Music

MUSIC

“Brutalise me with music.” (Bob Marley).

“Bop-diddly wah-wah/Clang-honk.” (The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers).

The most commonly associated forms of music with biking have been rock and roll, heavy rock and heavy metal. Their appearances were coincidental with the arrival of consecutive youth subcultures, making them an easy tie-in for public and media ears alike. Prior to their arrival, the precursors of rock and roll were just as likely to have been enjoyed as might classical or traditional forms. Popular tunes such as those sung by Gracie Fields, nonsense songs by The Goons like The Ying-Tong Song, and George Formby’s ukulele-powered humour appeared in song-sheets, 78 rpm disc format and on the radio. There is a wide palette of tastes, that has remained from those days, through to the early 21st century. However, the biking idiom, through changing generations and other association, has been given a preferred flavour and direction, revolving around and evolving from rock and roll.

This was a mixture of Blues, Skiffle, Be-bop, Country and classical styles. The blues had been around since at least the 1920’s, and had roots in Gospel music, which made a curiosity of the fact that it became known as The Devil’s music. The Devil element returned in the 70’s, featured in a film titled Cross Roads, allegedly the life story of blues artist Robert Johnson, who’d sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for a phenomenal talent.

Skiffle appeared around the 1940’s and formed a musical basis for rock and roll, with its short, succinct songs. It also put together the trio, which became the foundation for the group line-up. It was up-tempo music with very light lyrical material that also began the traditional fun aspect of rock and roll.

Be-bop was a hang-over from Jazz. From the 1920’s to the 1940’s, big bands had been dance-hall entertainment. The lyrical content of this music eventually became minimalised, with made-up words like do-wop, skooby and shoobidoo filling out improvised vocalisations (hence be-bop). The big bands also played Swing and music to dance the jitterbug too; which was a little livelier than the Charleston, Cha-Cha et al. Bee-bop’s rock and roll appearance is epitomised to some extent in Elvis Presley’s Be-bop-a-lula.

Experiments to get guitars heard in the big bands eventually caused the creation of the electric guitar. There are arguments as to who was first, but getting the guitar amplified suddenly threw it into the limelight. Thanks to innovators like Leo Fender, the Gibson brothers and others, guitarists who were struggling to be heard were now becoming the heroes of the day. At first it was mainly jazz guitarists who used amplification, but blues and rock and roll players soon discovered that the electric guitar could be made to sound highly emotive.

This added component of howling, graunchy guitar competed with the saxophones, pianos and harmonicas in rock and roll bands. The electric guitar eventually found an aggressive, distorted voice caused by over-driving the amplifiers. This suited certain tastes in music that were to go hand in hand with Biker scenes that followed on from rock ‘n’ roll.

Country music had folk roots that reach back to Europe, and the inclusion of ‘and Western’ gave it a more rhythmic atmosphere. The Cajun beat was frequently used, and harmony vocals were key to the country sound. They found their way into rock and roll, and due to the popularity of country music among the Hicks and Hill-Billies, it gave rise to the term Rockabilly. Pyschobilly was a later, 1980s twist on this theme that gave us a lot of half Skinhead/half Ted, Punkish nutters who were into a kind of power-rock, with some ‘and roll’ for good measure.

Rock and roll was performed by the likes of Bill Haley (who brought it to the UK), Eddie Cochran and Elvis Presley. Among its adherents, there was an unprejudiced enjoyment of black musicians, like Chuck Berry and Fats Domino. The guitarists borrowed riffs from the blues artistes, and used classical devices like crescendo and ritornello (mounting tension and repeated themes, respectively), that built towards a climax. There were also guitar solos, for which the likes of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley were famous, and these were to inspire later generations of performers who found favour with Biker tastes. Additionally, the technique of amplifying instruments had now produced the bass guitar, which became used in place of the traditional double-bass. It too had an important voice in creating the thunder of later forms of music, based on rock and roll. The washboard and thimbles of skiffle also began to give way to the drum kits as used by the big bands. These kits could be heard above the electrified instruments, and the vocals that were also being put through public address, or PA systems.

