub, or charity concert setting, I'll play and sing to a room full of people and scarcely feel a twinge of nerves but outside seems somehow rather more exposed; a bit like baring your soul to one and all.

Up to last year it was on the bucket list - do some busking - but I'd never got around to it. I honestly think that if I hadn't found Ben on Youtube and his channel 'The August Radio Project', I'd probably never have done it. Ben is a busker, and he uses his channel to document his experiences visiting different towns and cities, playing for tips. I came across the video he made of visiting Bury St. Edmunds, where I live. I watched it all with great interest. Ben very helpfully does the homework for you... I learned from his video that busking isn't licensed in Bury, which means anyone can do it without permission - no 'permit' required. The local council offer a few guidelines which Ben explained and having watched the video several times I was of the opinion that it was something I could actually do. Here's Ben's Bury St. Edmunds busk.

There was still something holding me back. It was the thought of flying solo. Perhaps if I could persuade some mates to share the experience it might be less scary. I produce a local email newsletter once a month listing all the playing opportunities in the area for the following month. I put a note in there asking if anyone wanted to have a go. After a few conversations, a small band of intrepid potential buskers decided we'd raise money for charity. Towards the end of last year, we did two busks, a month apart, and we were amazed at the results. We averaged £156 per 90 minute busk, and four charities received healthy donations from us.

On to this year. Busking isn't really a cold weather pursuit, well not when all the buskers are pensioners! So, we waited until April to start the season. We opted for our usual format: take it in turns, a couple of songs at a time. Mainly solo stuff, but occasionally someone asks for a bit of help with a tune. Here, Martin Read sings 'Killing the Blues' and I helped him out with a bit of harmony.

The day, which was bright and warm, almost got off to a dodgy start. Despite arriving quite early, someone had already taken the pitch. Luckily, we knew him, and as we were expecting half a dozen people, he kindly offered to move elsewhere, so any latecomers weren't having to search the town looking for us. Many thanks to Nigel Ashcroft! A true gentleman.

Phil entertains the street!

There were plenty of people about, but not so many reaching for the small change as we often see. Perhaps people are really starting to feel the pinch a bit, or maybe it's that Bury seems to be attracting very large numbers of buskers these days. Over the last couple of months there seems to have been more than I've ever noticed before.... the available cash for buskers is therefore spread a little thinner!

And no, it isn't just guitars. Giles attends almost every players' session in the Bury area and is a regular at the busks with the banjo!

By the end of the session, around 12.30 we'd taken £88 in donations, down on our average, but a very worthwhile effort with the money being split equally between the East Anglian Children's Hospice and the East Anglian Air Ambulance. Of the six of us, I went last. So my second set came right at the end. Here's the very last song of the busk!

I probably won't post every busk we do on here, but the odd 'noteworthy' event might make the list. Now, to echo a point I made in a very early post in this blog. Wherever you've got to on this journey, it's never quite enough, is it? 'Busk' may be off the bucket list, but now I have a hankering to do a busk for myself. Perhaps share the scariness with a mate first, but then, hopefully this year, I'll get out there and try flying solo. I imagine that tips will be much smaller without the 'charity' tag. Watch this space.

[stevecookguitar]

Another night, another bar.....

Well, that's not strictly true. I was after a sort of moody, 'film noir' style of title. It was, in fact, the same bar that was mentioned in the very first post of this blog. There were differences.... this time I wasn't a last minute standby replacement doing a solo set when someone else couldn't make it. This was a proper booking for Elena and I to play a mainly instrumental set to start the evening off.

The bar itself is in a central location in Bury St. Edmunds with free evening on street parking all around the central market area. In days/years gone by, a spring mid-week evening would have had plenty of people passing by, some of whom would likely have drifted in when hearing live music. These days, the cost of a night out makes people think twice about venturing out for a drink too often. The weather was reasonable, but the streets weren't exactly heaving!

We arrived in plenty of time for the sound check. When we do that there's often a few early evening drinkers in there. This time, maybe we were extremely early, because apart from the other musicians there were just two people sitting in the window area. Maybe it would fill up later. Our sound check was a bit more complex than the usual balancing of two guitars and microphones. Elena plays violin and she isn't often amplified. Balancing her extremely sensitive condenser mic with my guitar and mic took longer than the set up for the other two acts, but all was complete by the time we were due to start.

The original couple had gone, replaced by two of our regular supporters. Shortly before we started another couple opened the door 'Are you open?' I think we've just identified part of the problem. From outside, looking in, the bar is so dimly lit that you could walk past and not know that it was open (or even there at all). Several times during the performances, video recording picks up people pausing outside on hearing the music, peering in but seeming unsure if the place is 'open' or it's some sort of private function. Perhaps there should be a board outside. 'Live Music Tonite!' Very few ever risk opening the door.

It was clear when we started that the five musicians performing this evening had attracted and audience of just four people (and two of those we'd brought with us!) At least tonight we wouldn't be plagued by constant chatter and laughter from tables full of wine drinkers who hadn't come for the music.

Our set progressed very well, starting with some gentler items and picking up in tempo towards the end. Here's a lovely Scottish waltz tune from early on.

