the road...

So a few weeks have passed since I got home from The Autumn Saints tour supporting New Model Army. We travelled over 2000 miles in 11 days, playing all over the UK and it was an absolute triumph for the band. Being on the road is one of my favourite places to be. I like travel, so combining that with playing my guitar every night, that's the great payoff of my job. But it can be hard work if you're not prepared for it. 

A normal day on this tour, went like this for me;

Make sure I'm up and ready to get breakfast at the hotel around 9am. I know we will be travelling for anything up to 3 hours to the next venue and won't be stopping for lunch so I fuel up on the hotel buffet. It's tricky to eat healthily. I'm a growing lad. I can't function on an empty stomach! Be ready for Bus Call usually at 11am. Head off for the next town.

Arrive at the hotel we'll be staying in just long enough to check in, dump bags and get gig clothes together. Drive to the venue for load in around 4pm. On this tour, NMA were really gracious to us. They had their soundchecks done and dusted by the time we arrived at every venue so there was never any rush. I always play a better show if I'm not feeling harassed or hurried up. Load the gear in, get sound checked then....hang around. The hours before showtime eventually pass and then the part of the day I love kicks in. Venue doors open and before long we're in the dressing room getting ready. The jokes, the gentle piss takes, are all ways of prepping for the gig. That moment when the band walk up the steps to the stage is always one of my favourite times. The rehearsals, the backroom stuff, all lead up to this moment. Then, it's a count in and we're off to the races. The gig goes by in a blink of an eye. You've hit your marks, you've hopefully played all the right notes in all the right order. You look into the crowd and see that they're on your side. It's an incredible feeling. No time to wallow in the applause though. As a support band, you do your show, you get off. So we rush the gear off, pack away, get back to the dressing room and change back into civvys. Get the van loaded and after the show has finished and the night come to it's conclusion, it's back to the hotel to try and unwind. Then repeat another nine times....

There are many illusions surrounding this level of touring - I'll not shatter them. That's what gives it it's appeal I guess. I've done many tours now. I've got my way of handling it down to a fine art. Mostly that involves having clean clothes, Vitamin tablets and my morning pint of hot lemon and ginger water! Phew, eh readers!?? "It's a goddamn impossible way of life" as Robbie Robertson once said. But I wouldn't change a minute of it. I'm a lucky man.....

(Thanks to NR Musicphotography for the pic)

Coming to the end of another year as a professional musician. Some things change, some stay the same. I can't say it hasn't been a frustrating year, but on the whole, it's been varied and interesting again. Frustrating because I'm still not fully scratching the live itch that I have. Being on stage is my happy place. As mentioned before, I love touring. Is it ego? Of course. I read a description of a musician recently and it summed us up perfectly. "A musician is someone with a massive ego but a huge inferiority complex". Every performer is secretly shouting "Look at me" whilst always having a voice whispering "You're not good enough". That's OK. It drives me on even after all these years.

This year I've kept my "Guitar For Hire" role alive by depping for a wide variety of bands and styles. From the Boogie Woogie piano of Liam Grundy, to the jangly Americana of "Starry Eyed And Laughing", the songwriting of Annie Howie, Ella Spencer and James Hodder, the local Blues bands where I get my pub rock fix, to the Reggae infused style of Fowokan, all have kept me on my toes learning their material and hopefully serving them all to the best of my ability. It's part of the job that I love. 

As a guitar tutor, one of the absolute best parts of it is helping students achieve the goal of them playing live to an audience. It's happened to a couple of my students this year. It's a massive leap to do for anyone and as a tutor, totally rewarding to see this materialise.

I've done a couple of solo appearances which I've really enjoyed. After all these years as a side man, it's good to step out front and play some of my own material. A great sold out show with James Hodder in March was really well received and a couple of shows at the legendary Betsey Trotwood have all helped me road test my songs so that hopefully, 2025 will be the year I can finally get around to making that album I've been muttering about for the last few years!!

In June, I joined The Autumn Saints. They are led by North Carolina-native, now Oxford based, Britt Strickland and play all original material. Don't ask me to describe it but it's a lot of fun to play live!  New dates for 2025 are coming so keep an eye out for us in your town and on festival stages.

So roll on 2025. I'm playing better than ever, have more miles on the fretboard and am as excited and enthusiastic as I was when I was 18. I'm still looking for projects to get involved with. Bands and Artists to join. You know how to find me.....

Keep safe. Be kind. And see ya down the road......

Christmas 1973. Slade are at No.1 with "Merry Xmas Everybody" and a 10 year old me is desperate for a guitar. There's been a very cheap nylon strung one hanging around the house for years and I've been bitten by the bug. Christmas morning, and I must have been a good boy as Santa has left me a Kay E100 and a 5watt amp. I'm in heaven. It sort of looks the same as the one's I've seen on TV. It's got horns! It's electric! It's alive! As the song goes, I played it 'til my fingers bled. 1978. I join my first band and I'm sorry to say that my Kay isn't cutting it any more. I've seen copy guitars that really do look like Fender Strats and I now want one. My bandmate has a friend who wants a guitar. I sell it for £15. I buy a Satellite Strat. I'm off to the races.

Time passes and I've forgotten my Kay. I've joined bands, I've done OK. I've got real Fender Strats and Teles. I've got a Les Paul, I've got a small collection. I'm a jobbing musician. I travel, I gig. Gear comes and goes but I'm good at keeping my guitars. However, I see a documentary about a famous musician and at his home studio he's got a gazillion beautiful instruments, worth thousands, but the interviewer mentions an old one on the wall. It turns out to be his first electric. PING! I wonder whatever happened to mine?  I still keep in contact with my old bandmate and I ask if he remembers it. He sure does and is still in contact with his mate who bought it in '78 (keep up at the back...!) I ask, gently, if I could have it back but his pal says it's now with HIS mother who treasures it as her little boys' first guitar. Ah, that's OK, I say. At least it wasn't thrown away! Someone still gets joy from it.

Fast forward 10 years to two weeks ago. I now teach guitar at a local Arts Centre. There's a lady who has been coming a couple of months who approaches me after a lesson and says she has a guitar I might be interested in. I open the bag. It's my old Kay. It turns out she is the partner of the guy who bought it in 1978. He found out she was having lessons, and just in passing, asked the teachers name and when she said "Jim Maving", he remembered me and told her the story of the guitar. His mother passed this year and he wanted to give it to me.

So, back it came. It had two strings on it. Was pretty gunky! It hadn't really been played for a long time. But, my good friend, Alex Hughes, loves to tinker around with guitars. He a maestro! He stripped, cleaned and reassembled it and has restored it back to it's former glory.

This guitar started it all for me. I've travelled the world, played with great musicians, met fantastic people, had the best laughs, the best times all thanks to this one guitar. I just wish my parents were here to see it come home and to see what their boy did with its' help.