NAME: John JJ Jenkinson AGE: Born in the summer of 69 POSITION: Upright (usually) playing guitar JOINED: Yes PAST BANDS: Bad Medicine, Steeltown, Blue Orchid, Jamoh, Flexible Friends, High Times, Junction 34, Upfront. AGE BEGAN PLAYING GUITAR: I was 11 years old WHY DID YOU BEGIN PLAYING GUITAR: I’d always loved music and had tried various instruments without much success. A mate had an electric guitar, I had a go and decided this was for me.

FIRST TYPE OF GUITAR: I think it was a Kay acoustic, which I’ve still got, my mother paid £38 for it. Though I really wanted an electric of course. The action on this thing was dreadful, my fingers got so sore I had to put plasters on the end. My father said if I improved he’d buy me an electric guitar, which he did and I still use it to this day.

MUSICAL TRAINING: Basically self taught, though I did have half a dozen lessons early on.

EARLY INFLUENCES: Thin Lizzy, Gary Moore, ZZ Top, Van Halen, Knopfler, Clapton, Beck.

FIRST PUBLIC PERFORMANCE: At Waltheof  School Assembly Hall. I think we played to the first years, they loved it. Sadly it burnt down some years ago.

EQUIPMENT LIVE: 1991 Gibson Les Paul in tobacco sunburst
Fender 60’s Relic Stratocaster in fiesta red
Warmoth custom strat
White Tokai strat
Fender Telecaster custom
Fender 94 Twin combo
Takamine EN-10C electro acoustic
Trace Elliot TA50 acoustic combo
All the pedals listed below are mounted on a Pedaltrain pedalboard
Ibanez TS-9DX turbo tube screamer
Boss DC-2 Dimension-c chorus
Boss BF-2 Flanger
Boss DD-5 Digital Delay
Boss TU-2 Stage tuner
Powered via Voodoo Labs pedal power

NUMBER OF GUITARS OWNED: 8

FAVOURITE SONG CURRENTLY PLAYED: Shapes of Things. I’ve been listening to this song since I was 14 and have always wanted to play it live.

OTHER GUITARISTS YOU ADMIRE: Gary Moore, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Eric Johnson, Billy Gibbons, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Early Van Halen, Allan Holdsworth, Tommy Emmanuel, Dave Gilmour and many more.