Who/What started you on your journey and why?

[ahpook]

8 hours ago, Ed_S said:

When I was in Y3 (age 7-8ish?) at school, I got sent to a room with a group of other kids to take a test. Turned out to be a musical aptitude (Bentley) test, and off the back of it I was offered lessons...

 

Can I any a big thank you - I did a similar test at primary school (I ended up with a tenor horn), and have often wondered what it was, details are sketchy after this long.

 

Anyhow...The Bentley Test. Good chance this is what I took, after a bit of research. Thanks !

Edited November 26, 2023 by ahpook

[Ed_S]

1 hour ago, ahpook said:

 

Can I any a big thank you - I did a similar test at primary school (I ended up with a tenor horn), and have often wondered what it was, details are sketchy after this long.

 

Anyhow...The Bentley Test. Good chance this is what I took, after a bit of research. Thanks !

 

Glad to be of assistance!

 

They had literally everybody in our year group take that test over the course of a week, and of the lot of us it was a group of maybe 10ish who were offered lessons, 8ish who accepted, 6ish who stuck with it to junior school and maybe 4ish who were still playing by secondary. Having just had a little look online, one appears to now be the leader of the British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra!

 

And then there's me paying bass in a metal band; no idea which notes I'm playing, and any ability to read or knowledge of theory evaporated years ago, but I enjoy what I do. The interesting thing was that the test said I had perfect pitch all those years ago, and whilst I'm not sure I'd fully agree with that, I have indeed always preferred to just play by ear.

[tauzero]

My younger brother started playing classical guitar and I kept borrowing it, and eventually got an electric guitar of my own. I played in a big band at school (IIRC we just did the one gig). At uni, there were other musicians in the hall of residence I was in and we joined together. There was no bassist and I was the worst guitarist, so I decided to be the bassist. Playing basslines on the guitar wasn't really going to cut it - however, I was in London and the Fender Soundhouse had just had a fire, and Hayman had gone bust, and there was a load of Hayman parts being sold off cheap, so I assembled a Hayman 40/40. The band did a couple of gigs in the hall of residence; we got paid £100 for the main one at a time when beer was 20p a pint. What would 500 pints cost now? Then I dropped out and it was a while before I started playing again, after I moved to Tamworth.

[Silvia Bluejay]

I have been attentively listening to songs' basslines - as opposed to lyrics and other instruments - since I got hooked on Saturday Night Fever the soundtrack when I was 13. At the time girls weren't supposed to play bass, there were no lefty instruments AT ALL in shops, and the received wisdom in my family was that we had no talent for music anyway.

Fast forward nearly 30 years spent taking photos and doing primitive sound engineering for friends' bands, standing in front of, rather than on, stage, and at age 41 I split up with guitarist partner of 16 years. I missed music, I did not miss guitar, so I bought a lefty bass online and started the journey; happy to be still on it. No interest in playing live or indeed in playing in front of anybody - just for myself. It makes me happy.

[ahpook]

2 hours ago, Ed_S said:

 

Glad to be of assistance!

 

They had literally everybody in our year group take that test over the course of a week, and of the lot of us it was a group of maybe 10ish who were offered lessons, 8ish who accepted, 6ish who stuck with it to junior school and maybe 4ish who were still playing by secondary. Having just had a little look online, one appears to now be the leader of the British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra!

 

And then there's me paying bass in a metal band; no idea which notes I'm playing, and any ability to read or knowledge of theory evaporated years ago, but I enjoy what I do. The interesting thing was that the test said I had perfect pitch all those years ago, and whilst I'm not sure I'd fully agree with that, I have indeed always preferred to just play by ear.

 

I didn't last long - it soon became apparent that my giant overbite and the mouthpiece of the horn weren't a match made in heaven

 

[gafbass02]

I went on tour in Germany with the school choir in the 6th form. My best mate played guitar and he and another guy who played spent the whole week sitting together on the bus talking about guitars, leaving me alone with my hangover and Walkman every day. I knew my big brother had a guitar in the attic, so I asked said mate if he’d teach me when I got back. 
Sure enough, upon my return, I dug out my brother’s ancient guitar, it was a Kay SG with four strings which I enthusiastically took to school to show him. (He owned a stunning fender elite ultra, a 60s gretsch and a 70s SG and was surprisingly supportive.)
Much of my time was then spent hanging around the music room and youth wing where my mates band would rehearse and, although I knew nothing about guitars, I knew that one particular type of guitar was way cooler than the others I saw there, and so was the guy that played it. 
The guitars that appealed to my teenage sensibilities had big fat strings and chunky machine heads and looked somehow ‘tougher’, and the guys that played them always had something aloof and cool about them. 
Apparently, these were ‘bass guitars’ - something I’d never heard of. I watched closely and the concept was explained to me. I knew right away It was for me. It just felt right. 
My birthday was coming up, and there was one bass guitar for sale locally, a blue Kaman GTX 53 pointy thing for £50.

