Graham and me

I'm working on a writing project with my brother Graham at his home on the South Coast of England. As a break from all the ‘head work’ of writing I start to pick out Dr Feelgood riffs on his daughter’s acoustic guitar. Graham starts to sing along on these rhythm and blues songs we know so well from our childhood; it's nothing more than an amusing distraction, a mixture of fun tinged with a twist of nostalgia.

The next time we work together we move up a step: I've brought my electric guitar and a small amp with me and we stop work early to have a bit of a jam with Graham on drums. It becomes obvious that we're getting more joy out of these sessions than the writing project itself and so we abandon that but resolve to take the music a bit further.

At first we just jam with friends and contacts who are into the blues but without any real focus the music soon ends up sounding messy. Both of us want to take the inevitable next step and form a band. Surely there are other people out there who love the same music as we do and want to play it? The only way to find out is to place an ad in a local paper, and this is where it really begins.

2007