We had taken the booking seriously and had practised quite a lot, learning three entirely new pieces to perform on the night. We'd decided that an entirely instrumental set might be a bit much, so we threw in a couple of songs as well for the sake of variety. Here's one that was new to us; its first outing. A traditional Irish song which had been given something of a makeover in the 1970s by Thin Lizzy. So, with a slight nod to those great Irish rockers here's our version of 'Whiskey in the Jar.'

Our set concluded with two very up-tempo numbers 'Daughters of Erin' and 'The Irish Washerwoman' accompanied by assorted percussion from the audience. When we'd finished, two members of the audience left. So, five musicians were there for two people, both of whom were personal friends. Steve Winning followed us and luckily another couple arrived. Steve's set was interesting and varied and I particularly liked his performance of Tracy Chapman's 'Fast Car'.

The evening concluded with Ed & Jane performing their set, mainly Americana, but ending with a delightful version of 'Pilot of the Airwaves'. The four guitarists together finished the evening with a few singalong items (not that there was anyone to sing with us!)

When genuinely competent musicians give up their time to offer a performance, completely unpaid - not even a free drink and the audience is smaller than the size of the 'band', something ain't quite right!

[stevecookguitar]

A musical journey through life, part 13

THIS IS PART 13 OF 13... TO READ IN ORDER SCROLL DOWN AND START WITH PART 1.

These days, as well as playing alongside the very talented Anthony Sharpe as part of 'The Sharpe Cookies', I also take a few opportunities to play solo. To be fair, solo performance lost its shine as far as I was concerned aged 18, with the disastrous night at The Bingham Folk Club (see part 4). Probably, up to the last couple of years, ignoring the informal pub singarounds, I'd performed solo on no more than a handful of occasions in my entire adult life. The Folk Club debacle scarred me that badly! Performing as a duo, no matter who with, always seemed a much safer and more relaxing option, so that's what I'd done. Having instigated the idea of regular mini gigs in Bury for those people who wanted something a little more polished and formal than the regular pub singaround, I was a little surprised to find that there weren't too many volunteers from our circle who fancied trying a full set, rather than an odd song with mates at the pub. After the first few of these mini gigs, it proved harder than expected to fill the slots. One way around this was for me to be part of 'The Sharpe Cookies' as often as Anthony could fit us in, but on other occasions to fill a spot myself, singing and playing solo. Surely, I had enough experience and belief in my own voice and playing to carry it off? I have now played several solo gigs in various venues.

Life is a great healer, and despite the previous problems I'd faced playing solo, I felt relaxed and confident doing my performances. I am quite skilled in audience banter and can generally make an interesting introduction for a piece. The difficulty comes once the song has started. A single male voice and just the one guitar really have to be very good indeed to demand the attention of an audience that probably hasn't come along for the music. There's often a lot of chatter and it can be frustrating. Or there's hardly anyone to listen. I'm not sure which is worse!

From a solo set at The Boosh, Bury St. Edmunds.

Repertoire is also a tricky thing to get right. Having a wide variety of styles to suit the atmosphere of a particular event is a good idea, but keeping all those songs up to performance level is harder the older you get! I'm often caught between feeling like musical wallpaper (I'm just there, part of the furnishings) and a desire to get the crowd involved. It's a difficult thing to judge and I don't always get it right. At a recent Open Mic event in a very busy village pub, once I got to the mic I realised that the melodic, fingerpicked set I'd planned would be heard by no one! I scrapped my entire set list and just played loud, strummed basic stuff instead. It wasn't very fulfilling!

A recent solo set at a mini gig in Bury.

And one of the songs from a different solo set! (Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?)

I still prefer to play alongside someone, and luckily, there is someone very close to home to help. My wife, Elena, is a very talented violinist with a classically trained background and years of performance experience. Over the last dozen years or so we have performed as a duo on various occasions, often raising money for charity. Our repertoire is, of course, very different from everything I usually tend to do. Having had a bit of break from these duo performances (largely Covid related) we are now building up some new repertoire, both instrumental and with Elena supporting my singing on violin. Together we make a very decent sound and when we appear alongside other performers for an evening of music, people take notice of our performances! Elena certainly provides an energy that's hard to ignore and her years of experience shine through. Here's something from a recent (informal) outing in a village pub.

At the moment we're in rehearsal for the next Wine Cellar gig, coming up very shortly. Perhaps we'll be able to keep the attention of the punters! That violin is hard to ignore....

[stevecookguitar]

A musical journey through life, part 12

THIS IS PART 12, SCROLL DOWN TO START THIS EPIC FROM PART 1.

And so, we get to the more recent developments in my musical journey, which will detail the three different performance vehicles that I use these days. ReMaStereD had not been a success and although I wasn't entirely put off the thought of public performance, it was a while before I decided to get back in the saddle. I took a different approach this time. I knew the local players, had dabbled with several of them, but I felt I needed some fresh blood. I advertised! The result of the advert was an embryonic trio lineup that failed to gel at all. I went back to the drawing board and another guitarist was recruited. Anthony Sharpe. Like me, a retired teacher. Unlike me, a highly skilled player with a good knowledge of music theory and the ability to play pretty much anything at the drop of a hat. With Anthony on board there was a real chance that we could do something worthy of people's attention. Initially, we went under the name of 'Loose Change' and had our first outing with some lunchtime sessions at the now defunct Market Cross Arts Centre in Bury St. Edmunds.

We were a bit rough around the edges and a tad under rehearsed, but Anthony provided a spark of quality that shone through.