My dad was very reluctant to part with the cash for a fad (to say the least), but I was determined and sure enough it was soon mine. I worked out that if I jammed the ‘record’ head in on my old 70s tape player and plugged into the mic socket with an adapter - it became an ‘amp’.

 

Two weeks later, the bass player in my mates  band quit and handed me the job, claiming I was better in two weeks than he was in two years, which was kind. I was on stage within two weeks of buying my first bass and playing full shows within a month or so, with both the aforementioned band and even depping for the school jazz band, where the music teacher said some very kind things!

I started off with the usual three note stuff - wild thing, rocking in the free world etc, but the songs that really made me want to go home and get working were  ‘throwing things’  and ‘kill your television’ by Ned’s Atomic Dustbin - two bass lines per song to figure out. 
That was the first few months of a journey that’s taken me to some of the UKs biggest and most prestigious venues and many of its dingy pub corners, plus radio, TV and MTV and magazines. 
30 years, (Well) over 300 basses and lord knows how many amps, pedals, gizmos and bad choices later I’m still out gigging every weekend and loving every second of the amazing journey that I’ve been on. 
Some people will do karaoke once and talk about that moment for years, so I never fail to appreciate how lucky I am to get to do what I do week in week out.  
It’s ace. 
This place has been pretty cool too. Just sayin’. 

Edited November 27, 2023 by gafbass02

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

While still at school, my sisters boyfriend gave me an acoustic guitar which was firewood really . He as trying to show me how to play Dr who riff . No plectrum, but a sixpence .

As I got older I met with some new friends who had les Paul and strat copies . I I managed to persuade mummy to get me a nice black les Paul copy from the catalogue , along with a jh s practice amp . That never really worked out ..

I was practicing feedback technices  like Ted Nugent and jimi Hendrix . I even purchased a glass bottleneck for blues slides.

Oh, and I had a large orange fuzz box . I sounded like Tom morello torturing cats . ( ok he wasn't around then ,but you get 5he picture)

The amp didn't take long to have permanent distortion ,whether it was required or not . Sounded intermittent , but Metal.

 

Said nice friend advised me ; " you have big hands , and a bass only has 4 strings ..try that". So , I got mummy to exchange guitar for a Hondo ii precision copy piece of heavy firewood  from the catalogue . That pretty much got me heading into the right direction .

All these  episodes were done before I went to my first gig . Lemmy , and geezer were the artists on record that immediately wanted me to be like . However, being crushed at the music machine and the marquee and being right infront of stevie Harris ,  he as the first live bass player who I thought was phenomenal ..

[Chezz55]

On 25/11/2023 at 13:02, Cosmo Valdemar said:

This, aged 8.

 

 

Like Cosmo Valdemar - This ^^^   and trying a friend's Hofner bass guitar.  I was and still am 'Addicted To Bass'.

[Daz39]

I was in 6th form and a mate brought a nylon-string cheapy classical guitar to school; he was doing Music lessons (which were all classical and which I had no interest in.) This was about 1994 so we did some noodling learning some basic chords for popular music of the time like Alice in Chains, Nirvana, etc. 

My Dad had a small vinyl collection that included Dark Side of the Moon, that I listened to at home. A Lot. He also had some Shadows discs which I enjoyed. Sure enough, on my 18th Birthday, after following 18 clues (no one else do this?) I opened the loft hatch and there was a Jim Harley Strat in CAR, with budget amp.

I played that thing 'til my fingers were short, and learned lots of basic bits of songs I liked. I was convinced it was a poor guitar and I couldn't play any faster than David Gilmour (my first guitar muse) - but at Uni my mate Jason, who was a shredder picked it up and widdled out some Bach-esque lines on it.

 

First term of Uni - 1995, I met a chap at the D&D club (oh yes. unashamed nerd/geek/dweeb) - who was a few years older, and a massive Rush fan. He introduced them to me at his place by putting Hold Your Fire on. I heard the bass chords to Force Ten and suddenly guitar strings were too thin and puny for me.