As the 1950’s became the 60’s, groups dropped the and roll to become rock bands. It was also decided that the word ‘band’ had too many connotations associated with the older big bands to be an acceptable youth term. The word group interceded for a while. It was a later inversion that allowed non-youth terms (like band) to be adopted as a kind of irony. Rock and roll was such a melt-down of various styles as to be the pinnacle of that genre’s exploration. Yet it was intensified and taken further, through an evolution driven by innovative (and abusive) musicians and technical advancements. It was also propelled lyrically by the social conditions of the times, and the notable widening of the generation gap. Bands like The Who, The Rolling Stones and The Animals took the rock ‘n’ roll/rhythm and blues styles to formulate a basis for heavy rock, while the Beatles and the Beach Boys looked at softer, melodic options.

As the pop charts became more and more a commodity with built-in obsolescence, bands like the Cream began making rock even heavier. Their lyrical content was surreal, and defined underground ideals. The Cream and more bluesy outfits like Fleetwood Mac still sang love songs, but also embodied protest and partying, with distorted guitar sounds and street-wise comment. The lyrics were applicable to youth expressions.

It was around 1964 that a young American of half Cherokee, half Negro descendance was brought to the UK in search of fame. He also relished a chance to meet Eric Clapton, who had played with John Mayall’s Blues Breakers and the Cream. Such bands made more appearances in the album rather than singles charts, because of their relative underground tastes. The Cream, Stones and Who had started a tradition of thunderous rock that included the use of feed-back - a wailing sound caused by a loop between the guitar pick-ups and amplifier(s). Jimi Hendrix, that young American, took it to extremes.

Besides the wailing feedback, his first album included the use of technical studio tricks, and popularised the Fender Stratocaster, previously associated with softer styled musicians like Bert Weedon or Hank Marvin. The music press (Melody Maker and Sounds et al) began to use words like ‘pyrotechnics’ and phrases like ‘breaking glass’ to describe his style. Hendrix was in the first instance a serious composer, but his stage act had been interrupted by frustrations and the release of anger. People began expecting him to destroy amps and guitars, and he was dubbed The Wild Man of Rock. Bands like Jethro Tull, The Nice and Emerson Lake and Palmer (to name a few) broke other frontiers of classical and folk ventures. But it was Hendrix who lead a plethora of posturing guitar heroes into the 1970’s. Too bad he was dead by November of 1970.

Among the new breed of guitarists, Whitesnake had their Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden, Black Sabbath had Tony Iommi and Deep Purple had Ritchie Blackmore. They did albums but also charted with singles. At another level, Rory Gallagher lead Taste, Tony Macphee tore it up with The Groundhogs and Leslie West put the thunder into Mountain. The fireworks had been lit, and any self respecting underground or rock venue let this stuff burn all night.

The exploration of musical styles went ever further, as bands like Led Zeppelin mixed up Celtic folk with heavy rock. The phenomenon of cult followings was now very much alive. For the generation of the time, the Rockers too young to be rock and rollers, the Outlaws, Grebos and those beginning to be discernible as Biker, this was the next melting pot. Not just of music, but of cultural activity. There were softer tastes like The Strawbs, and middle ground like Babe Ruth or Credence Clearwater Revival. But the sheer power of heavy rock, and thence heavy metal, were just so sublimely suited to the biking experience. If ever there was a genre most likely to be called Biker Music, the heavy-rock based genre was it. Rock music wasn’t just dumped onto Bikers through stereotyping. They had lapped it up.

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Part of the stereotyping associated with rock music created the illusion (to some academics at least) that it was a male enclave. It is mostly male audience members who play air guitar, but head-banging is for all. And performance does have an aggressive power, even needs it to be noticeably different from simple existence. However, as in all aspects of life, women have performed equally well. They may not be as common, but in the assessment of rock, we should not forget Janis Joplin who fronted Big Brother and The Holding Company, Grace Slick who fronted Jefferson Airplane, or Elkie Brooks, the singer with Vinegar Joe. Later female artistes, from Suzi Quattro to those who made up the band Fanny created their own power-rock. Typically, the stereotyping mind had overlooked the variety and individualism of all people, regardless of race or gender in the hip/rock scene.

The psychedelic era that had begun in the 1960’s had started the progressive scene, and bands like Coliseum, Yes and Hawkwind were appreciated across the Hippy/Biker cultures. The Hawkwind album, In Search of Space, was a musical and conscious landmark on equal terms with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Van der Graff Generator were electronically different, as were the German outfit Kraftwerk. Their albums could be found alongside the likes of Thin Lizzie, who were a rock outfit with Irish folk roots, in many Biker and Hippy collections. Some musicians were actually riders themselves, like Biff Byford of Saxon, and others used the bike because of its association and expression. Later performers like Bon Jovi and Meatloaf made the bike a part of their act. A notable number of rock and metal fans took to biking through their musical taste.