Anthony, Brian and myself at that opening gig.

Before too long, we noticed that another band in East Anglia (with a similar repertoire to our own) was also going under the name 'Loose Change'. Rather than cause a diplomatic incident we rebranded under the name 'A.B.S. Acoustic'. We played some very low key gigs in local pubs and so on, but despite the support of our peers, Joe Public didn't seem to display a great deal of interest. In time, due to changes in work patterns, this iteration of the band ceased to be. Several months later, a slimmed down version reappeared. This time just the guitars and voices of Anthony and Steve, going under the name of 'The Sharpe Cookies'. Somehow it seemed very much tighter, and the repertoire was very varied.

'The Sharpe Cookies' at one of a series of gigs that took place at The Boosh Bar, Bury St. Edmunds.

We always put on a decent show, and play whenever we can locally, but Anthony has many other musical demands on his time, so we don't get to play as often as I would have liked. Luckily, there are other strings to my bow! More later for you and my other reader!

[stevecookguitar]

A musical journey through life, part 11 - Me & Tommy Emmanuel

Wednesday 26th March 2025

THIS IS PART 11. YOU MIGHT LIKE TO START WITH PART 1. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN.

Around 2015, some time after the demise of ‘All Fingers and Thumbs’, a chance meeting with a highly skilled local player, Robert Castellani, prompted me to find some of his performances on Youtube. Whilst searching I noticed something else. On the right of the screen at the top of the list of ‘other things you might like’ I saw an image of a grey-haired man about my age, with a very well-worn guitar, playing a version of ‘Classical Gas’. This is one of my all time favourite guitar pieces. I couldn’t resist having a look.

That was the moment. A complete revelation. How could a guitar sound like THAT? Who IS this guy?

That was my introduction to Tommy Emmanuel. This is what I watched.

I’d never heard of him but it took less than an afternoon’s surfing through YouTube to realise that this man I’d never heard of was, in fact, incredibly well known and quite likely one of the very, very best players in the world. Some went further…… undoubtedly THE BEST! In the following weeks I overdosed on Tommy Emmanuel. In virtually every performance I watched (and there are hundreds on there!) there was something that made my jaw drop. I felt inspired to try to do something about my own guitar playing, and made a start on trying to learn some simple fingerstyle instrumentals.

In 2017 I was lucky enough to see him live in concert twice and to meet him both times. Not only a great player and true ambassador for guitar, but a really nice guy, too. He told me at the time that plans were in place to hold one of his Guitar Camps somewhere in Britain in 2018. Now that would be something! I kept my eyes open for news and when details were published towards the end of the year for the camp in Scotland, I was probably one of the first to sign up.

The 'campers'. Tommy with Richard Smith, Dr John Knowles CGP, Frank Vignola, Vinny Raniolo pictured front centre. I am extreme right towards the back in a light-coloured shirt. Photo by Dreamcatcher Events.

The camp took place in Pitlochry, Scotland from May 11th to May 15th, 2018. Tommy Emmanuel and four other world class acoustic guitarists treated us to four days of lessons, workshops, concerts and the almost obligatory student Open Mic sessions!

This video is from one of the workshop/lecture sessions. Here, Tommy and Frank Vignola (a former sideman for the great Les Paul) discuss how different frequencies can be used to great effect in a duo arrangement of 'Here, There and Everywhere.'

Before going, I had entertained the notion that if I got a chance to play onstage with Tommy (it was a perk that some managed at every camp) I’d grab the opportunity, though I felt rather unworthy! The opportunity would come along if you were successful in the camp raffle. As it happens my name was drawn well down the list, but by the time I got to the front of the queue to see what treats were still on offer (one to one lessons with one of the celebrity guitar teachers, mentoring sessions or a chance to play a duet in the concert) there were still places on offer in the concert. I booked a spot. ‘What would you like to play?’ I only had a few basic fingerstyle tunes in my repertoire. ‘Danny Boy, please.’ ‘Fine that’s booked’. I was elated – I was going to play a duet with the greatest guitarist on the planet! Then I was terrified! I’M GOING TO PLAY A DUET WITH THE GREATEST GUITARIST ON THE PLANET.

Tommy Emmanuel. Photo by Steve Cook. Copyright, not for use elsewhere.

Every spare moment I had during the camp, I’d find a corner and play ‘Danny Boy’. It had to be as good as I could possibly make it. On the last day, just a couple of hours before the final concert, I thought I’d pop down to the hall. It was bound to be empty, and I could try my piece out on the stage to get a feel for it. Clearly lots of other people had had the same idea! The room was packed, and Tommy was there, too! ‘Anyone want a run through?’ He asked. I was quick. ‘Yes please.’ He came over. ‘What are we playing?’ ‘Danny Boy.’ ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘What key?’ I had no idea. I told him ‘Here’s my opening note.’ ‘Look,’ he said, ‘show me what you’ve got, and I’ll join in.’ The greatest player on the planet had just asked me to show him what I’d got! My fingers turned to jelly. I couldn’t get past the opening three notes. Tommy politely pointed out that my guitar wasn’t actually in tune! ‘Don’t tell me, they said it was in tune when you bought it.’ How embarrassing! We did eventually manage to get through the piece and Tommy promised to keep his accompaniment simple as it seemed to put me off when his harmony lines were more complex.

Tommy and Steve. Photo is intellectual property of Steve Cook. Not for use elsewhere.