 

I bought a Yamaha 4-string, followed the next year by an RBX 5 string when another mate introduced me to Dream Theater - and that was that. TE Boxer Amp then became an SMX250 and I was away, printing bass tabs on the Uni dot matrix printers and Pentium PCs (wow, shiny fast new world of tech!), and playing along to my growing collection of Rush discs and other prog-titles as time went on.

 

Was in a band of sorts at one rehearsal but it fell apart and since then it sort of just stayed as bedroom playing. Then I had kids and it's all away in corners of rooms now but I will get them out when room allows.

Edited November 27, 2023 by Daz39

[Leonard Smalls]

My mother was a piano teacher, so we had a rather lovely Pfeiffer upright, which from about 3 years old I  spent much time at, picking out thirds, and generally noodling. When I was four my mother began to teach me a few minuets and pieces. I could play them faultlessly with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time.  At the age of five, I was composing little pieces, which I played to my mother who wrote them down and published them as "Nannerl Notebuch" (she's German). When I was 6 I started a three year tour, playing to the crowned heads of Europe, and while on tour at age eight wrote my first symphony. Further tours followed, with numerous concertos, symphonies and operas.

Then at the height of my child-prodigy fame I heard music the like of which I'd never heard before; it was sung by a strange limping man and it had this crazy syncopation, which I discovered came from something called "the bass guitar" - the song was called "Hit me with Your Rhythm stick". So I forgot all about all that piano nonsense, and journeyed into bass, discovering the likes of Parliament and Bootsy, Fatback, James Brown et al.

By now I was shunned by the classical establishment, somehow my head was shaven on the sides and down the middle was a plume of black hair. I spent my time plucking away on a very battered acoustic guitar with the 2 high strings missing, yearning for the day that I could properly take part in The Joy of Bass.

Then one day as I took my evening constitutional on the mean streets of Hyde Park, Leeds I heard music. Music with a strong beat, and there was phat bass! I ventured into the house, and there was a party going on where all manner of people cavorted in various stages of ecstasy. As I wandered deeper, into the basement, there were some youths playing guitar, drums, keyboards and there was a bass. On its own. With no-one playing it. So I plucked up courage and strapped on the bass. Somebody handed me a strange and rather large cigarette, and soon we were a band. 

A month or so later Dredd and the Badass Weeds did their first gig. Followed by quite a few more - most of them quite chaotic, some of them lasting for many hours. And after 40 years, we've finally (almost) produced our first mini LP.

 

[NancyJohnson]

I was in love with The Sweet; I found myself drawn to Steve Priest's little bass breaks in some of the b-sides/album tracks.  I think the breaking point was the inner cover of Desolation Boulevard, the band looking normal.  I had no idea what a Rickenbacker 4001 was at that point, but deep in my conscience I needed a bit of that. 

 

[Rich]

The first time I really noticed the bass was at a concert at the Albert Hall when I was 7 or 8 or so. I distinctly remember pointing at the bassist and telling my mum that I could feel what 'that man with the guitar' was playing, making my tummy flutter. If memory serves correctly, it was a sunburst Fender of some sort. 
From that moment on, my ears instantly homed in on the bass whenever I listened to music. When ska hit in 1979, I wanted to be Horace Panter -- he was the Specials for me. And when a bunch of us in the 6th form decided to form a band, there was only really one choice for me. First influences were Horace, Dave Steele of The Beat, then Tony Butler of Big Country. And then one night, I saw Mark King on the telly and he quite literally changed my life. 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Rich

[Dad3353]

1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

...When I was 6 I started a three year tour, playing to the crowned heads of Europe, and while on tour at age eight wrote my first symphony. Further tours followed, with numerous concertos, symphonies and operas...

 

Beware your 35th birthday. 

 

...

 

 

[snorkie635]

1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

My mother was a piano teacher, so we had a rather lovely Pfeiffer upright, which from about 3 years old I  spent much time at, picking out thirds, and generally noodling. When I was four my mother began to teach me a few minuets and pieces. I could play them faultlessly with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time.  At the age of five, I was composing little pieces, which I played to my mother who wrote them down and published them as "Nannerl Notebuch" (she's German). When I was 6 I started a three year tour, playing to the crowned heads of Europe, and while on tour at age eight wrote my first symphony. Further tours followed, with numerous concertos, symphonies and operas.

Then at the height of my child-prodigy fame I heard music the like of which I'd never heard before; it was sung by a strange limping man and it had this crazy syncopation, which I discovered came from something called "the bass guitar" - the song was called "Hit me with Your Rhythm stick". So I forgot all about all that piano nonsense, and journeyed into bass, discovering the likes of Parliament and Bootsy, Fatback, James Brown et al.

