It was always a mélange... Pat says that he started out playing under the influence
of Rambling Jack Elliot but also had a lucky encounter in Paris with
Ian Bennetts:
'… Ian
Bennetts... was a shithot flatpicker... very good at playing American
folk and who occasionally did some busking although it wasn't his
main livelihood. He was one of three brother - the Bennetts – who
were all guitar players. I knew Ian and John. (Les Bennetts, of
course, was the guitar player in Lonnie Donegan's band).
My hero Jack Elliott had been in and out of Paris quite a bit in the
previous two or three years and Ian had watched and learned from him.
To the extent that he became every bit as good, which was saying
something – Jack was a master. I was transfixed watching Ian
playing all these flatpicking riffs and tantalised because I
couldn't work out how he did it. I practised and practised and kept
watching, trying to unlock the mechanics of his right hand technique
– which was probably one of the complications I found because I'm
left handed. .. Finally I asked him if he would consider giving me a
lesson, which he did. I was surprised but grateful and he charged me
a thousand old francs, which in today's money is about twenty quid.
He showed me the right hand positions for regular guitar players, the
essence of what flatpicking was all about.'
Don
Partridge's father had been a jazz guitarist in a dance band, Django
style, but like Pat, Don looked more to the folk world initially for
guidance:
'I
had asked my dad if he would show my the rudiments on guitar but he
said that he would only do it if I studied properly and learned
music. Which was no interest to me – I just wanted to learn enough
to start me off and figure the rest out for myself. So I went
elsewhere. Bought myself a guitar and had a few folk guitar lessons
from a teacher called Peter Grauner who showed me some basic finger
style playing.'
Me?
Started out trying to play jazz piano then got a guitar for its
portability – and also because I was also becoming interested in
folk music:
'A
folk club had started up in Loughborough, run by three art students.
One of whom was the mighty Dave Evans,
a few years older than most because he had been a merchant seaman
before he came to do an art degree. Dave was a phenomenal guitarist
already and he kindly showed me some fingerpicking techniques and
tunings which helped me to make a quantum leap in my guitar
playing... a mighty stroke of luck. The piano was cumbersome, the
guitar the ideal portable instrument for a naïve, would-be
troubadour who had suddenly experienced wider freedoms through his
hitch-hiking adventures. So: time to be a traveller and a busker... '
Despite
mastering finger-picking, for busking you needed a strong, rhythmic
plectrum style in the days before portable amps became prevalent. I
learned a lot watching at Keene and Don when they played together and
Alan Young, another gifted player and busker, Don's best friend and
frequent sidekick. Despite our common origins in folk music, this
wasn't the only source of the street repertoire. Skiffle was one,
the others blues, American bluegrass, various pop songs of the day,
old jazz standards like 'Bill Bailey,' and by 1966 –
Beatles/Rolling Stones/Animals. Whatever worked. Everything got
blended into your style...
