Carl (Rick Pastitt)

From a young age I was always interested in music. My father played the steel guitar and the accordion and this helped music become a big part of my life. Inspired by Hank Marvin, The Beatles and their 60’s sounds, I started playing the guitar at the age of 8. My mother bought me an acoustic and I used to practise for an hour a day. When I was 9, I learnt from my first guitar teacher, Tony Alton. By the age of 10, I was already in my first band: The Mockers, so named because we were part rock and part mod. I bought my first electric guitar, a Watkins Rapier, when I was 12. I also joined a band at school called ‘The Track’ and we played pub gigs, Caterham Youth Centre and the Old Army Barracks.

Forced to accept that ‘The Track’ was headed no where, I joined another band called ‘This Heat’. We entered a Battle of the Bands and played the final at Streatham Ice Rink. We were third overall and the winners were ‘Mud’, who eventually broke into the charts with their hit ‘Tiger Feet’.

At the Age of 17 I got a job in a Music Shop in London; Macari’s Musical Exchange. I felt fortunate to meet Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix who inspired me to explore different aspects of music, especially the Blues. Up the road there was another music shop called Selmers which I used to go to. One of the sales assistants, Jerry Donahue, who was an amazing country player, agreed to teach me and after a few lessons I was bending notes all over the place.

I then went on to start my own band ‘Slow Load’, in the early 70’s. The band released a cover single of ‘On the Road Again’ through Mam Records. After realising that we were going nowhere, I left the band. Since then I have been playing in cover bands on and off for the last 30 years, just having fun.