By now I was shunned by the classical establishment, somehow my head was shaven on the sides and down the middle was a plume of black hair. I spent my time plucking away on a very battered acoustic guitar with the 2 high strings missing, yearning for the day that I could properly take part in The Joy of Bass.

Then one day as I took my evening constitutional on the mean streets of Hyde Park, Leeds I heard music. Music with a strong beat, and there was phat bass! I ventured into the house, and there was a party going on where all manner of people cavorted in various stages of ecstasy. As I wandered deeper, into the basement, there were some youths playing guitar, drums, keyboards and there was a bass. On its own. With no-one playing it. So I plucked up courage and strapped on the bass. Somebody handed me a strange and rather large cigarette, and soon we were a band. 

A month or so later Dredd and the Badass Weeds did their first gig. Followed by quite a few more - most of them quite chaotic, some of them lasting for many hours. And after 40 years, we've finally (almost) produced our first mini LP.

Thatzart.

 

[Cliff Edge]

On 25/11/2023 at 11:41, snorkie635 said:

I suppose everyone on BC has their own story regarding why they first started playing bass. For some it might have been to emulate a 'hero'; others may have started simply to get into playing; perhaps it was to gain 'coolness', to attract someone, to make money, to become 'famous'? Perhaps your parents had a role? Could have been friends?
 

I began playing whilst in High School, when a bunch of 15-year olds decided to form a band. We had zero idea how to play, what to buy, how to rehearse, gig, or even to tune our instruments. It sounded like you might imagine, but somehow, I owe it to these guys from half a century ago. All but two of us stopped playing decades ago - some never made it to gigging, but they helped me enter a world, which although it cost me a fortune over the years, I would never have dreamed was out there.

 

So, c'mon, who/what gave you your inspiration? Give them a shout and we'll see commonality we all share.

Remarkably similar to you, schoolmates start a band need a bass player. Up to that point I was a dismal guitar player with I think 6 chords, might have been 5. Our school music teacher was helpful allowing us to practice in the school after hours. The original band went nowhere but one of the guitar players and I did go on to join up with a couple of older boys and do a few gigs until that folded. I carried on and have a great time, earning more than a few Bob in the process but what happened to the others I have no idea. One regret I have is that I never kept in touch with any of my schoolmates when I left school. Unlike my wife and my children who I’m pleased to say still support me in what is a consuming hobby. 

[Jackroadkill]

I first picked up a bass when I was in fifth form.   I was sixteen and wanted to form a band with my mates.  Unfortunately I had no musical theory, experience or talent, and although I (thought I) could write songs, this wasn't enough.  There were five of us, and as the other lads got their instruments first, I realised that I was going to have to suck it up and be the bass player.  Anyway, we sucked, I sucked and the band sucked.  We only had a few rehearsals and none of us hand any idea what the hell we were doing.  By the time university came around I sacked the bass off and spent the next goodness-knows-how-long (20 years or so, probably) kidding myself that I could play guitar.  I played in bands and played lots of gigs but, had I been honest with myself, I'd have said that I was an incredibly mediocre rhythm guitarist at best.  I could do the power and attitude bit fine, but not the playing ability bit.

 

Anyway, about eighteen months ago my then-band folded, and I was faced with the grim reality of my situation.  I was never going to make it as a guitarist or songwriter.  For a laugh I suggested to some friends that we form a covers band, and for some reason decided I'd give bass another try.  We did, I did and I bloody love it.  There's something I get from bass that I never ever had from playing the guitar - I just love it.  The band is good, I'm gigging again and those four strings are far more rewarding that six ever were.

 

I still suck, but I JDGAS.

[snorkie635]

20 hours ago, Cliff Edge said:

Remarkably similar to you, schoolmates start a band need a bass player. Up to that point I was a dismal guitar player with I think 6 chords, might have been 5. Our school music teacher was helpful allowing us to practice in the school after hours. The original band went nowhere but one of the guitar players and I did go on to join up with a couple of older boys and do a few gigs until that folded. I carried on and have a great time, earning more than a few Bob in the process but what happened to the others I have no idea. One regret I have is that I never kept in touch with any of my schoolmates when I left school. Unlike my wife and my children who I’m pleased to say still support me in what is a consuming hobby. 

Good for you Cliff. Long may your enjoyment continue. Search for your mates on-line. It can be fairly easy to find them once one is in the bag. Good luck.

