“I started off playing the clarinet, after I was inspired by listening to my dad’s Benny Goodman records.”” ~ Alvin Lee
1956
Picking up The Guitar
Alvin Lee switched from learning the clarinet to the guitar and that’s when everything began.
“My father was always playing this ethnic blues stuff around the house, and both my parents played. Then one day my father brought home Big Bill Broonzy, and there he was sitting in our living room playing, and blues was in my heart from the time I was 12 years old.” ~ Alvin Lee
1957
Vince Marshal and the Square Caps
Alvin Lee joins his first band, “Vince Marshall and the Square Caps”, with Alvin playing rhythm guitar.
“Strangely enough, through all those school years I decided at 13 or 14 I was going to be a musician and so school was just something to get out of the way, a waste of time and not to bother with it.”” ~ Alvin Lee
1958
Alan Upton and the Jail-Breakers
Alvin Lee is lead guitarist with “Alan Upton and the Jail-Breakers”