Aged 18, going to a folk club for somewhere to sing my own acoustic songs. Once there, found there was a guest on I'd never heard of (which would have been true for me of any folk artist at the time). His performance made me feel I knew nothing and needed to start again from scratch, which is what I did. The energy, skill and humour of the artist blew my socks off and changed my world. It seemed to me he looked and sang like an invigorated Wurzel Gummage! This very exciting man was Vin Garbutt. I now started investigating and singing traditional songs.

Soon after my world was rocked again by a man who played a guitar style where the voice and the story led the song, rather than the constraints of a never-changing guitar rhythm. He had an awesome knowledge and insight into the humanity within the songs, singing with an intensity and focus I had rarely seen (as did Vin): Martin Carthy. I now stopped writing altogether and focussed entirely on traditional material.

I owe these two great men a huge debt for the all the years of enjoyment and understanding of both music and life they have given me.