[snorkie635]

20 hours ago, Jackroadkill said:

I first picked up a bass when I was in fifth form.   I was sixteen and wanted to form a band with my mates.  Unfortunately I had no musical theory, experience or talent, and although I (thought I) could write songs, this wasn't enough.  There were five of us, and as the other lads got their instruments first, I realised that I was going to have to suck it up and be the bass player.  Anyway, we sucked, I sucked and the band sucked.  We only had a few rehearsals and none of us hand any idea what the hell we were doing.  By the time university came around I sacked the bass off and spent the next goodness-knows-how-long (20 years or so, probably) kidding myself that I could play guitar.  I played in bands and played lots of gigs but, had I been honest with myself, I'd have said that I was an incredibly mediocre rhythm guitarist at best.  I could do the power and attitude bit fine, but not the playing ability bit.

 

Anyway, about eighteen months ago my then-band folded, and I was faced with the grim reality of my situation.  I was never going to make it as a guitarist or songwriter.  For a laugh I suggested to some friends that we form a covers band, and for some reason decided I'd give bass another try.  We did, I did and I bloody love it.  There's something I get from bass that I never ever had from playing the guitar - I just love it.  The band is good, I'm gigging again and those four strings are far more rewarding that six ever were.

 

I still suck, but I JDGAS.

Excellent. Give it welly - the more you put in, the more you'll get out (that's the theory anyway!)

[SamIAm]

Oh wow ... such great stories to be found here!

 

I'm a relative toddler ... from a bass playing perspective 🤣

 

After years of trying to learn to play the acoustic guitar, I was successful learning the sax ... sadly some nerve damage ended that as I can no longer hold embrochure for more than a minute or two 

 

About 12 years ago I picked up my first ukulele at a friends BBQ and fell in love!  When I moved down to Brighton area a few years later I joined a ukulele band and about 2016 fancied a change, so put down my tenor uke, picked up a bass uke and fell in love all over again; by the time we reconviened after covid, I'd started playing a sub short scale bass guitar (Intonation adjustment being much better) and ... that was it for me!  Still playing sub-short scale bass and bass uke (My old fingers struggle with the fret span of long scale and my injured back likes their light weight).

 

S'manth x

[NJE]

According to my parents I had a fascination with music from a young age and used to listen to my parents tapes and fall asleep next to the hifi. As I got older I had a strong love of music and it resonated with me a lot stronger than other kids my age.

 

When I was about 10 my dad started playing guitar with a friend of his in the kitchen every now and again. Neither me or mum knew that he had been a very talented musician when he was younger and mingled/crossed paths with some incredibly famous musicians (pre fame) who were similar ages to him. He gave it all up for decades and then the jamming turned into him forming a duo with his friend and they started playing gigs. I will come to why this is relevant in a bit…

 

I remember getting Extreme II Pornograffitti on tape and when I was 15 I made a conscious decision that if I ever wanted to make music that had such a huge impact on me like that album and many others did, I needed to learn an instrument before it was too late.

 

I think there were so many guitarists around that I decided bass would be a good idea, so my dad bought me a bass for my birthday, probably excited about me becoming interested in an instrument like him. I picked it up really quickly and also dabbled with acoustic guitar at the same time.

 

Within a year I was playing in my dads band and gigging regularly after recruiting a drummer and sax player. I gigged from 16 - 21 with my dads band and I earned enough to not have to get a regular job while I was at uni.

 

So it was probably a combination of living and being really moved by music when I was very young and then seeing my dad play that tipped the balance and made me play.

[meterman]

In 1989 I was singing and playing guitar in a band and we’d had a single out already and we had a studio session booked, then the week before the session our bassist and drummer quit.

 

Initially me and the other guitar player thought “büggèr”. But then we remembered that drums were both our 1st instruments, so we could cover the drum parts, and just went to the local music shop and bought the cheapest bass, a Shaftesbury Tele bass, for £65. Decades old flatwound strings and all. We took turns at muddling through on bass, but I kept at it and loved it.
 

Might not have bought a bass if our bassist hadn’t quit. In a way it was a shame because he was excellent.

[Dan Dare]

I learned the violin (and later the fiddle - they may be the same instrument, but the uses to which they are put are very different). My family was London Irish, so I got into traditional music in my teens.

 

Friends started getting bands together and I wanted in. The trouble was, back in the 1970s, playing violin/fiddle was not cool, so I had to find a way in. One day, I heard Smokey Robinson's "Tears of a Clown" on the radio and the bass part leapt out at me. It drove the song (I originally thought it was Jamerson, but learned later it was Bob Babbit) and I thought, "I want to do that".

