I got a guitar for Christmas when I was 11 and took to it straight away, which surprised my father as I was one of those kids who had every hobby going for at least 10 minutes. My father started singing and playing guitar in the clubs and I started joining him on stage at the age of 13, which was a good grounding for me and great experience.
Two weeks before I left school my father and mother [who had now been drafted by Dad playing bass guitar] and myself were doing a tour in Scotland, we worked with a three piece band there who had landed a resident band contract for a nightclub and caberet venue in Aberdeen but were short a guitar player, after watching us I was offered the job, but I was 16 and still had two weeks of school left, it was a big decision and I talked it over with my parents, they both knew that musically it was the right thing to do and I wanted to do it so it was settled.  I joined the band two weeks later and lived and worked in Aberdeen for the next five years.
The experience I got there was fantastic, I had to learn to sightread music because we backed the various artistes that came to the clubs and we backed most of the big names of the day. The fact that we played different styles every week has stood me in good stead and I feel comfortable playing many types of music, which is essential to to do the many different backing tracks I have to do.
During that time I also started playing keyboards a lot and dabbling with drums, and that again helps with backing tracks, so various factors have come together to enable me to do what I do now, and so far I have never had a complaint about a backing track. I hope this has given some background without boring everyone to death!

I am first and foremost a guitar player, and what I love doing most is writing and recording instrumental music, so I will be adding an album of my own music for sale soon if anyone needs a doorstop!!