My father was naturally musical, he was born in Trinidad in 1911 - no. I'm not 70, he was 'knocking on' when my sister and I were born. It was a different life back there and back then - although slavery was abolished some seventy eight years earlier, old attitudes hung on and the Negroes were encouraged to stay in their place and discouraged from bettering themselves - despite this, my dad went on to qualify as a Dental Surgeon some forty years later.

There was no television or radio and folk entertained themselves and each other. Music played a large part and my dad was in various bands, mostly calypso. His first instrument was clarinet but like most musicians of the time he learnt to play various instruments in order to be able to make up a band. He has described elements of his life in Trinidad in his autobiographical novel Bridging The Gap Sideways.

He transferred the joy of music to his offspring and I was lucky to have piano lessons at an early age. I enjoyed the formal lessons but I much preferred spending time at the piano making things up and figuring things out. I later developed a liking for the violin and was fortunate to be supplied with lessons, by my early teens I hankered after electric guitar and my grandmother lent me £20 to buy an Egmond! It had a neck like a tree trunk but it was a start. I stayed with guitar (but piano continued to be a useful tool) I later added voice - now my first instrument - and then bass as it was similar to guitar and meant duo gigs could be more satisfying, with bass, piano and voice. I have always had a leaning toward rhythm, drumming on tables and trying to capture some of that Brazilian stuff, so it was natural to include congas and some percussion.