Alan Nimmo

Barry Middleton (BM) interview with Alan Nimmo (Alan)

BM: What were your first experiences of the Blues?

Alan: My first experiences of blues were when I was a small boy at home and my mother would listen to peter green records all the time.

BM: Who were the influences on your musical career?

Alan: My brother! He started playing guitar and I copied him! Guess it was meant to be for us both.

BM: Which young act on the British scene impresses you most?

Alan : All of them… the fact that young people are still showing an interest in blues speaks volumes about the quality of the music. The more the merrier.

BM: What is the biggest festival you have played?

Alan: Probably Glastonbury or Bos Pop in Holland!

BM: If you didn’t play music in a band what would you be doing?

Alan: That’s a difficult question to answer, I feel like I didn’t choose music… it chose me.

BM: What bluesman (dead or alive) would you like to play with, live on stage?

Alan: I don’t think we have enough time for me to name all of them but a few would have to be Paul Rodgers, SRV, Eric Clapton… all of the King’s and the T-Birds… I could go on all day!

BM: Aims for the future and what do you hope to achieve within the Blues?

Alan: I’m very driven and I have a lot of ambition but I’m not great at self promotion and it has held me back in a way over the years… at the end of the day, I’m a musician.. not a businessman. There is lots more to do in this business for me and I’m not ready to give up yet. There are many more platforms to climb up on and I’ll keep on keeping on.
Most importantly though for me personally, I just want to hold on to the passion and the love I have for playing my guitar and singing. The feeling I get from that makes all the hard times worth going through.

BM: Why do you feel that young people are not as attracted to the Blues as other Genres?

Alan : That’s a loaded question and I don’t want to get in to a rant so I’ll just say that I don’t have the answer to that! The only thing I can say is that blues music is not one of the mainstream genre’s nowadays and maybe some of the young people are not overly aware that’ its out there and that the stigma attached to it is not a true representation of how fantastic and beautiful it is.

BM: What other styles of music have you drawn inspiration from?

Alan: I am a big rock fan and that’s no secret. I take a lot of influence from bands like Free, Thin lizzy, early Whitesnake, Thunder along with the modern rock and metal bands loke Alterbridge, Audioslave and of course the spice girls!

BM: Do you think the blues scene on the continent is better than in the UK?

Alan : I think there is a bigger scene for blues in Europe and it is accepted more openly but if you ask me, it’s the British bands that making all the waves.

BM: Which country do you enjoy playing in most of all?

Alan: Playing in Europe is always great, the crowds are very enthusiastic and as a band you are treated very very well but I like going home now and again and playing for the great people of Glasgow.
They have been watching me play since I was a teenager and I’m 34 now and they’re still coming out to see us. I can’t thank them enough for their support all of these years.

BM: Who was the last blues act that you paid to see?

Alan : I can’t honestly remember the last time I paid to see a gig because in Glasgow I know everyone at most of the venues and they let me in for free. It’s also not very often that a blues great comes to Scotland to play.
I think the last one was Steven Seagal, other than that I don’t get a lot of time to watch other bands as we are always out on the road ourselves.
I was nice to do a couple of shows with the fantastic Robin Trower recently though, that was great fun and he is a nice guy.

BM: What was the last blues CD that you bought for yourself?

Alan : I bought the new Slash album… does that qualify as blues?

BM: What do you do to relax when you have some spare time away from music?

Alan: I love my motorbike and I try and get out to play on that as often as I can but these days I have so little spare time and it’s getting harder and harder to get out there. (the weather doesn’t help). I also love spending time with my loved ones and friends are very important to me. It’s always great to come home to the people that really know me, the ones who don’t view me as the guy in the band. At home I’m just Alan and that means a lot to me.

BM: What makes a good gig for you as a performer?

Alan: It’s always great when the crowd are really up for it, it spurs you on to give all you’ve got. I’m always striving for the perfect performance but I know I’ll never get it but it keeps you going knowing that you can make it better each time. I also have the privilege of working with great musicians who also happen to be great friends and everyone does a fantastic job and makes mine a lot easier.

BM: What can be done to keep the blues music fresh and modern or do you think it should stay in the past?

Alan: I think it’s like learning a trade in way, if you learn something properly from the ground up then you learn it well and after that you can take it in your own direction. But always maintaining the quality in performance, musicianship and song writing I think will keep blues alive and bring it