Luckily, I’d drawn an early spot in the actual concert, so didn’t really have time to become especially nervous. I made the best job of it that I could, and Tommy was the model professional, nursing me through a few tricky moments. It was, no doubt, one of the weakest performances of the night, but I received decent applause, and a hearty handshake and ‘well done, you made it!’ from the maestro. I do have the video of that actual performance. Only my closest friends and family have ever witnessed it. And that, dear reader, will always be the case. The photos, though, testify that it really did happen.

Tommy and Steve. Photo is intellectual property of Steve Cook. Not for use elsewhere.

[stevecookguitar]

A musical journey through life, part 10

Tuesday 25th March 2025

THIS IS PART 10. YOU MIGHT WANT TO SCROLL DOWN TO PART 1 AND START THERE!

After the demise of 'All Fingers & Thumbs' I became more deeply involved in choir affairs and rose to the giddy heights of Vice Chairman. If I lack a degree of musical talent, then I probably make up for it in terms of organisational skills. A project that I instigated at the time was to make a sort of promotional DVD for the choir. It would contain some history, some interviews with choristers, rehearsal footage and some performance quality recordings. Looking back on the project, it fell between various stools! I think, doing it again, I'd have focussed more on the performance side of things. We 'employed' Music Technology students from the local college to make the DVD. There are issues with the end product. It never sold particularly well, but sections were extracted for use on Youtube to very great effect. Here is the choir performing Rolf Lovland's masterpiece 'You Raise Me Up'. The fact that this video chalked up more than 35k views in a year for a provincial Male Voice Choir is extraordinary.

The actual DVD may have crashed and burned, but I am very proud to have been the instigator of this performance. (that's part of me on the thumbnail in the bottom left-hand corner!)

Anyone who has ever sung in a choir will testify that the sum of the end product is far greater than the component parts. Skilfully led, as we were, some very ordinary singers combined to produce something which at times was quite extraordinary. The choir had formed links with other choirs, far and wide. Amongst these were a number of choirs from the Baltic countries, following a very successful tour over there. In return we hosted choirs from some of these places and in 2011 one of these extraordinary events took place. A ladies' choir from Estonia came to visit. Without telling them, we had learned a very well known and highly patriotic Estonian song, one which had played a major role in the resistance against Russian occupation decades earlier. We knew they would be singing it (in Estonian) and planned to surprise them with an English rendition. In the concert itself it was done as a joint item for the finale. Watch carefully for the emotion on Ladies' faces as we sang our verse. Meanwhile, in the audience something magical happened. When this song is sung, Estonians will stand. Dotted around the church, pockets of Estonians in the audience stood. Seeing this, a few a time, the rest of the audience stood with them. Note at the end, as the camera pans to the audience that we were singing to a standing ovation. On the front row of the audience the Mayor of St. Edmundsbury was in tears. It was one of the most emotional moments in my entire choir career! Dear reader, if you watch no other videos in this blog, watch THIS one, right to the end. For best results use headphones!

After 'AF&T' it was a while before I had a yearning to do something in terms of guitar related performance, but I guess that spark is always there, and it did return. This time it was to be a trio. Derek, Martin and I formed ReMaStereD. The band name was Derek's idea, and a very clever one, too! It has the musical recording reference and those apparently randomly placed capital letters are anything but! Closer analysis will show Ma (Martin) Ste (Steve) and reD (a reversed letter sequence for Derek). On paper this should have been a very successful venture. Between us we brought 5 different instruments and 3 voices to the stage. Martin's was the nicer voice and his 12 string guitar brought a mellow tone to proceedings. Derek sang well and had a really good selection of songs for the repertoire. My voice was strong, and I brought fingerpicking skills and other instruments to the mix. Somehow it never really worked. Getting 3 of us together to practise was a major feat and only rarely did we seem to be a tight, well-rehearsed unit. We often had issues with sound. We tended to each bring our own gear and synching it all up was a nightmare. We found it much harder to get playing opportunities. At one point we did secure the promise of a few consecutive Monday nights at a local pub. When I arrived for the second one of these, bringing my gear in, I distinctly heard one of the regulars say, 'Not this f******g shower again!' He drained his glass and left. No, we weren't that bad! After the run was over, I approached the pub with a view to playing more. They refused! Apparently, their bar takings hadn't been any better when we played, and we hadn't attracted an audience. Hmmmm... Well, if they'd promoted the event, by say, putting up the posters we'd provided, we might have seen more people. As for the bar takings, we brought half a dozen people with us each time. Did they really sit there ALL night without buying a drink? Of course not. Our faces didn't fit, and we never played there again.

ReMaStereD pictured in Nowton Park. Derek on six string Ovation, Martin on twelve string and me in the middle on three string cigar box guitar!

The final straw came with a street party engagement which didn't work out well. We played under a gazebo in hot weather. Our performance was fine, not spectacular. Towards the end a freak gust of wind caught the gazebo and lifted it into the air. On the way up it caught hold of my Crafter guitar and knocked it over, chipping the neck as it went. There was an unfortunate incident towards the end where Derek was 'attacked' by a kid with a Super Soaker. He was not pleased. For the most part of that afternoon we were ignored completely. The following day I contacted the other guys to say I'd had enough and wasn't prepared to carry on. There were no objections!

