Def in the early years but as a 15 yr old, timing was terrible. Just about to do grade 6 or 7 on the fiddle and some bloke called J Rotten and his merry bunch came into view. That was it, bye bye vioilin and hello Fender P bass and me thinking " I wanna be like them", and its taken me 40 odd years to get back into the classical thing. No point with regrets, Punk was the sunny uplands Id been looking for and it was a revelation and it enabled me to have a great life as a semi free time bassist.
Im now 64 , did my last dep five yrs ago and started Cello two years ago.....another revelation and having a ball... flippin hard work tho. Bet yeas Its important that I acknowledge the chance I was given at school.. and of course back then it was all free.