fRoots

[Will Fly]

London, 1974. The Redan pub on the corner of Westbourne Grove and Queensway. (Landlord: Johnny Watkins, ex-guitarist and performer with the Tito Burns Agency. Resident in flat upstairs: Diz Disley).

The resident weekly band - the Egbert Sousé All Stars - a motley collection of string and wind players. In the photo: meself with beard and Epiphone Texan, and a young, blonde chap (playing mandolin) called Ian Chisholm.

We lost contact in 1976 for 30 years - met up again in 2006 - and are now playing again in the Unreel Ceilidh Band in Sussex. Unlike Vic, I've kept the beard - which has unaccountably turned grey in the intervening years...

[matt milton]

I bought a secondhand mandolin from my local charity shop (Barnados, Brixton) last year that looks identical to that one. Only with even more nicks and knocks to it. The neck had been glued back on at a slightly funny angle. Still plays in pitch though, and in tune at the octave. Guess there was probably a glut of cheap Czech-made mandos around at that time.

[Will Fly]

Mmm... Ian may well have made this one (he's been making instruments since a teenager), but I can't remember. My guitar was a 1964 Epiphone Texan - now much sought after.