Progressive rock among other forms of music like the folk style of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, are the mainstays of Hippy music. (That is, as opposed to the pop material like San Francisco by Scott Mackenzie.) Their collusion with rock allowed influences to bleed in either direction, culminating in an embrace of cultures, as featured in the film Easy Rider. This was perhaps a softening of style, but more importantly an intellectualisation. The use of drugs among musicians was by no means a new idea, but its entry into the rock world definitely gave a lift that helped explore new dimensions of lyric and composition.

The lyrics of some rock bands and performers are often obscure if not easily discernible above the music. Some have alleged that Ozzie Osborn and Judas Priest actually used sublime messages that coaxed kids into killing themselves, to be close to the devil. There was much grief and wild apportionment of blame when a suicide occurred, and holier-than-thou’s were quick to blame Ozzie and the Priest for someone’s departure. These claims were proven unfounded in the courts, but it brought much unhealthy attention to rock entertainers. Strange how, when people wanted to persecute anyone for making music to croak by, they have never suspected Leonard Cohen or The Smiths.

The accusations of meaningless lyric hurled at rock bands also over-looked such as the Beatles’ “I am the Walrus, I am the ape-man, coocoocatchoo.” The same accusers had already taken such as the Ten Years After song, Little Schoolgirl, with lyrics like: “Good mornin’ little schoolgirl/I wanna ball you”: and used them to highlight the subversion they alleged existed among rock bands - and audiences. It might have been tongue-in-cheek for Alvin Lee to have sung that line, but by the 1960s, school girls were beginning to look rather different from the pig-tail and plaits image. They were wearing make-up and chewing gum, and getting lifts from school on bikes, scooters and in sports cars... and they didn’t have playing records on their mind.

The incantations and atmospheres of many rock bands were theatre. Iron Maiden used Egyptian themes, being hip to that use among subcultures. No-one was ever seriously reprimanded for taking up Egyptology as a result of Maiden fanship. It is the obscurity of these and other tastes that divides generations. Strangely though, with the passage of time, the extremity of wilder acts becomes embraced by older generations. By the 1980’s, the Rolling Stones were affable rogues and welcomed by high society. They had become more stable, but it smacked of hypocrisy on the part of norm society. And songs like Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf) began to appear on the most unlikely juke-boxes. If cultural change is slow (if not impossible), cultural acceptance is even slower, and never quite as it was intended.

There can be introverted depression associated with the heavy gothic rock forms that appeared in the 70’s, and the obvious demonic inferences therein. But it is what the individual imposes onto their tastes that can create an unwholesome and unnecessary bleakness. The never had it so good generations after W.W.II. came under a lot of stick for being miserable about trifling things. But without the pre-occupation with life and society, society itself couldn’t move on.

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Just as the hip/rock generation was getting comfortable on the sofa of love and harmony, the next one burst through the door, vomiting and spitting everywhere. In the mid to late 1970’s, the Punks had arrived. Plastic bin-liners, and other tackily applied accoutrements amplified their sense of desolation and uselessness. They, unlike previous rebels, were anti-everything. The Sex Pistols, The Stranglers and The Clash were among the more prominent musical tastes in Punk. Whilst older people found them debilitating, they were a refreshing change from the soppy electronique whining of other contemporary performers like The Human League and Gary Numan. They had a vitality and importance to their music, and an urgency, which when analysed, has foundations in rock.

Punk music, like other forms that have integrated with the biking scene, was not created by Bikers for Bikers. No-one (excepting some pretentious attempts) has ever sat down and formulated a genre of motorcycle music. There have been many bands with biking members, that opted for one of the more commonly associated rock styles. Others have done biking songs using country (Bobby Mountain), and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (Saxon). But there has never really been a need to formulate a biking music genre. The affinity of rock (among other previously mentioned styles) has been a satisfying bond.

Most cultures develop their own strain of music, and these can often be traced to previous borrowings. And the borrowings of Bikers from the rock world have more than sufficed, as a power-base, a musical ancestry, and as a perfect form of expression. The pile-driving rhythms and raunchy guitar riffs have bike-like voices, while the lyrics of the rock and associated genres speak in tongues that Bikers understand. Rock music has become the folk music of Bikers. Ignoring the presumed stereotyping, its use in advertising and as incidental/introductory music for programmes with biking interest is the froth resting on a deep, mature brew.

