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NS: Yeah. So do I collect guitars? If 20 is a collection, yes, I do collect them. But I'm

certainly not a Joe Bonamassa or anybody like that. He's got more guitars than he
could play in a lifetime.

BiTS: Okay, let's move on a bit. So you probably got some experience of playing in

public. When did you first really become a rock and blues musician?

NS: I don't know. I would say I'm still working on that one, Ian, because I don't think
you ever get to where you want to go. You can point yourself in the right direction,

but you're always learning. You're always trying to do new things and sometimes you
take left turns at the crossroads. Sometimes you go straight ahead. I've been in a prog
rock band in the past and spent a lot of time doing prog rock because I wanted to

explore the technique of the guitar
rather than the emotion that it
expressed. I don't know how ridiculous

that sounds, but blues is something that
for a long time, I always had in my
bedroom. I was playing it in my

bedroom. I was in a new wave band,
two bands and one called Hazard, one
called The Moonwalkers, which were

kind of doing power pop. New wave
power pop in the late 70s. And then I
joined my brother's band, which again,

that was kind of pop music, but with a
heavy rocky edge.

BiTS: Tell me a little bit about the

wonderfully named Eric Street Band. I
laughed out loud when I read that
because it struck me that it's a clone of the E Street Band.

NS: Yeah. Don't know what it was. It was the fellow that I was with at the time, we
were co-writing with this fellow called Dennis Siggery, and he used to travel around.
He just saw Eric Street on a sign when he was out travelling one day and he said,

we're going to call ourselves the Eric Street Band [chuckling]. That's it. There's no
more than that. It was just decided that's what we'd be called.

BiTS: Well, let's move on. You've become very successful or getting more and more

successful as every week goes by. Your latest album, “Past And Present”, was the most
played album by IBBA members during last year.

NS: Yes.

BiTS: Tell me something about that album. It's got quite a lot of tracks on it, as I
recall. Is there one that’s your favourite?