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	Interview with John Prendo recorded 29th April 2002 driving back from a gig at the Turks Head, South Shields
	Pete: So John, when did you first start playing guitar? John: I was about fifteen years old. After a seven year stint of classical piano. About fifteen, sixteen year old? Pete: How come you started playing piano in the first instance? John: That was my mum's idea, because she was a classical pianist. It was a good base anyway, and I really enjoyed it. Except it was a mining village, and that was a little bit ... I used to get the piss taken out of me. But now I don't regret it. Pete: So you went through the grades on piano, and so on and so forth? John: Yeah, I went up to grade seven. There was just one more to do as well when I decided to pack it in. But then my brother took over, and he made a good classical pianist. Pete: This is South Yorkshire isn't it, you were living in South Yorkshire then, whereabouts was it in South Yorkshire? John: A little mining village called ... well, where I spent most of my life was a little place called Thurnscoe, yeah? In between Barnsley, Doncaster, Sheffield. Pete: Your dad was a miner wasn't he, and your mum, she played concert piano. That was odd, wasn't it? How was that? John: I don't know, I never asked my mum actually. I'm a pretty ignorant person, as far as demanding what other people do. It never really interested me that much. It's the here and now really, that always occupies my mind. Pete: So, what, you must have been at junior school when you started playing the piano initially, yeah? John: Seven years old. Which is about junior school. I don't even remember school really, that much. I remember getting beaten up once or twice. Pete: So how come you turned over to guitar, what prompted you do that? Classical is a real discipline isn't it, it's a different thing in a sense. How come you started playing the guitar? John: It sounded interesting. It was 19 - what would it be? Let's see. 1963? '64. There was a lot of guitar music going around. One in particular that really stuck in my mind, it's still a song that I play, and I was affected by it..... "Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan. I was on holiday in Skegness. I saw this arcade, with loads of young people, but older than me obviously, I was still at school. It just looked very interesting, and i heard that tune there and it affected me in a strong way. But the first guitarist that ever really affected me in a strong visual way - apart from blues records with T-Bone Walker and things .... because I got into blues piano as well, at the end of my classical .... playing with my mates, like you do. The first one that really knocked me out was seeing Jimi Hendrix doing "Hey Joe". I'd never, I don't think anybody had really seen a guitar used like that. Natural, such a natural thing happening. Pete: In a sense, Jimi Hendrix, that was quite late on wasn't it, in the history of rock and roll. Did you not, people like Eddie Cochran and the Ventures, were you aware of those people? John: I remember Jerry Reed, "Guitar Man", yeah, but he used to play a nylon-string guitar. Or it sounded that way, anyway. Apart from that there was Duane Eddy, which was a phenomenal sound. It still is. Another song with the same title as Jerry Reed's. "Hey everybody, come along if you can ... we're dancing to the guitar man". Is that the one? Twangy sort of ... That was an exciting sound. It still is. Pete: I used to have "Duane Eddy" written on the back of me school rucksack. John: I don't think his songs were particularly good, just that sound that he had. The songs were, you couldn't call them meaningful, but they always had a nice ... Pete: Tune. John: And what's wrong with that? At least they weren't stupid. Pete: Nice tunes. John: Why not dance to the guitar man? Pete: But if you listened to ... if Hendrix was the inspiration, that's in at the fucking deep end as far as playing goes. How did you teach yourself? Did you teach yourself to play guitar? John: Yeah, well, Hendrix was like ... it's like a lot of music that passes you by. It wasn't just guitar music, there was Bob Dylan. These people became popular artists, and the music was going out, so as you were walking down the street, as you were sitting among friends, you were getting your head filled with these things. I suppose you could you say, if you wanted to put it that way, that these people are to blame. But I wouldn't put it that way. I'd just put it that it was there, so it affects you. And whatever comes out after is a natural thing from that. It's learning isn't it, in a way. Pete: Who are these people? Are you talking about musicians, or are you talking about your friends, where you listened to this stuff? John: Everything. Popular