Throughout my childhood, one of the only things that remained constant was that I liked to draw pictures. I sometimes won competitions, and everyone said I would grow up to be a graphic artist. I didn't know what that was, but it didn't sound very exciting to me anyway. I got my first guitar around the age of twelve, and art went out the window. My old man used to say there was no point in having a guitar when I didn't even know how to tune it, but I waited patiently for an opportunity to learn.

When I was fourteen, to my surprise, our school got a guitar teacher. Even though he was to teach classical stuff, it was at least connected to what I wanted to do. So I learned finger positions and the odd minuet! We were told to only play the stuff he taught us. After the first lesson, I was told off for playing Clapton riffs: "You'll never learn" the teacher said, but I often thought, I bet I was the only one from that class who ever became a professional musician. When teachers pleaded with me to make some effort to study for exams, I used to say I didn't need any qualifications for what I wanted to do. They told me I might need something to fall back on - I said I was not going to fall back, and I was going to become a successful pop musician, and there was no two ways about it! With hindsight, I would say most people I knew along the way did fall back, but then I did what I said I would too.

In no time, some kind of an amateur band had been formed, and I think we even went on to do two or three rather sad gigs. Other than a move to London, I don't think much happened for a few years, except for the time when we advertised for a manager. I remember speaking on the phone to Simon Napier Bell, who had managed Marc Bolan and T Rex, and went on to manage George Michael. I don't know why I didn't follow up that contact, but instead ended up with a shady grocer from East London. The final straw was when he presented us with a handwritten contract that we were to go and sign in a pub on the docks. When we arrived, it looked like a scene from Treasure Island, so we didn't go in! After a while we ended up with a posy French/Iranian manager who drove a Rolls Royce, and got us a record deal. He was also managing The Police for a while before they became famous. By this time we were called The News, long before Huey Lewis, I think. An interesting little aside is that one of the first times Classix Nouveaux played in New York, the opening band was Huey Lewis and the News!

the early years