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Following on from and overlapping Punk, a time through to the 1980’s when people began (again) to believe that music was dead, there came a train of styles evolved from heavy metal. The main idea seemed to be playing fast. Thrash and Speed metal rode on rhythms battered out using two bass-drums (or a double-beater, that achieved the same effect). The kind of roll associated with snare drums was now do-able with the feet. The practice of taping a coin to the beaters also gave the bass-drum a distinct click, a nanosecond before the thud. The guitarists learned techniques like sweep picking, allowing rapid arpeggios to burst forth endlessly. Meantime vocalists were into a deep roar, that was often produced by an effect unit. Thus the singers from many of these bands all sounded like the same person. It could almost be deciphered as Heavy Metal Punk.

Bands like Anthrax and Metallica took this savage music form, and rather than tame it, they stylised it into something more than an expressive explosion. After the initial emotive blast, musicianship entered the fray, and Metallica were still at it in the 21st century.

Alongside this younger generation’s injection of graunching thunder, rock metal had undergone other changes. In the 80s, Eddie Van Halen was congratulated for re-inventing the guitar, with his string tapping technique that out-arpeggioed the sweep pickers. Jazz influences came from the likes of Al Dimeola, country reappeared with a graunchy kick under the guise of ZZ Top, and guitar heroics were sustained at lighter levels by Europe. In the middle of all this, instrumentally strong performances from Vinnie Moore, Bluesy retro styles from Gary Moore (ex Thin Lizzy) and the so-called widdlers like Yngwie Malmsteen again used the baroque vehicle. (Widdling was simply an onomatopoeic way of describing rapid guitar styles). Rock had outgrown the Blues progressions without losing the raw feel; even though bands like Queensryche had smoothed their performances to a surgical precision, and guitarist Joe Satriani had drawn from virtually every style past and present.

We must also be conscious here of personal taste. The love of Vivaldi and Beethoven, for example, are shared among Bikers. So they protest when someone assumes that Bikers have limited Zep/Sabbath/AC-DC appreciations. There are however, strange but credible ties beyond the borrowings of rock and roll from the classic world. Academics have tried to analyse the rock/classic phenomena, and some have concluded that certain rock musicians and these works are modern classics in their own right. This countered the existing musicological institutions’ regard for rock as an untalented theft. The reason for this superior attitude lies in what had happened with the arrival of the 20th century.

The social dictates of the time had caused a homogenisation and bastardisation of musics into a preferred classical genre. Composers and performers like the Bachs (Johan, Christian et al), Pachelbel, Beethoven and Wagner had been lumped into a tasteful idiom. This suited genteel society and the aims of the governing powers, to create their version of the societal ideal. It was an elitism that disavowed folk music and the people who paid for the elite’s existence.

Those who adhered to this elitism in more recent times criticised rock guitarists for attacking their instruments, and generally playing too vigorously. What they’d forgotten was the sheer power with which Paganini struck his violin strings with the bow. He even completed performances with broken strings, as per many a blues or rock guitarist. They had also glossed over the vibrance of the Bach(s) and Vivaldi, whose passions tore across mood-swings, which were played meaningfully, not tamely. Call it Heavy Wood if you like. Their clientele of their times - the royalty and even the church, expected full-blooded performance, evidenced in the way Frederick The Great himself composed. Heap onto this the undisguisable weight of Beethoven’s 5th and offerings from Wagner, and it can be seen that those composers weren’t pandering to any thing but their own, powerful muse. Hence so many died in poverty.

The use of such tunes and techniques applied to rock may have had stumbling blocks. Ritchie Blackmore of Rainbow recalls the sneers of orchestras his band played with. But with the likes of Malmsteen, it has become a perfected art. Before him, the band Sky had rocked classical tunes, but only in a middle-of-the-road style. While the rest of the planet endured shallow pop music, rock was defining itself as a neoclassical genre, whether the pundits liked it or not.