music, blues, soul - I was in a soul band for a couple of years. That was the first band I was in, was the soul band. On piano, while I was picking up guitar. In Doncaster, of all places. Pete: Was that like Geno Washington and all the rest of it? John: James Brown, more than anything. All the "I Feel Good", "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", sort of thing. And a bit of Steve Winwood thrown in. Pete: What sort of keys were you playing then? John: I can't remember ... Pete: The Hammond sound, or ...? John: I think it was ... it's called a Hohner Pianette. Pretty dreadful. But my first two months in the band, we used to just stick a couple of microphones on a piano. In a pub, because all the pubs we played in had a piano. Pete: In tune? John: More than likely not. The sound was pretty bad, but it had a feeling to it. Pete: Were you singing then, or were you a side man? John: Just a side man, piano player. That was all at the time when I left school, I went to art college. A lot of the people who were in the college were picking up the instruments and learning. I remember the first college dance I went to, '60 something or other. That was a knockout record wasn't it, "My Generation"? I walked in and that was playing. Pretty phenomenal thing. Pete: When you were at art college, where were you, South Yorkshire as well? John: Rotherham. Pete: Rotherham. So what did you do, did you leave school after O-levels and just go straight to college? John: No, I went to college before O-levels. I passed my O-level Art in my fourth. Pete: You passed that early? John: I passed that early. And it was this art teacher that convinced my mother, more than my father, that I should go to art college, because I was pretty nifty with a brush and a pencil. I still like drawing and painting. Pete: A lot of English rock and roll at that stage came out of art college, didn't it. Perhaps a little bit before then, there was the Stones, particularly the Beatles, John Lennon was at Liverpool, wasn't he. Seems like a way to give yourself a bit of space to learn how to play r and b. Did you teach yourself guitar, or did you have lessons? John: I just used to pick up a friend's guitar, who in actual fact was right-handed, but he broke a finger, and he changed hands because he couldn't handle the stuff he was doing with a broken finger, so he started playing left-handed. And just by chance, that was the guitar that was hanging around.I didn't have one, so I learnt on his guitar really ........ in five minutes bursts here and there. So I became a false left-hander, if you want. Pete: Because you're actually right-handed, but you're one of the great left-hookers. John: I think it gives you another edge. Why, I wouldn't know. As far as people would ....... brain logic. Pete: Yeah. Exactly. It sort of cuts right through across...... John: I don't think I've got a very logical brain, actually. I don't think that matters much. I don't think it made a big difference. Pete: Did you use chords - was it Bert Weedon's "Play in a Day", like Eric Clapton learnt, stuff like that? John: No. My very first guitar was impossible to play, really. I just used to make sounds out of it. It was impossible to tune up. I used to have a bolt for a bridge on it. Pete: A bolt? John: Yeah. It was an old acoustic guitar. Is it straight on here, Pete? Pete: Into the middle lane, man. John: Don't forget at Guisborough we're having fish and chips. Pete: Aye. Woah! Steady on. Keep going. (laughter) John: It was your idea to have an interview in the car, mate. Especially with me driving. Pete: So you were playing on acoustic. Having seen Hendrix first off, did you think, "I must get a Strat"? When did you go on to electric? John: I didn't really associate ... I mean, I play a Stratocaster, I love the Stratocaster sound. But I don't even play a real one, I play a Tokai. It sounds very much like one. But I didn't really associate what I wanted to play with a Stratocaster until much later. I was just making a sound really .... throwing some chords together. And then I started to sing. I started singing in folk clubs originally. Pete: Did you? Acoustic set-up? John: Timidly. I used to sweat and go through Hell when I first started singing. Just getting over that initial fear of your own voice. That fear of looking like a twit, which a lot of people are used to when they first start singing. There's not that many people who have got much confidence at first. Except for perhaps childhood prodigies .... whatever. Pete: Stay in the middle. John: (Sings) "I'm staying in the middle with you....." Pete: People are astonished now by the way that you can play not only, in the old way of speaking, lead guitar licks, but you can also play a rhythm and a bass line at the same time. And you use your own finger