ABOUT RICH WEBB

Influences

Rich: "I reckon there is a big difference between someone whose music you like and admire and someone who has had an influence on what you do. The people who influenced me were the people who were around when I was young; when I was trying to work out what it was about this magical thing that was so compelling, why I couldn't stay away.

My influences are the people who gave me ways to hook into music and get started, and to try and find something of my own. The people who showed me that there are no rules, and that as long as it sounded good, it was good. These are the people who did it for me:

My Mum and Dad had three albums I remember being played non stop when me and my brothers were growing up: 'Cosmos Factory' - Creedence Clearwater Revival, 'Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy' - The Who, and a Johnny Cash greatest hits album (he was big and and wearing black on the cover). They don't get better. I still reckon the guitar break on 'Heard it through the Grapevine' is a work of genius; The Who at their finest were unbeatable and I couldn't believe as a kid that anyone could sound tougher than Johnny Cash. I was right - years on, no one has got close. The older I get, the more I love his stuff.

At junior school came another revelation - you were only cool in this playground if you knew the words to Marc Bolan's 'Jeepster'. It was groovy rhyming hip-thrusting magic and, like Cash, and I've got to admit it, David Essex's 'Rock on', he was just on it. Marc Bolan still sounds special. Hot Chocolate, Slade, and Boney M were also faves around then.

I got into guitar and soon headed into Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath but I had two brothers who weren't so easily swayed by the noise. Jon I've got to thank for bombarding me with Dylan until I gave in. How glad I am about that. Dave was Beatles mad and that makes total sense any time, any where. All three of us were knocked out by The Stones.

Bang! Then punk hit harder than a police charge kicking into a miners' picket line: The Clash, Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees, New York Dolls, Iggy Pop, Talking Heads, Only Ones, Undertones, Buzzcocks, Stranglers, Saints, Bon Scott's AC/DC... Steve Drayton and Martin Walker played parts here and I seem to remember Martin might have had a hand in another fine left turn - getting into Tom Waits.

Paul Barraclough to this day has the best taste in music of anyone I've ever known - so count him as principal guide from start to finish. Without Barras I might have missed The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, The Saints, early AC/DC, The Blues Explosion, Ron Sexsmith and Vic Chesnutt without thinking too hard about it. Mick Allen, take a bow as the Bowie freak - there is no beating that early Bowie stuff, and Iggy Pop I think was one of yours too.

Then Dave and me had a week or so on a summer jazz course in Hull, getting away from some labouring job I can't remember much about now - book in Miles Davis, Coltrane, Chet Baker, Mingus, Oscar Peterson, Betty Carter, Ray Charles, Elvin Jones, a trip camping in the south of France, cheroots and the rest...

Finally, along with many of those mentioned above, I was lucky to be a part of some great productions with the Scunthorpe Youth Theatre, led on the musical side by the amazingly talented Bob Cuthbertson. Hats off to Bob - he knows about the good stuff and is a supreme musician. His Youth Theatre script writing partner, Rich Cameron, also gets a guernsey here for being totally cool at a time when most teachers weren't.

That's roughly how I remember it. These are the people that made it work for me."