A rare pic of me with ukulele from the ReMaStereD period. At the time of writing this, I've owned that uke for 17 years... I've never changed the strings and they still sound great!

Before concluding this musical journey, the next post will take a bit of a tangent and deal with the most exciting and influential moment of my playing career. The time I met and duetted with the great Tommy Emmanuel. For the uninitiated, he is arguably the greatest acoustic guitar player on the planet, and I got to share a stage with him. Hopefully, you and my other reader will find out how next time.

[stevecookguitar]

A musical journey through life, part 9

Monday 24th March 2025

THIS IS PART 9, TO READ THE WHOLE THING IN ORDER SCROLL DOWN TO PART 1 FIRST!

'All Fingers and Thumbs' had become a well-respected part of the local music scene. We were in demand. Even when we played at the usual Tuesday night Dove sessions people came along especially to hear us perform our very unusual pieces. We had plenty of offers of places and events to play and we were able to perform for people quite regularly. At its peak there were two events which particularly stick out in my memory. One summer Saturday we'd been booked to play outdoors at a wedding reception. As I recall it was a very relaxed affair. Few people actually stopped and listened to what we played, they were all busy enjoying the reception, of course, so we were more like musical wallpaper. But we were paid for the gig and moved a couple of CD albums. As the afternoon came to a close, we packed all the gear into the car and drove across the county to Kedington, where we'd been booked as the support act for a Male Voice Choir performance in the evening. We felt it had gone very well, and judging from the fact that more of 'our' CDs went that night than ones recorded by the choir, we must have made an impression.

Being paid for two gigs in one day made this the most successful moment in AF&T's entire career. Interestingly, a member of the audience reviewed the performance for the Parish Magazine the following week. The choir were given a glowing, effusive review, whereas we got little more than 'oh, and there were two other blokes with guitars as well'.... scarcely a mention!

The one that really stands out though came a little later. We'd been asked to provide entertainment at one of a series of charity 'afternoon tea concerts' at Pakenham Water Mill. It was on my 57th birthday! The setting was delightful. Tables had been placed out on the lawn, chairs grouped around each.

We'd been asked to play several sets during the afternoon with small breaks. While we were setting up the gear, one of the organisers came up to us. 'Ere, guess what? Rick Wakeman is here, and he's staying for the music'. Rick Wakeman???? Superstar keyboard player of the prog rock band 'Yes'? Writer of many renowned solo albums, later star of the TV hit 'Grumpy Old Men'? He's here????? Now, I'm not naïve enough to think Rick had come especially to see us. At the time he lived only a few miles from Pakenham and was a fairly regular visitor (to buy flour?) I guess he'd come along and having seen music advertised, decided to stay a little longer than usual. Well, as neither of us had ever performed in front of Musical Royalty before, this upped the stress levels several thousand percentage points! We regained composure. It was a big lawn, there were plenty of tables. We might not even notice him!

Rick Wakeman. Photo - The Telegraph

We took our places, ready to start. There, directly in front of me, no more than 3 or 4 metres distant, sat one of the greatest rock musicians of all time. He was in the centre seat, facing the stage. He wouldn't be able to leave that spot easily, so it seemed he was in for an extended stay. We did our best. We performed well and had amusing banter. There was applause for every song from the audience. Even Rick clapped politely for most of the songs. We had a really good afternoon. A group of people at a table some distance from us had a whip round and gave us a tip! The one and only time I've ever been tipped for playing! Rick stayed with us throughout the first two sets but left a few songs before the end of our third. Apparently, on the way out, the organisers asked him if he'd enjoyed the music. He said he had (he was unlikely to say anything else, to be fair). Once we heard that, John and I briefly toyed with the idea of adding 'Endorsed by Rick Wakeman' to any future gig posters.... We never did do that as it would have been a stretch!

Another stand out moment in the history of AF&T came from an invitation to do a talk (not a gig, as such) to the Elmswell Women's Institute. It was a very successful evening. We talked about the instruments, some history, some personal anecdotes, we explained the background to some of the songs we perform and did actually perform a few to illustrate the points we were making. The whole thing was very well received. That evening led to a series of invitations to perform in Elmswell. There was something a little strange going on, though. We received three invitations to perform at Christmas lunch events. At one point we thought it must be a mistake. Perhaps different people on the committee had taken it upon themselves to book an act for the Christmas lunch. We'd been given three different dates, all in the same hall, just over a week apart. We double checked. No, definitely three different functions. Elmswell is famed for the large number of social groups and societies for a village of that size, and yes, three different groups wanted us. Now, there may be a large number of clubs in the village, but there's a finite number of villagers! In the end we found ourselves giving three almost identical performances, to pretty much the same people three times in about nine days! I'm sure that's not quite what had been intended, but we honoured the bookings and did as well as we could under the circumstances. We were never asked to play in Elmswell again. Too much of a good thing, perhaps!

AF&T recorded two CD albums in total and had plans and material for a third. This was going to be the Magnum Opus! A double length CD, which had already been titled 'The Grey Album'. As a project it was never completed. We seemed to run out of steam a bit and were finding it increasingly tricky to find new material with the same impact as the stuff we'd been doing for several years. AF&T ceased to exist. John and I still get together regularly and even practise those songs, the ones never recorded but destined for 'The Grey Album' and we sometimes tell each other it might yet see the light of day.... we'll see.

