Where were you born?
I was born in Ashington and have lived around Northumberland all my life.
When did you start to play?
I started to play electric guitar when I was 15. I got my first guitar for my birthday, it was an encore black strat copy. The first riff I learned was run to the hills by Iron Maiden.
Previous Projects:
The first band I was part of was a classic rock covers band called Takahaad, we gigged mainly around the pubs in Northumberland and played at local festivals. I also played a tribute night to a guitarist named John Brookes who had been in a band called Turek who were around in the 80’s. We revived the Turek songs and played some rock/metal covers.
Influences:
I first started listening to music when I was very young, mainly Queen and Meat Loaf. One night my mam said “listen to this” and played me Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne and I had never heard anything like it before. It was from then on that I started searching through my parents record collection finding bands like Iron Maiden, Sabbath, AC/DC, Guns n Roses etc. My uncle then further influenced my musical tastes more going into heavier stuff like Saxon, Motörhead, Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer and many many more rock metal bands.
My main guitar influences I would say are definitely Dave Murray and Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden, Tony Iommi, Zakk Wylde, Richie Faulkner, Michael Schenker, Jeff Loomis, Randy Rhodes and Paul Kossoff, so quite a few.
Gear I Use:
I play with an Epiphone Tony Iommi signature guitar and a Gibson Tony Iommi signature replica. The amp I use is a Hughes & Kettner Grandmeister 36 with an Orange 4×12 cab. For effects I use a Boss Chromatic tuner, Boss volume pedal, Catalinbread Sabbra Cadabra distortion pedal and a TC electronic sentry noise gate.
Desert Island Disk:
If there was only one album I could take on a desert island, it would have to be Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden. For me I think it has every style of music that I love within the one album and I still listen to it over and over. I don’t think I will ever tire of that album.
Something strange about me:
I have been, on many occasions told that I look like Roy Wood from Wizard.