Perfect 10
He’s an internationally acknowledged master of the acoustic guitar, but how will he handle the 10 questions we ask everyone?
1
What was your first guitar and when did you get it? “My first guitar was badged up as a Martin Coletti. It was an f-hole archtop, Tobacco Sunburst and completely acoustic. I have owned a pre-war Coletti in the past and they were superbly made handcrafted instruments, but this 1960 version was all laminate and not in the same league as the early ones. Later on I bought a pickup for it and I plugged it into the back of the family radiogram. I pestered my folks to buy me a Watkins Westminster amp, polka dot red, and then finally a Supersound tremolo arm so I could try and sound like Hank!”
2
Suppose the building’s burning down; what one guitar from your collection would you save? “A custom-built Fylde that Roger Bucknall built to replace a guitar he made in the late 80s. I foolishly had a new top put on it by another maker when it had been damaged. Fortunately, I still had the old top and Roger was able see in detail how it had been constructed. The replacement is a rosewood and cedar model with a cutaway and is my main recording guitar. It sounds divine and records beautifully.”
3
What’s the oldest guitar you own? “A small-bodied Spanish guitar almost identical to the one that Julian Bream played as a boy. It was a gift from my wife, Hilary, and her late mother, Elizabeth. It hangs on my music room wall and it must be well over 100 years old. The label inside reads ‘Hijos de Ramon Reduedo, Valencia’.”
4
When did you last practise and what did you play? “I don’t practise as such, but try to play each day. I play for long periods when composing, but that has been shelved for a while, while trying to get to grips with the music I wrote for my The Last Of England album, and although I composed all the music, I still find the pieces very challenging to play, and, more to the point, remember!”
5
What are you doing five minutes before you go on stage and five minutes after? “Five minutes before I’m still practising the first piece I’m going to perform. I have never allowed myself the time to relax before a performance, although recently I’ve been getting to grips with meditation, which I think has assisted my performance and made my playing a bit more meaningful. After the performance, I’m thinking about going out front to say hi to friends and to anyone who wants to chat with me or get me to sign the odd album.”
6
What’s the worst thing that has happened to you on stage? “I was very privileged to have my own evening at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham a few years ago. All was going well until Ray [Burley] and I performed my piece Tears Of Joy and I completely forgot a whole section and had to abandon it. I just wanted the ground to open.”
7
What’s the closest you’ve come to quitting music? “That small voice inside has never allowed me to quit. When times were tough in the early 70s and gigs were thin on the ground, I did consider getting a job to pay the bills, but even then it was pretty fleeting. I signed on for about six weeks, which I found humiliating, bearing in mind that I had already had albums released and had built up a following. I do consider myself very privileged to have been able to make a living for so long doing what I love.”
8
What aspect of playing guitar would you like to be better at? “My plectrum technique is pretty weak, and I’d love to able to improvise like John Etheridge or Tommy Emmanuel, but I’m happy to still be able to do what I can do. I still want to be able to play with the same degree of energy that I had as a young man.”
9
What advice would you give your younger self about the guitar if you had the chance? “Slow down and be more thoughtful and disciplined about what I played instead of trying to impress with a million notes a second. I was very opinionated, believing that acoustic playing was far superior to electric playing. How utterly wrong I was!”
10
Is there a myth about you or your playing that you’d like to set the record straight on? “The main myth is that my right-hand technique consists of pick and fingers; in fact, it’s pick and just little finger! Also, folk assume that Heartsong was performed on a 12-string guitar, which is understandable, but it was a normal guitar tracked with a high-strung guitar, thus creating the almost perfect 12-string sound.” [DM]
“Recently, I’ve been getting to grips with meditation, which I think has assisted my performance and made my playing a bit more meaningful”