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GW: Yes, that was my first experience of it, really.

BiTS: Tell me something about what happened next. I gather from my research that you got
into synthesisers for a while.

GW: Yes, well in the 80s, I’d sort of been in and out of bands and then life takes over in that you
get married, you’re settling down, buying a house and a serious job, so the music went a bit on the
back burner, but because of the boom in synths and stuff in the 80s in the music scene, I took about

learning to play a keyboard at home just as a bit of a pastime and sort of got into that. I soon
realised that my heart was solely set on the blues
from the early days, so I moved back then to
guitar and getting back playing with blues bands.

BiTS: Round about that time when you were
younger, what blues music were you listening

to?

GW: Like most people of our age, I was a big fan
of Rory Gallagher. I’ve seen him many times live,
and of course, from seeing the likes of Savoy
Brown, Chicken Shack, Fleetwood Mac, all the
usual British blues boom guys, it then gets you

looking deeper, and I was quite lucky to see some
of the old blues legends as well like Albert King,
Homesick James, a few of the old blues guys who
did tours at the blues festivals up round Burnley, I
managed to catch a few up there as well.

BiTS: I never did see Albert King. That’s an

absolutely tremendous achievement. Was he
smoking a pipe while he was playing?

GW: [Laughing]. Not quite no, but yeah, he was Homesick James
very laid back. Homesick James was amazing. He
sat on the stage very smartly dressed with a suit
and hat, sat down with his acoustic guitar miked up and he had a guy on piano behind him who was

there to accompany him, and he just totally ignored this guy. Poor guy on piano and he had to try to
improvise and fill in best he could. But when he’d finished his set, everybody’s cheering and
wanting more for an encore and he just said nope, sorry. I’m off to bed now. I’m up early tomorrow,
I’m going fishing.

BiTS: [Laughs]. I love it.

GW: An amazing line [chuckling]. Great guy. Yes, I’ve been quite lucky. I think we as a generation
have been quite lucky that we’ve had the chance to see so many fantastic artists that have really put

their stamp face on he music.

BiTS: I think at some stage, Ged, you actually went, I’m not sure whether it was with a band
or by yourself, to Chicago.

GW: Yes, I did. What it was, I had a band which I sort of fronted in the 90s. We did loads and loads
of gigs and when that ended after a few years, I then joined a band based from North Manchester