Warrington guitarist Andy Bennett shares his tales of touring the world

But that has been the diverse life of guitarist Andy Bennett whose career has taken him from Warrington to Tokyo to Hollywood and then back again.

The Walton resident has been sharing his memories ahead of the Merseyside Guitar Show on Sunday where he will be taking to the stage with his band.

The event at Aintree Racecourse Exhibition Centre is run another Warringtonian – Peter Hoarty – who has been running guitar shows for around two decades.

Andy, described by Peter as a ‘sensational, powerhouse performer and an extraordinary talent on guitar’, started playing when he was 14 and became a full time professional when he was barely out of Great Sankey High.

He said: “I joined a function band and we’d play at social clubs. I worked with them for a couple of years. Then when I was 16 I was playing at a nightclub in Bootle and this band spotted me. They were about to go to Japan so I joined them just as I was leaving school.”

So in 1987 Andy joined a rock band called Quest, to represent the UK in the Yamaha World Band Explosion in Tokyo.

He added: “I received a guitar award there and I was sponsored by Yamaha as well so my life was changing pretty fast. We’d have these crowds of Japanese girls outside our hotel and I was always being asked to sign things. It was like we were the Beatles.”

After that Andy joined Quest when they supported It Bites on their Once Around The World tour.

That saw him play to crowds of up to 20,000.

He said: “The more people that are there, the easier that it is in a way because of the adrenaline and the excitement. You just want to get up there and do it. I was a big Van Halen fan when I was a young kid and I saw all the big stadium gigs they were doing in America so it pushed me in that direction.

“My dad Norman was the music lover in the house. No one in my family play anything but he was always playing music and had a really good stereo. He’d play a lot of the Sex Pistols and early AC/DC and I loved that energy. I wanted to be Steve Jones.”

But when Andy returned to Warrington and started writing music with the intention of putting his own band together he was involved in a terrible crash which put him back at square one.

He added: “I smashed my head in a car accident and I was in a coma. I had to relearn everything as my brain shut down for six months.”

Picking up the pieces, Andy moved to London in his early 20s in 1994 to try and make a name for himself. But he ended helping to make the names of others.

Andy said: “Because of my contacts I started picking up session work. It’s hard to put together a band in London.

“There are so many talented musicians but everyone is just trying to pay the rent so you end up taking on work and it’s hard to get your own thing going.

“You’ll get a call for a tour and so on and it carried on like that for quite a while. I kept picking all this work up and it meant I was meeting and working with some high-profile people.”

That included the likes of Marcella Detroit and Fine Young Cannibals and Andy picked up some celebrity fans when he played in the house jazz band at the plush club Embargo in Chelsea.

The 49-year-old added: “Dannii Minogue used to come a lot and watch me play. I used to tell my mates back at home and they were amazed. I played with Kylie for a bit as well. It’s like what John Lennon said: ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans’.”

One of Andy’s favourite experiences – working with Deftones – came about by chance when he was hungover after a New Year’s Eve party.

He said: “I was in a lock up for all sorts of artists like Primal Scream and Chemical Brothers when I met this guy who said he needed a van driver to go to Europe with this California band. I didn’t have any work in January so I said I’d do that. I became friends with Stef, the lead guitarist, and Chi, the bass player who is sadly not here anymore. I’d kip on Chi’s floor and I’d end up playing music all night with Stef and having a laugh.”

Tales of California must have inspired him because Andy later worked with a number of bands in Hollywood.

That included sessions with Vince Rocco’s band Multiplug which was how he met Red Hot Chili Peppers as they were renting a rehearsal studio next to them.

Any added: “That was the first time I felt a bit starstruck. There were only two rehearsal rooms – one for us and one for the Chili Peppers – and Anthony Kiedis used to sit outside with his dog.

“I got on with his dog so we became friends through his dog. That was a surreal moment.”

Andy is now back in Warrington with his wife Jen and has come full circle as he now has a job at his old school Great Sankey High.

He said: “They heard I was back in England and they wanted me to give a talk to the kids. That led to them offering me a job. It was when School of Rock had just come out and I suppose I was Warrington’s answer to Jack Black!”

The musician still works on the circuit when he can though.

He added: “The other day I was with Feeder in Manchester. They were doing two dates and I took my 11-year-old son Herbie. It’s fun being around stuff like that. It was great to show him what I do.”

Andy Bennett performs at the Merseyside Guitar Show on Sunday. Entry is £7