1970:  When I was seven I was on holiday in Wales fishing crabs from rock pools on Black Rock Sands.  I slipped and banged the back of my head several times on the rock as I slid down into the water.  I was unconscious and my brothers dragged me out and revived me in the car.  I was concussed and remained delirious for several days.  Everyone was very worried about me.  I stopped eating and had to go to hospital on a drip.  I had various weird visions and hallucinations and scared everyone because I thought I could see the world from out of space.  After a few weeks when I had finally recovered my personality had changed completely.  I became very outspoken and cocky and I wrote my first song, ‘Baby Give me Love’.  My brothers and sisters received the brunt of my arrogance and abuse and always said, “For god’s sake give him another bang on the head,” hoping it would change me back to the placid, quiet child I had been.  I never changed back! 

1973:  When I was ten, my mum bought me a tin light blue guitar from Woolworths.  It had nylon strings and I mistakenly learnt to play it left-handed (I was left-handed then).  I was so obsessed with this guitar that at Christmas my parents bought me a proper guitar and also a tape recorder to record my many songs. 

In the following few years I wrote over 100 songs all about my family, my life, my dog and anything else I could think of.  They were sort of sub-Beatlesque two and a half minute ditties.  I still have most of them on tape from them.  Some of them are pretty good too.  I entertained aunties, uncles, cousins and neighbours with my talent and my granddad gave me a harmonica and harmonica holder that I wore around my neck Bob Dylan style.  I wore this every day to school and even played along with school hymns.  The best song I ever wrote in my youth was called ‘Jillian’ about a girl that I fell in love with at school.  Everyone in my family still remembers this song.

The early days | Solo career | George Martin | The present