In the sixties the record business was for the select few, you either had a record contract or you didn't make records - simple really. Many bands had very little time to make a record. The Beatles recorded their first album in nine hours 45 mins according to Mark Lewisohn Way Beyond Compare: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Volume One: 1957-1965 The album or LP (long player) as they were then known was called Please Please Me.

The Beatles were a major influence on me. They saw me through my teens. There were a lot of bands in the sixties with two guitars, bass and drums but the Beatles outgrew them all. The Beatles ( The Beatles: the White Album) developed at such an astonishing rate that they left bands like Dave Clark Five ( The Hits ), The Searchers (Very Best Of ), Gerry and the Pacemakers (The Very Best of Gerry and the Pacemakers ) (long before the device that kept you alive was invented!)

I began playing lead guitar in a Folk/Blues band where our only gig was upstairs at The Horseshoe Pub in Portsmouth. The Horseshoe was the local folk club hosted by a talented singer/songwriter called Dave Boots. Dave released an album through Solent Records call 'Green Satin and Gold'. Dave was the first person I knew who had made a record. That may have been the seed for Yew Tree Music.