Our second album, 'Senior Moments' which we released in the summer of 2014.

[stevecookguitar]

A musical journey through life, part 8

Sunday 23rd March 2025

THIS IS PART 8. IF YOU WANT TO READ THESE POSTS IN THE CORRECT ORDER, SCROLL DOWN AND START WITH NUMBER 1.

The 'only for special occasions' duo known as 'The Beverley Brothers' and the very fluid ensemble 'The Bury Boys' had given me an opportunity to play and sing in front of people from time to time. It was hardly a regular thing, and other than a single payment for the appearance at Diss, it had all been purely for the enjoyment of the music. The Male Voice Choir I had joined went from strength to strength attracting attention across East Anglia and beyond and the membership had grown to the point where the choir could easily put 70+ men on stage for a concert. There is quite a lot of footage of St. Edmundsbury Male Voice Choir from the recent past online, but very little evidence of the choir from its earliest days. In my own archive I have video (rather degraded unfortunately) from a concert in the early 1990s in Bury St. Edmunds. This is what the choir looked like and sounded like then:

The choir sings the Welsh hymn 'Deus Salutis'. Yes, I'm in there, extreme left, end of the second row from the front. I'll include some modern Youtube footage of the choir when we get to that stage of the story.

The Bury Boys had run out of steam a little by the late 90s and my performance needs were met almost entirely by being in the choir as its reputation and quality grew. There were performances in different parts of the country and tours abroad to Denmark and Germany. However, a young family and a busy career meant that interest in music was rather sidelined on the run up the 21st century.

It wasn't until sometime after 2010 that things really started to pick up again for me. I had taken a break from the choir, I was only teaching part time and generally easing off until I took early retirement. I'd continued to play at the pub sessions on Tuesdays and occasionally at other venues, but nothing serious and certainly nothing that could be called a 'performance'. John Amos and I had started to fill the void a little by getting together at his house on a weekly basis and playing a few songs for each other. One evening I was talking to John about some performances I'd found online by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. They did some very clever arrangements of popular songs, singing several across each other, using the same chord sequence throughout. John was interested. Could we do something like that? It turned out we could! We put together several of these items, later recording such masterpieces as 'Save the Last Boardwalk for Jude' and 'Blue Cupid's Moon Dream'. I doubt I'd have coped with this without all those years in choir where I had to sing a particular melody and not be put off by having the person standing next to me singing something entirely different. We worked very hard at piecing these things together and our performances were very slick. We built quite a reputation locally and found ourselves in great demand.

We even recorded a couple of albums: 'The Tricky First Album' and 'Senior Moments'. We only made 50 copies of each and assumed they'd stay in the area, as mainly they'd ended up in the hands of family and friends. Imagine our surprise, many years later, to find a copy of 'Tricky' being offered for sale on Ebay!

How it ended up for sale in the West Midlands I have no idea.

But, I hear you and my other reader ask, what did 'All Fingers & Thumbs' actually sound like? Well funny you should ask but there's quite a bit of stuff available still. Here's 'AF&T' performing the last couple of songs of a very well received set at a charity concert around 2014.

All for now, but there's plenty more to come.

[stevecookguitar]

A musical journey through life, part 7

Saturday 22nd March 2025

THIS IS PART 7. IF YOU WANT TO READ THESE POSTS IN THE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER (MAKES MORE SENSE THAT WAY!) SCROLL DOWN AND START AT PART 1.

Although I'd progressed to the point of using guitar and singing in a classroom setting, I'd done no public performances since that ill-fated attempt at Bingham Folk Club when I was 18. Singing with the Male Voice Choir and attending the sessions run by John Amos had got me to the point where I could perhaps get out there and do something where actual grown-ups might witness my attempts! John's sessions for teachers had gradually come to the end of the line by the mid/late 1980s, but he wasn't finished by any means. John organised sessions at The Six Bells pub in Horringer, just outside Bury St. Edmunds. These weren't 'performances', they were more along the lines of what folk players would call a singaround, or a playaround. All very informal; a group of players gather in a room and take turns to play/sing. This sort of session is great for people starting out. Everyone is very supportive and absolutely anything goes. If you want to play your latest composition for the Tibetan Nose Flute, that's fine. In practice, it was generally middle-aged men (some ladies occasionally) with guitars or perhaps a uke or mandolin. Sometimes you'd play along with each other, sometimes do a song on your own. In time the sessions moved to a different pub, The Dove, in Bury itself and many, many years later those sessions are still there, every second Tuesday. (EDIT: Currently - 2026 - the pub is not open on Tuesdays and sessions there have unfortunately come to an end!)

A session at The Dove. Myself by the window, John Amos extreme left, sans guitar! This was a fairly quiet night; sometimes there are twice as many players!

This still wasn't public performance, but those initial Six Bells sessions set me on the path to forming alliances and practising and polishing duets with players of similar ability to myself. From these sessions came several acoustic ensembles that I played in. There was 'The Beverley Brothers', who only ever performed live three times and each time with a different lineup. The first of these was with Tony Merton, pub landlord. Next a more 'formal' performance at a choir party with Allan Phillips. Photo below.

The final performance I gave under the name of 'Beverley Brothers' was with my good friend Ed Wilson, no longer with us, a fellow first tenor in the Male Voice Choir where we entertained the masses at a choir 'Sing For Your Supper' event.