picking technique in a sense. Did you learn that at an early stage? Were you using a plectrum or fingers? How did you start? John: No, all on fingers. Pete: So you started with finger style. Did you learn clawhammer or stuff like that early on, or ... what did you do? John: I don't even know what they call my finger picking style, if it is one. But now, it's nothing like what it resembled in the first place. I go off into arpeggios while I'm finger picking things. And mix it very much with rhythmic ... I just play from the gut, really. Sometimes magic happens ..... for me. Pete: So the first band you were playing in, this was while you were at art college. Playing keys first off, yeah? (Whitby / Redcar ... down there. Then left at the bottom). You were playing keys first off, yeah? John: That's right. Pete: You'd be what, seventeen then, that sort of age? Sixteen? John: Sixteen, seventeen - well, like I said, I played from seven years old, but first time in bands was with that soul band. Then when I left art college. There was no jobs, really. Pete: For a painter .... artist. John: I was Graphic Art, actually. That was what, in my third year, I specialised in, thinking there'd be work. I wasn't the only one, because a lot of people ..... you finish art college, and you go looking for jobs. They offer you Printer's Assistant, apprenticeship, at seven quid a week, or whatever it was in them days. So I just said, "No way. Fuck it - I'm off to the coast". I always liked the sea. So I went to Scarborough, and it was the time when "Sergeant Pepper's" was out .... it was "All You Need Is Love," .... it was "Are You Going to San Francisco". So I sort of fell into a couple of kitchen porter jobs, which were dreadful. I was very accident-prone. I flooded a few kitchens out, burnt a few bars accidentally. Not on purpose, I'm not a ... I'm just accident-prone. I'd leave something cooking, or the gas on. Pete: Like you sprain your ankle coming out of gigs, carrying the equipment. Still. John: And then I eventually found a job, quite by chance, engraving dog collars and jewellery. One of these vibrating ... like a vibrating engraver, you know. All the hippies used to come and get me to engrave flowers and stuff on metal things .... like bracelets. Pete: In Scarborough, this was, yeah? John: Yeah, on the sea front. Underneath of Scarborough Rowing Club, yeah? I was a member of Scarborough Rowing Club as well, an honorary member. Pete: Scarborough Rowing? John: Yeah. I used to go out ... Pete: Why? How come? John: It's the thrill, isn't it. It just looked amazing to see these guys ... because my stall was in the entrance. So twice a week they'd come out with these big rowing boats, just behind the stall. The fellow was called Mr ... well, it doesn't matter what his name was, who owned the place, he hired it off of Scarborough Rowing Club. So I got a bit of sport in there as well. But then he started, the guy who owned the place, cottoning on to the fact that hippies like beads. And there was a load of beads going cheap, so I used to sell beads to the hippies as well. Pete: And you were playing throughout all this time were you, just keeping in there with the guitar? John: I used to have a guitar behind the stall, because I couldn't carry a piano around. I didn't play piano for a long time then. This guitarist I knew appeared one day, and he'd been telling these people that I played a pretty mean piano. I was into John Mayall at that time. Pete: So you listened to Clapton and people like that, then? John: Yeah, they were well into that. So he said, "Come on, John, join the band. You've got a Hohner Pianette. Come and play with us." So they took me off to Cambridge. I finished with my girlfriend at the time to go off in a Bedford van to Cambridge. The idea was to work for the bass player's, and the drummer's, father, who was a lumberjack. He used to fell trees and clear two or three miles of woodland for a living. Pete: Shall we just check if there's a chippie here in case the one at Guisborough's shut? John: We could do. Pete: Aah, just drive past, just keep on driving ahead. John: Oh no, it looks awful, doesn't it. I don't think I'd like the fish and chips there anyway. It looks dreadful, man. Anyway, on the way down to Cambridge, we passed through Stoke-on-Trent to pick up a singer that everybody knew. Pete: Some bloke, like. John: Yeah. And we stopped for a couple of days there. That was the first time I played a Stratocaster. Because we went into a music shop. The thing then, that everybody used to, you're forming a band, you go into music shops and hang around. That was part of it. Try out guitars. And there was a black left-handed Stratocaster in there, which I couldn't afford. But I played it, and it sounded amazing. That was the first hint of a Strat sound. And