In his study into Heavy Metal Appropriations of Classical Virtuosity, in 1993, Robert Walser spoke of guitarist Randy Rhoads (who played for Ozzie) and the composer J.S. Bach. He said: “Bach’s and Rhoad’s offer powerful, nuanced experiences of transcendence and communality”. What he describes is the elation and unity felt, not only among the performers, but by the audiences. The mood of crowds attending any sort of performance has such feelings, but these become more exaggerated with the power that infuses rock music and lyrics. Walser also quotes someone named Considine, who said: “Whether you’re a violinist or guitarist, it still takes the same belief in your form of music to achieve and create.” It is the lyrical beliefs, along with the vitality of rock music that have sustained it as a predominant factor in Biker (and Hippy) tastes. The academies have begun to take rock music seriously, including it in degree course studies. Its recognition as a genuine music also demonstrates the gravity of Biker culture.

Among other accusations aimed at devaluing rock’s offerings, was that of monotonous beat. Partly true as rock first emerged; Status Quo were the butt of three-chord, same-rhythm jokes - but the further association with Bikers and head-banging obscured what was happening. Head-banging is part of the fun of rock even while serious issues were often dealt with, lyrically.

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The 1990’s saw the rise of drugs called Es, and jungle, ambient, acid house and other forms of computer generated musical composition. The sounds can be felt by people undergoing the influence of Es and similar drugs. This echoes the earlier idea of vibes to some extent. However, the vibes of which Hippies and some Bikers spoke concerned the personality of people and places. 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s songs are covered and rehashed over throbbing, bassy disco beats that go on forever and then some. It’s like they’ve tried to make one riff last a whole trip. Lyrics like: “Fuck you/I won’t do what you told me.” are OK for drunken reveling, but not as subtle as thinking people’s rock.

At some bigger bike rallies, there are separate tents for entertainments, including rave tents. Other events will mix it in amid the Metallica, AC-DC and other rock. What is peculiar to some rallies is the bands that get booked to play. There are plenty of blues and rock oriented outfits, but some are costly, so bands that emulate them get the gig. AB-CD and Limehouse Lizzie are tributes to ACDC and Thin Lizzie, that do well, and the influence of filmic bands like The Blues Brothers and The Commitments have brought more silliness onto the scene.

Bike rally DJs were already hip to using soul (like Diana Ross), songs like Nelly the Elephant and Tom Jones hits to get people into silly party moods. But by the 90’s, soul bands were also a big hit. The incongruity of so many rufty-tufty Bikers swanning round to music that is allegedly anathema to their preferred styles is the ultimate in not taking yourself seriously. Another thing that prompted this was the plethora of copy bands who thought they could get away with a rendition of Born to be wild, Whole Lotta Rosie (ACDC) and others in an attempt to entertain Bikers, that had become passé.

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The fact that we cannot nail all Bikers to one musical cross (some even like Opera), shows that compared to other transient subcultures, biking has not so much a resistance as an openness that consumes everything. Rather than be destroyed by change, be it musical or otherwise, Biker culture feeds on it.

Some notes on the Blues...

First some lyrics, for a song called 'Play the Blues': Once upon a time in a far away land

not as far far away as my dreams

my lonely guitar prayed for the music

that would one day, set us free

I was bold as the moment

thought I knew what to do

but my heart was filled with shadows and pain

So anxious to please

I got carried by the breeze

I don't know how, but I just lost my way

Ch1 Play the blues said my friends

play the blues said my heart

and I will do, one of these days

play the blues said my lover

play the blues said the weather

sometimes you learn in a couple of days

and sometimes oo oo, it takes a little longer

and sometimes, it takes a little longer

I was blinded and misguided

by mood swings and mind games

moonbeams on the hiways

and forks in the byeways

like sand in the wind

I played any old thing

nevert hearing what my soul tried to say

Ch1

In my heart flows the blood

of the Celt and the Gael

in the sky and the trees and the rivers

All our dreams lost and found

on the gleaming horizon

have all come together today

Ch2:

I play the blues for my friends

play the blues for my heart

play the blues in so many ways

play the blues for my lover

play the blues for the weather

sometimes you learn in a couple of days

and sometimes - it takes a little longer

and sometimes, oo oo, it takes a little longer

ends

This touches on a pivotal moment in my formative guitar years and indeed, comes out of a recent pivotal moment as I welcomed blues back into my repertoire - after decades of shutting it out. And I'll explain why as we go along.

