One day at a festival, a couple of years after first seeing him, I was standing next to Johnny at a bar and realised that he was actually a couple of inches shorter than me. I must have just assumed he was about 6ft 2in tall, such was his presence!

Later, the first song I sang in public was inspired by his singing at the Stanford in the Vale Festival (compact venues packed with eager chorus singers), and learnt from one of his recordings. I wonder how many others have similar tales?