1978

A trip to a folk club in 1963 inspired the skinny, young Teesside [?] lad to pick up a guitar and learn the songs he was hearing, many from his Irish mother. After completing his apprenticeship at ICI (one of the largest chemical producers in the world) in 1969, he hit the road and spent six months playing for free drinks and tips in bars along the Mediterranean. Vin decided early in his career that he was going to sing in his native Teesside accent. In fact, the first song he wrote was called ‘In me dirty, purple working shirt’, a study of the Teesside vernacular, ‘Me derty, perple, werkin’, shert’.