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GW: No, I've sort of threatened to have a go at mandolin because I think it's something that I’d
take to. Every time I mention banjo, I get funny looks off people, so I've steered away from that
[chuckles], but no, that's something I wouldn't rule out and maybe something that I should take
the time to maybe have a go at mandolin and see what I can come up with.

BiTS: [Laughing] maybe I've inspired you.

GW: Yes, definitely.

BiTS: I know because of the album reviews that you do for Blues in The South, that you are very
widely, I was going to say very widely read, but you can't be read in sound, can you? You listen
to a lot of stuff. You’ve got a very wide range of interests. Where does that come from? I mean,
do you enthusiastically search out other kinds of music or what?

GW: I guess one thing leads to another. You pick up on some artists, you discuss with friends.

From the 70s we were quite lucky, really, 60s and 70s, we had such a wide range of music to go
at. So for example, this week I've been listening to stuff from the 60s, Crosby, Stills and Nash and
America, they're vocal harmonies, just reminding myself what fantastic songs and what you can
do with vocal harmonies and then you move on to the
start of funk, and you listen to Sly Stone and from that I
got into Gil Scott-Heron, which was really a more modern-
day blues in that his jazz influence, but it was about real
life in America. Just as our old blue stuff was from real life
in America and these things branch up. I've always been
a big fan of Miles Davis and you know, I like the jazz, so
I've got quite a big jazz influence as well. So quite
widespread really, but I think we were quite lucky with
our generation that we could do that through progressive
rock taking us in different directions. Over the years I’ve
seen so many different bands that's wide-ranging and
crossing so many musical boundaries.

BiTS: Now we'll talk about the new album in just a
moment, but tell me when was the first time you went in the studio to make an album or make
music that was recorded for yourself?

GW: Well, the very first time was back in the mid-1980s, and I’d always wanted to record a song.
I had a song of my own that I wanted to do, and I went to the studios in Salford in Manchester,
and I went equipped just with my guitar and we had a keyboard because keyboards were very
big in the 80s and managed to produce with the help of the recording engineer, a bass drum

sound out of a Spectrum, which was an attachment to a Sinclair Spectrum computer. And I
remember that we spent most of the day actually trying to create this kick drum sound and it
sounded great. Got it and recorded the song. That was my first experience, but my first serious
experience was probably back in 2010, when I recorded my first album, solo album, which was
in a proper studio really and done a bit more seriously.

BiTS: And tell me, what was the first one?

GW: First album. “Forever Now”, it's called.

BiTS: And how long ago was that?

GW: Yes, I think that was 2010.

BiTS: Okay, and there have been how many up til now?