I never had a guitar lesson. Not that I thought I didn't need tuition - I craved it. But the only help I could find was pat-a-cake stuff. I realise in later years why they do that (if it's easy you've more chance of getting past the first hurdle), but when it clashes with your taste, well, you don't have sex with people who turn you off just to learn how to do it, do you? So I just put my favourite records on (Hendrix, Cream, Zepelin et al) and played along until I got it right (ish).

In about 1968/9, I used to jam with a friend called Roger Moran. We tried to make up songs and then sang them to our girlfriends. At his house, his cousin, Anthony White, let me have a go on his Angelica Dreadnought (that's a guitar). I couldn't really do anything without accompaniment (hence playing with bands or duos most of my life) or even all the way through. So he showed me a blues progression - it took a couple of minutes - and everything fell into place. From that moment, I could figure out the Hendrix, Doors, Cream, Free and whoever stuff. Once I'd got a few lyrics I suddenly had the beginings of a repertoire that would stand up to public scrutiny. And I began writing more.

It was so easy I was able to manipulate the blues genre into versions that no longer sounded like all the other blues songs. It made my own compositions catch a fire. Next thing was getting invited to play with bands in coal sheds, farms, sat in parks, everywhere. And my wish to put one together grew. But three quid a week benefit isn't going to buy a Marshall Stack and a Stratocaster. The bands all had guitarists who didn't like having me around so I hit a cross roads - and turned folk. I hadn't quite abandoned the blues, but dreamed of fusing it with rock once I was better off and could get into or create a band. I was probably just crap and no-one had the heart to tell me.

For some time thereafter I circulated folk clubs (who held their hands up in horror at Joni Mitchel and Neil Young, let alone Lightning Hopkins), then I ended up busking. Finally, I found my level, in the gutter, playing my unwanted crap. But here were people who knew what a hat was for. They stood and listened - and nearby shops learned that you were good to have around. Money was heaped into my old bush hat and while my mates earned £25 a week down the pit or in the steelworks, I got £30 in half an hour playing a mix of covers and originals. I got most money when someone else played rhythm guitar for me, but other guitarists have such big egos - or maybe they were right to suggest I should slip into the back-ground?

I digress. When I finally came to live in Sheffield I got regularish work and bought a guitar and amp - and got a band together. We did the admix of styles and it was OK - and audiences went crazy for our original - and blues stuff. We obliged. There was, as there often had and has been since, a blues revival going on in Sheffield. And as ever, no sooner do the bands who are any good at it get enough work, than the copyists flood the market with samey old soul-less and to my taste unimaginative parrot fashion regurgitation. I'm a fine one to speak, but then I had to get out of blues to find gigs. But I'm not alone thinking like this - it especially irks people who have specialised in blues - all their effort seems wasted. And no-one was ready for rock just then, not at my level in local pubs and clubs. Indeed, they more readily swallowed the punk thing, making some of us feel old - because the younger generation seemed disgusting.

After another resurgence (in global Sheffield) of blues and its subsequent ebb, I gave away all my Clapton records and got into jazz. I thought I had grown up and had a hair cut and everything. Identity crisis - hah, and they say honkies playing blues are suffering from that!!!

But my readings and listenings over the decades have found what intellectuals call the blue note in surprising places - many of them successful. Vivaldi, Kathryn Tickell, Ravi Shankar, Jimi Hendrix, for example. You listen, it's there. So while the rhythm might have come out of Africa, the bends came from Europe and Asia, on Uileeann pipes, violins and sitars. Then they found themselves being explored some more on slide, then electric guitars - enter my generation, give or take a Brian Jones or Joe Satriani.

So, after three decades, another pivotal moment allows me to see what people mean when they ask me to play the blues. I see that it has it's validity and ability to enhance a repertoire - so long as it is not allowed to dominate it. And for heavens sake, (yeah, I've somewhat abandonded the langue of academia) I (believe, rightly or wrongly) that can actually do it.

Anthony White said to me all those years ago after showing me the blues: 'That is your heritage' and I hadn't understood - my family all played classical or folk and I was neither Black nor American. But I listen to the lilt of the pipes, in for example the Dubliner's version of Molly Ban, and I can hear the heartache of the Celt and the Gael. And they are right up there with Vivaldi and Shankar and Hendrix - moving your soul.

When I was a kid I said to myslef: 'If I can play the guitar like that (meaning Jmi Hendrix), I'd be a happy man'. These days, if I can play the bugger at all, it brings a smile to my face.