At around this time, four of the teachers who regularly frequented the Six Bells sessions, formed a loose alliance known as 'The Bury Boys'. We were not a band. We played several times in public and the four of us would sometimes play songs together or split up into duos for a song or two or even play some solo pieces. I think it made for a very varied evening of music. We didn't attract large crowds, but we always made a decent sound. I think the highlight of The Bury Boys' career came in 1995 with a performance on the bandstand next to the Mere in Diss. We'd played the event the previous year, sharing the afternoon with several folk groups, great fun. This time we expected something similar and had prepared about 30 minutes' worth of material between us. When we got there, we found there was just us and a band called 'The Lore Breakers' and we were to alternate throughout the afternoon. We played our set several times that afternoon between 'The Lore Breakers' performances. The other band was very good. I remember chatting to their teenage fiddle player. I'd made some comment along the lines of 'Whatever they're paying you, it isn't enough.' His reply? 'Don't you think £400 is enough then?' The four of us in 'The Bury Boys' got £20 each!

Remarkably there is video footage of this performance. Below a duet featuring Phil Knowles and myself. John Amos & Roy Lee (the other two Bury Boys) seated behind. We played 'The Guitar Man' and it's a performance that pleases me a lot. Perhaps I really could sing once upon a time!

[stevecookguitar]

A musical journey through life, part 6

Friday 21st March 2025

THIS IS PART 6. IF YOU WANT TO READ THESE POSTS IN THE CORRECT ORDER, SCROLL DOWN TO PART 1 AND START THERE.

By the autumn of 1979 I'd started my teaching career, had a bit of my musical ambition reawakened by seeing Roger and Peter entertaining people every Thursday evening at a local pub, and realised exactly how far away I was from ever attempting something similar. My problem? Although I had reasonable technique for the stuff I could do, it really was at a fairly simple level and my repertoire was tiny. I was pointed in the direction of John Amos, who, I was told, would be able to help me out.

John was a teacher at a different school. He was well known and highly respected in the local music community. His repertoire of songs was vast. John ran a weekly evening guitar/song session for teachers. In those days, pre National Curriculum, a lot of teaching was topic based. Take a theme and blend your writing, history, geography, art etc around it. Music, too, if you could. John's idea was to take a different theme each night and present his students with six to eight songs for acoustic guitar that would fit the theme and have some potential classroom use. In the first half of the session we'd learn the chords, play through the songs. In the second half, after coffee, out came the cassette tape recorders and we'd do a mass playalong, recording it all as we went so that we could learn the songs properly later. I attended these sessions for several years and it was very rare that John provided a song I already knew. In that time, I was introduced to hundreds of new songs, new artists and different styles of songwriting - things I would never have found by myself. It's true to say that a lot of the songs would only ever have been useful to me in a classroom setting, but amongst those songs covered in the early 1980s are dozens that are still part of my repertoire today. Thank you, John Amos, you have been an inspiration!

John Amos, some years later, in song at a pub session, c2006

John's encouragement and support had a very tangible effect on my school music contributions. I had started to run some basic guitar groups at school, but once I'd seen what John did at his school, the focus changed for me. I started to concentrate more on the songs and the singing rather than just playing guitar. My school Folk Club developed slowly, but it wasn't until I got a promotion and ran a Folk Club at my new school that it really took off. At this time, I joined a newly formed Male Voice Choir in the town, singing first tenor (usually the melody!) As my singing, voice control and confidence improved, the singing at Folk Club improved rapidly. We really did make a pleasant sound and Folk Club, on Friday lunchtimes, was the place to be! At one point my school club had over 125 members, that was a quarter of the school population. The annual concerts we gave were a highlight of the school calendar. I do have plenty of video footage of these events, but as they are of children performing, I won't include them here.

Regular concerts with the Male Voice Choir were giving me a taste for public performance again.... perhaps it was time to start to venture out with a guitar once more!

[stevecookguitar]

A musical journey through life, part 5

Thursday 20th March 2025

THIS IS PART 5. IF YOU WANT TO READ THESE POSTS IN THE CORRECT ORDER, PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO PART 1.

Of course, starting to play guitar in late teens comes with problems. I was on the run up to A Levels and needed to actually do some work. Once the A Levels were out of the way, it was on to teacher training at Bishop Grosseteste College, Lincoln. By the time I'd completed sixth form I had, more or less, mastered enough chords to appear to be a 'player' to those who knew less than I did. Still, I found the whole thing problematic. I often found that the songs with nice easy chords were actually in a key that didn't suit my voice or that they were songs I didn't want to sing. It would be a long time before I had sufficient skills to tackle a wider range of songs and start to build a decent repertoire of things I could play and sing with any degree of confidence. I took my guitar to college, of course, but it rarely got more than a cursory outing. There were opportunities to play in public at college, but I avoided them, still affected by the disaster at Bingham Folk Club. Also, I'd realised that there were several players at college who really knew their stuff. It made me feel rather frustrated with the levels I'd achieved. I don't suppose I added more than a couple of songs to my repertoire in my college years. I did enough for my playing not to stagnate, but not enough to make any real progress.

(I really struggled to find a photo of me as a player at this period of time. There's just this, taken I think, in 1976. I'd either just started college or was about to. It's in Chris's back garden. The Honda 70 I'm sitting on is mine, but the guitar I'm holding most certainly isn't, and frankly, I'm rather surprised that I could form a barre chord at that time! I must have borrowed that guitar from Chris purely for the photo.)