 

The bass turned out to be a good choice. Virtually everyone wanted to be playing guitar, so bass players were in more demand and I found myself being offered gigs quite quickly. I had some technique from the fiddle I could adapt, which meant I could get round the neck, could read and had a decent ear.

[snorkie635]

3 hours ago, Smanth said:

Oh wow ... such great stories to be found here!

 

I'm a relative toddler ... from a bass playing perspective 🤣

 

After years of trying to learn to play the acoustic guitar, I was successful learning the sax ... sadly some nerve damage ended that as I can no longer hold embrochure for more than a minute or two 

 

About 12 years ago I picked up my first ukulele at a friends BBQ and fell in love!  When I moved down to Brighton area a few years later I joined a ukulele band and about 2016 fancied a change, so put down my tenor uke, picked up a bass uke and fell in love all over again; by the time we reconviened after covid, I'd started playing a sub short scale bass guitar (Intonation adjustment being much better) and ... that was it for me!  Still playing sub-short scale bass and bass uke (My old fingers struggle with the fret span of long scale and my injured back likes their light weight).

 

S'manth x

You are always a more-than-positive person on BC. Long may your journey continue. My guess is that someone of your attitude in a band, would be a Godsend. Best. Snorkie.

[snorkie635]

1 hour ago, NJE said:

According to my parents I had a fascination with music from a young age and used to listen to my parents tapes and fall asleep next to the hifi. As I got older I had a strong love of music and it resonated with me a lot stronger than other kids my age.

 

When I was about 10 my dad started playing guitar with a friend of his in the kitchen every now and again. Neither me or mum knew that he had been a very talented musician when he was younger and mingled/crossed paths with some incredibly famous musicians (pre fame) who were similar ages to him. He gave it all up for decades and then the jamming turned into him forming a duo with his friend and they started playing gigs. I will come to why this is relevant in a bit…

 

I remember getting Extreme II Pornograffitti on tape and when I was 15 I made a conscious decision that if I ever wanted to make music that had such a huge impact on me like that album and many others did, I needed to learn an instrument before it was too late.

 

I think there were so many guitarists around that I decided bass would be a good idea, so my dad bought me a bass for my birthday, probably excited about me becoming interested in an instrument like him. I picked it up really quickly and also dabbled with acoustic guitar at the same time.

 

Within a year I was playing in my dads band and gigging regularly after recruiting a drummer and sax player. I gigged from 16 - 21 with my dads band and I earned enough to not have to get a regular job while I was at uni.

 

So it was probably a combination of living and being really moved by music when I was very young and then seeing my dad play that tipped the balance and made me play.

Tremendous story. Exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for when I started this thread. The stories from people are inspiring. Thanks for your contribution

[Cliff Edge]

2 hours ago, NJE said:

According to my parents I had a fascination with music from a young age and used to listen to my parents tapes and fall asleep next to the hifi. As I got older I had a strong love of music and it resonated with me a lot stronger than other kids my age.

 

When I was about 10 my dad started playing guitar with a friend of his in the kitchen every now and again. Neither me or mum knew that he had been a very talented musician when he was younger and mingled/crossed paths with some incredibly famous musicians (pre fame) who were similar ages to him. He gave it all up for decades and then the jamming turned into him forming a duo with his friend and they started playing gigs. I will come to why this is relevant in a bit…

 

I remember getting Extreme II Pornograffitti on tape and when I was 15 I made a conscious decision that if I ever wanted to make music that had such a huge impact on me like that album and many others did, I needed to learn an instrument before it was too late.

 

I think there were so many guitarists around that I decided bass would be a good idea, so my dad bought me a bass for my birthday, probably excited about me becoming interested in an instrument like him. I picked it up really quickly and also dabbled with acoustic guitar at the same time.

 

Within a year I was playing in my dads band and gigging regularly after recruiting a drummer and sax player. I gigged from 16 - 21 with my dads band and I earned enough to not have to get a regular job while I was at uni.

 

So it was probably a combination of living and being really moved by music when I was very young and then seeing my dad play that tipped the balance and made me play.

Great story.  My dad played the piano and had a Thomas electronic organ in the front room, which my mother hated. Not sure about the neighbours. He bought me my first bass, a Framus Star. I have two kids, one of each, and neither of them followed me into seriously playing music, which I’m sad about really. But they both enthusiastically encourage me to carry on playing gigs  
🙂