Since this is now a music-oriented site, we'll skip the World War 2 childhood and education at King Edward's School, Birmingham. It was there that I was inspired (by a certain Michael Buckley, to whom I give my eternal thanks) to take up the trumpet.
Although I've toyed with other instruments from time to time - guitar, five-string banjo, clarinet - the trumpet is the only one on which I have ever considered myself proficient. (I love the piano, but use it mainly as a tool and don't inflict my playing on other people very often.)
My first instrument came from Yardley's in Birmingham and cost £7 10s. 0d. After a year of self-taught practising (often in the wardrobe, out of consideration for my parents) I joined a local six-piece 'trad' band with whom I stayed until going up to Oxford in 1958.
My musical activities (I was also playing guitar and banjo at this point) interfered with my studies to the extent that my university course terminated prematurely, and in 1960 I found myself working for an insurance company. I continued to play trumpet until the mid-60s, when I laid the horn aside to concentrate on my family and a new career in computer programming.
In September 1970 I took it up again to join a band led by trumpeter Arthur Brown - I played second trumpet, which somewhat eased the task of getting my chops back into shape. In 1974 I left the band and freelanced until November of that year when I joined the Saratoga Jazz Band, which played a weekly session at the Waterworks Jazz Club in Birmingham.
During my time with Arthur's band I had met pianist Ray Foxley, who joined the band for a short time, leaving at the same time I did. In the mid-seventies we played a fortnightly gig at the Green Man in Kidderminster - just trumpet and piano, usually with an 'audience' of six men and a dog, but it was invaluable experience for me.
My big break came in 1978. Duncan Swift had left his own New Delta Jazz Band to join Kenny Ball, and the band was now severely depleted, consisting of only two permanent members: Roy Hubbard, clarinet, and Len Thwaites, bass. I depped with the band several times, and in October 1978 both Ray and I became permanent members (although Ray left not long afterwards to join Rod Mason).
The following year Roy Hubbard left the band to rejoin the Zenith Hot Stompers, then regarded as one of the Midlands' top bands in the classic jazz idiom. Thanks to Roy, I was asked to dep with the Zenith during 1981, and was invited to join in October of that year. My renewed partnership with Roy lasted for 23 years, ending only with his emigration to Spain in December 2004.
To be continued...