DOB: 22/04/86
Instrument: Guitar
Musical Influences: Peter Booth,Ian Kelleher, Jimi Hendrix and inadvertently Martin Carthy.

I’ve been involved with music all of my life, I’ve been told that when I wasn’t in the pram I was in the pub with the Blackmore Morris Men listening to the likes of Jeff Giddings, Simon Ritchie and of course my old man bashing out some fantastic tunes. This has probably influenced me more than I realise, however I do think the great Freud would have something to say about it in years to come! I remember my first musical experience at the grand old age of 10, I remember seeing Peter Booth (A jazz and folk Guitarist for my parents ceilidh band) as this mountainous figure dwarfing his Gretsch guitar on stage at some Barn dance. As a scrawny little kid who could play the 3-chord trick I was greatly impressed by this man as he silkily shuffled his fingers up and down the fingerboard with minimal effort but with a fantastic result. His approach to guitar playing has influenced me ever since and I will no longer resort to the three chord trick and if I do, I’ll do my best to make it sound as good as Pete’s.

At 11 I had my first guitar lesson with Ian Kelleher, he’s this incredibly dexterous classical guitarist and really nice bloke. He gave me an insight to how much work and hours you have to put in to play guitar, so I used to practice without fail 2 hours a night, Ian showed me how the guitar works and for that I will be forever thankful. I had lessons with Ian for two years and passed four grades in that time. I was proud of myself but realised all I could play was classical music.That was about to change…

At 13 I discovered Jimi Hendrix.I bought 6 albums, two posters, 4 videos and one book, and discovered the ancient art of bedroom guitar playing with a 65watt Marshall amp and an incredibly sized ego. However my tastes were starting to worry me as I fell into the trap of Led Zeppellin and Pink Floyd. Then I hit the lowest point so far, I joined my first band - Brian Maiden.

We were the one-gig wonders, a one night special performance to raise money for charity on New Years Eve. I played wildly (lead) guitar. The least said about that the better. However something good always comes out of a catastrophe; I met Danny Crump.

I instantly liked Danny, he’s the kind of bloke that you want to meet when you’re young because you know that when you’re old and grey you can bore your children senseless about the chaotic things you did together. His been my closest friend ever since.

I met Alex on holiday, the grandson of the Southwold town crier John Barber. I instantly liked Alex as well, he was quiet and thoughtful but when he said something it would either be something profound or something incredibly funny. As we busked together I started to work him out. He’s a nice bloke, its not his fault that he’s from Suffolk.

Well that’s about it really, we (me and James) decided to form Mawkin, when we were asked to play at Dartmoor Folk Festival, Danny (who had been playing folk music for 48 hours) joined the ranks a week before Dartmoor, Alex joined the year after (at Dartmoor) and that’s it….for now.

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Dave