Didn't someone ask this a whie ago? Never mind! My first public performance was in 1969, aged 18, at the Songsmiths Folk Club, the Fitter's Arms, Walsall. I sang Phil Ochs' "Draft dodger rag" (an the grounds that (a) it's a good song and (b) that was the first place Phil had appeared on his British tour (and Imissed it!)) followed by the Goons' "I love you". I must have been awful. Not helped by the fact that I found I couldn't sing loudly in the key I'd practiced because it was too low, and I had to transpose on the fly (from C to G, probably; or the other way).

When I was at school I used to learn and sing stuff by Lonnie Donegan ("Dustman" was a fave, Jeanie!) and Charlie Drake ... I wonder how "My boomerang won't come back" would go down now?

Steve