The best description you could have placed on me as a player was that I was a 'noodler'. I knew lots of little snippets of popular songs, knew some of the iconic chord sequences that everyone recognised and could play them smoothly enough to fool many. I enjoyed dabbling, but I wanted so much more.

I qualified as a teacher in 1979 and went to start my proper adult life in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Had I chosen a different career I am convinced that I would never have become a competent player and performer. My guitar went with me to school, and I knew a few child friendly songs which got an occasional outing. I soon became aware that a couple of my colleagues, Roger Holgate and Peter Cox were good players and that they performed in town centre pubs on a regular basis as a duo. Sitting in the staffroom one lunchtime I was dabbling on my guitar and Peter noticed. He suggested that I might like to come to The Grapes pub on Thursday evenings and perhaps sing a few songs while they had a beer break in the middle. I was forced to admit that I really didn't know many songs at all and that I'd be a very nervous performer. This was a key moment in my guitar journey. Peter suggested that I might go along to some evening courses run by another teacher, John Amos. He ran weekly courses for teachers to learn songs and guitar technique that would be useful in a classroom setting. I signed up immediately and could hardly wait to get started.

[stevecookguitar]

A musical journey through life, part 4

Tuesday 19 March 2025

THIS IS PART 4. IF YOU WANT TO READ THESE POSTS IN THE CORRECT ORDER, SCROLL DOWN TO PART 1.

So, somewhere around my 18th birthday, June 21, 1975, I managed to secure my first proper guitar. Of the ones in the shop in my price bracket, it was the most playable and it had a big sound. Sometime later I found out it was a copy of a very famous guitar, the Gibson Hummingbird, a favourite of the American Country players, but at the time brand names meant nothing to me. Strangely, I can remember the brand names of some of the guitars that my mates bought at around that time (Stuart bought a Hondo acoustic, Chris had a Kay, Ed a Columbus) but although I recall there was a maker's name on the headstock of mine, I've no idea now what it was. I can tell you that it looked something like this one. (NOT my actual guitar!)

In all, about half a dozen of us had been inspired by Ed to give guitar playing a go. As we were all starting pretty much from scratch, we shared our experiences as much as possible. When one of us learned a new chord, the others would copy it. I was reminded of an interview given by Paul McCartney where he told the story of a time that he, John and George travelled across Liverpool on several buses to go and knock on the door of a complete stranger who, they'd been told, knew how to play B7. I never went to such extremes myself, but then I was never going to be a Beatle! The point is, of course, that these days all the resources you could possibly hope for are available free on the internet. Don't know a chord? Can't work out how to play that riff? There's a tutorial on Youtube! When I started out, you either paid for music lessons (and most of us couldn't afford that) or you picked up bits and pieces whenever you could from someone who knew a bit more. There were books, of course, but I can tell you that Bert Wheedon's 'Play in a Day' (and someone had given me a copy) was a misleading title to say the least!

It was a slow process. Many of the songs I'd have loved to play at the outset seemed to have a tricky bit that was beyond me, and any song I came across that had an F a B or a Bb in it I just avoided as I couldn't get my fingers around those chords. I became devious! Little tricks like playing Dm7 instead of F (they are pretty similar!) or not quite fingering the full chord became part of my repertoire and hence a lifetime of bad habits had begun. Most of us managed to progress to the point where, a few months in, we could play something recognisable. What to do with this new-found skill, though? Well, the logical thing was to try to play in front of people. These days there are countless opportunities to do just that. There are Open Mics, playaround meetings (a sort of club night for players, usually without an audience), Folk Clubs, busking (now THAT takes courage!) or even post yourself online. Then, the only real opportunity for players in the very early stages was a Folk Club.

Luckily in the small market town where I attended the sixth form, there was a thriving Folk Club. It met on a weekly basis as I recall in a long thin room behind the Wheatsheaf Pub in Bingham, Notts.

It was here that I took my first extremely faltering steps into the world of performance. The results were a very mixed affair. For the sake of safety in numbers, three of us decided we'd have a go together. We went one night to see how it all worked, asked if we might be allowed to play at the next session, then went away and practised a few songs together. I can only imagine that it would have been fairly terrible, and our repertoire was most decidedly NOT Folk!!!! Chris, Stuart and I turned up on the night and performed things like 'With A Little Help From My Friends' and 'Lola'. The thing about the folk community is that they are incredibly supportive. If this wasn't the repertoire that was expected, they weren't going to say so! We went back several times until the night it all went wrong! On one occasion, there had been a mix up in communication. I turned up, signed the board to book a slot and waited for the others. With one act to go before our slot, I was still on my own. 'We' were called up for our turn and I said they others hadn't come. 'That's okay, you play something.' I should have had the confidence to say no. I didn't and, feeling like a rabbit in the headlights, I made my way to the front. I couldn't do 'our' songs on my own, and there was only one that I'd recently started working on, Donovan's 'Isle Of Islay'. I thought I'd better do that. It was awful. The chords I'd tried to work out for myself were wrong, my singing was off key, and I got lost in the middle and stopped. I mumbled an apology, left the stage and left the building never to return....... It could well have put me off for life, and indeed, it was many years before I tried playing in public again, by which time I'd learned a thing or two.