Correcting punctuation, killing joy.

Brazil, Star Wars, The Last Waltz, Woodstock, Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story

In no particular order:
Richard Thompson, Martin Simpson, Nic Jones, Pentangle, Black Sabbath, Kate Rusby, Neil Young, Howlin' Wolf, Wilco, Fairport Convention, Blue Öyster Cult, Otis Redding, Crowded House, Thin Lizzy, Le Mystère des voix Bulgares, Steeleye Span, Vivaldi, Muddy Waters, 10CC, Jethro Tull, John Lee Hooker, Chris Thile, Maria McKee, The Jayhawks, Handel, Bonzos, Hank Williams, Big Bill Broonzy, Gomez, Clive Gregson & Christine Collister, Led Zeppelin, Dire Straits's first album, Son House, Cream, Nick Drake, Magic Sam, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Sonny Boy Williamson II, The Beatles....basically, popular music of the Anglophonic world and its celtic fringes (and some Bulgarians).

I don't read enough, but all of Douglas Adams, Moanin' at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf - James Segrest and Mark Hoffman, Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues – Elijah Wald, Dark Star - Daniel O'Bannon(?), Down With Skool, Back in the Jug Agane & Whizz for Atomms - Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle.

Proper use of apostrophes (Ooh yeah baby!)

Improper use of apostrophes (Ew!).

My first gig was in 1975 in front of the rest of class 1F when my history teacher, Mrs Brennan recognised the raw talent of the Rocking Robins as me, Donald Hope and Clayton Jolly had decided to call ourselves. She invited us to the front of the class where we performed our now legendary (ie. no doubt forgotten by everyone who was there except me) version of Elvis's Teddy Bear. The Rocking Robins split soon after (ie. immediately after that lesson) due to musical indifferences but I went on to fame and glory when I joined the choir of St Martin's in the Bull Ring, Birmingham. Four years faithful service and not one solo!
There followed several bands on paper with such colourful names as Lava Flow, Iron Fist and Cryogenic Mind. By "on paper" I mean, the logos were designed and pictures were drawn of what we would look like on stage, but no songs were written (unless you count the other member of Lava Flow writing out the badly-remembered lyrics of Judas Priest's Exciter in the back of an exercise book), I didn't even have any ambition to play guitar, although I had had one since I was about ten, it was blue and had Pedro painted on it, eventually me and my brother "Townshended" it. Finally, at the age of about 17, I got together with people who could actually play, in that most clichéd of environments for aspiring rock 'n' roll stars, the church youth club. There was me on vocals, Adrian Open Bracket Alan Close Bracket Beckett, on 12-string Eko Ranger with a magnetic soundhole pickup and John Allen on short scale Epiphone bass, which considering his not inconsiderable size, looked more like a ukulele on him. Practices took place in the church hall with all of us plugged into John's 180 watt bass amp. It was a colossus. As far as I remember, the set consisted entirely of Summertime Blues and a self-penned song called Into the Dark, for some reason, a cheerful ditty written from the point of view of Death encouraging a young woman to commit suicide. I think I must have subconsciously absorbed the influence of Don't Fear the Reaper. We did try House of the Rising Sun once with me playing a simplified version of the melody on a Moog Prodigy with the numbers of the notes to be played written on the keys (I wasn't aware of it at the time but Vince Clarke was doing the same thing with Depeche Mode, although probably not House of the Rising Sun).

Continued...

A few years before I had progressed from Pedro to my sister's guitar which she had received the same Christmas. This guitar was a bit less "toy-like", although extremely "plywood-like". My sister had acquired a book, It's Easy to play Guitar, this I soon discovered was a bare-faced lie, however I learned my first two chords, C and G7 which were all you needed to play Skip to My Lou. My rendition didn't sound great though, probably owing to my eccentric and inexplicable, upstroke only strumming style.
Skip forward a few years, Lava Flow had ceased flowing and I was at art college (which should have guaranteed me stardom, after all it worked for John Lennon, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Marc Bolan...etc, etc.) and I had started going to pubs where I met Nigel aka Pen who was a dyed in the wool prog fan with a particular "pen"chant (see what I did there?) for Emerson, Lake and Palmer. We soon started trying to write songs together with a guitarist from college called Paul, who later joined a group called The Fanatics who supported The Alarm and then, after he left them became Ocean Colour Scene, the nearest I was to come to fame. We got together with a drummmer called Tony who I knew from my youth club days and started to practice (very quietly) on Monday nights in Tony's girfriend's cellar.