then on the way from Birmingham down to Cambridge, in some remote village, the half shaft went on the van. I'll always remember that, because I had a Dansette record player, and we all voted .... well they all voted .... that it was the only thing sellable to pay for the half shaft. Promising me of course to replace it. At a pawn shop actually ...... I would come back and pick it up. Of course it never happened. You accept it, you know? But it was a shame, nice thing it was. It used to play my early 45's on it Pete: For your 45's, the Dansette was the thing wasn't it, then ..... John: That was another record I had at that time, I remember, "Telstar". Pete: Oh, Heinz? John: Amazing. Pete: Joe Meek produced it. John: That was a great record. The guitar in that, you know? And the organ, of course. Oh, and Billy J Kramer as well. Pete: Oh right. John: Yeah, I remember that song. Pete: Which one of his was that? John: "Bad to Me". It was a Beatles song, wasn't it. They wrote it for him, didn't they? It's quite melodic. It's nice .... you know. Pete: So were you heading for a lot of gigs with this band down at Cambridge, or was it just one gig? John: We got signed up with a promoter and everything. It was decided that my Hohner Pianette wasn't any good, so ... Hammond Organ, you know? So that was done. The deal was signed for the Hammond Organ. It was in an epoch where funny substances were being taken by everybody. And I spent about six months with this band. We did some good gigs. We actually supported Pink Floyd at Middle Earth, in London. Pete: Did you get to meet them? John: We were the thirteenth band or something like that, underneath Pink Floyd. So we played early - it was an all-nighter, yeah? An all-night thing. With Sid Barrett and everybody. Pete: Oh, that was when Pink Floyd were at their best. John: Light shows and all that, oil light shows. Unfortunately, I don't remember much about it. Because after we played I think somebody slipped something into a drink or something, or whatever. I woke up two days later in the back of the van. I missed the gig. But I did play my set, with the band. The sort of thing you accept in those days. At least I missed out on unloading the gear and all that stuff. At least they didn't forget me. And then shortly after that ... do you want to hear all this, really? Pete: Well, that's why I'm asking the questions. John: Anyway, about forty gigs after that, if you like ... Pete: Same band? John: Yeah. "Easy Moses".Woke up one morning ... In Cambridge, we finished up in Cambridge. One good thing about that time was that I saw a lot of good bands. But I woke up one morning and the Hammond Organ had gone. They'd all decided they didn't need a pianist any more. They didn't tell me about it, but the promoter hadn't been paying for the Hammond, and the shop were getting heavy, so they came and picked it up. And they left the doors nice and open in the van for them. So I went down south with my Dansette record player and Hohner Pianette, and came back with nothing. Learnt from it, I'll tell you. I'm a very forgiving fellow. Pete: So when you came back, you went back up to where your mum and dad were, back up to the mining village? John: Yeah, I got a job as a lathe turner for a while, trying to earn a bit of money. Trying to buy my way back into being a musician I suppose. At the time I was half thinking about giving it up really, but you can't. Not if you're that much into it. And no matter how much I tried to work normally .... the getting up .... I mean at that time I was getting up at six in the morning catching a train to go to Sheffield where I found the work. That was great that I found the work by just walking into ... I think it was the third place I walked into as well, just saying, "I don't know how to do this job, drilling and working on lathes and stuff, but I'm sure I could learn." These guys .... called Borough Engineering I think it was, they were really nice people. They said, "Okay, we'll give you a go." Pete: So did you keep playing? So you go back home, you've been doing the lathe turning, do you go back and pick up the guitar or do you play keys, what did you do? You'd be eighteen, nineteen by now, I guess? John: Yeah. I got my first good acoustic guitar - I've still got it actually, I've still got that good guitar .... an Eko. I started playing folk clubs and stuff. Pete: On your tod? John: Usually in gangs, you know? We were playing stuff like ... I actually wrote a couple .... an instrumental and a few ... one of them actually sounded like ... Scratch that, man, I can't remember what I'm talking about. Too busy concentrating on the driving. I'm thinking about fish and chips at the moment. Pete: I'll give it a break for a bit, yeah? John: Yeah.
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