Alan played violin at school in a big class, and unwittingly played by ear for five years (it must have been a big class, otherwise the teacher would have noticed him playing by ear instead of using his bow). He played without taking too much notice of the music, so unconsciously tended to ignore the development of learning to read the dots. However, he found to his cost the error of his ways when, at an audition for the Merseyside Youth Orchestra, he was asked to sight-read!

His formal musical career over, he then started playing mandolin when he was 17. There was an old banjo mandolin at home, which was a family heirloom, and as the tuning was the same as violin, he found the initial transition quite simple, with the main difference being that there were chords that could be played on mandolin. During this time, Alan started to write his first songs, but found it difficult when trying to come up with the music on mandolin. This initiated a move to guitar to develop the writing side and nearly 30 years later the move is still in progress. But mandolin has again started to have some influence, when, after discussions over the musical style of Two For His Heels, Alan decided to purchase a new mandolin, which has now started to feature in some of the songs.

From early days Alan's main influences were singer/songwriters such as Lindisfarne's Alan Hull and Ralph McTell. Largely self-taught, Alan's guitar style was greatly influenced by Dave Leach when Dave taught him the basics of clawhammer.

Alan plays...