“I’d always had an interest in guitar from about seven years old. But I first actually had lessons when I was about fifteen in Scotland, in Edinburgh.”

I think I come under the singer/songwriter badge. I’ve always written songs right from the very beginning. Because of my style of playing people tend of me more of a guitar player than a singer sometimes.

There was a folk club there and a girl called Jill Doyle taught me the guitar, who happened to be Davey Graham’s sister. Davey Graham is one of my heroes and always has been.

Fantastic guitar player. And he’s had a strong influence on me all the way through.

Im not one for showing off. But I guess my guitar-playing sticks out.

My guitar style was developed during that 10-year period. That’s me. That’s the way I play, and I don’t wish to play any other way. Our own individual identities are firmly stamped on this album.

My vocation is more in composition really than anything else – building up harmonies using the guitar, orchestrating the guitar like an army, a guitar army.

My original interests and intentions in guitar playing were primarily created on quality of tone, for instance, the way the instrument could be made to echo or simulate the human voice.

The Big Band Era is my era. People say, ‘Where did you get your style from?’ I did the Big Band Era on guitar. That’s the best way I could explain it.

Once I get onstage the tension explodes and I’m fine. I’m in another world – in a trance almost, doing what I love best, expressing myself through guitar.

Jimi Hendrix was the most exciting guitarist I’ve ever heard.

I played guitar all my life, all the way through the Yardbirds, but I knew that for me this was going to be a guitar vehicle, because that’s what I wanted it to be.

If you hand me a guitar, I’ll play the blues. That’s the place I automatically go.