--Cont. (Interested in the influences part 6)

I do search for some lift, some high, some sigh..and I'm no music snob so I don't care if it's Hearts's "Mistral Wind" or Hank Williams "I'm so lonesome I could cry" - the effect on me is the effect on me..

    You really could walk in my house and find Dexys Midnight Runners or Robert Johnson or The Carpenters on the stereo..

    I sometimes worry I sound like a crude, confused mish-mash of all those things condensed into one man and a guitar..hmmm..

    Partly because of my own inability to lead and inability to explain what is in my head musically and partly because of where I happen to live and who is around/not around I never have that nice group of sympathetic players with me to evoke that 'fuller' feeling of the 'rapture' tracks' I mentioned above.

    Even in the early 90s when I had people as good as Lee Allatson on drums and Dominic Bentham on bass - the best KH band line-up ever - I didn't inspire them, I felt like I led them on the road to nowhere, there was no conventional acceptence of us..If..IF we hit form we played stunning versions of fantastic original songs folk..chatted at the bar..

    I did the 12 Bar Club a couple of years back and this singer-songwriter had pretty girls on cellos and stuff with him, the whole Nick Drake trip - the kind of thing people think is 'good'.I get to thinking "How do I compete with that?"...Somehow..I do..!

    Must be those old "Art Songs" doing their magic after all Wes lol!

    You ask me about guitars.For me the instruments are very important to the result I get. In the Factory days I used a Gibson SG then a Fender Strat with the odd bit of Yamaha FG180 acoustic. I knew of nobody going around solo with an electric guitar back then..until I saw Billy Bragg on TV.I was baffled - I thought he sounded 'blokey' and spouted out right on lyrics for left wing luvvies..of course he totally eclipsed me.

    On the other end of the scale in 1983 I did a gig with Ben Watt where he too played solo electric, a big hollow bodied jazzer - audience reaction was ok for me..and rapturous for him..doing stuff like "The Girl form Ipinema" - I bitterly called him "Bossa Nova Ben" to John Hollingsworth from Cherry Red that night - Queen Bitch! (Continued on next page--)