Born and raised in the hills of West Wales, the first live music James heard was in the chapel: congregational hymn singing with an emphasis on harmony.

In 1967, John James left for London with a head full of such diverse guitar sounds as Seqovia, Lonnie Johnson, Charlie Byrd, Django Reinhardt, Ida Presti, Wes Montgomery, Hank Marvin and Duane Eddy.

Arriving in London in the Spring of 1967, JJ did the rounds of the city's folk clubs playing floor spots with an acoustic guitar.

JJ's first solo release was the album “Morning brings the Light” and followed by “John James” both of which were made up of mostly own songs and guitar instrumentals.

The project was shot on film, then transferred to video, but due to the high expenses of such an exercise at the time, Transatlantic got cold feet and put it on the back burner, where it stayed.

JJ had to wait for technology to develop and eventually a new guitar instruction video was recorded and released by Virgin Vision in the Music Makers series presented by Jools Holland.

Recordings made at Chipping Norton Studios in 1974 with Danny Thompson bass and Jim Cuomo saxophone/clarinet, mostly featuring JJ's compositions were not released.

1981 saw the release of the album With a Suitcase Shaped like that on 12th Street records featuring a repertoire of international guitar music from South America and Europe including arrangements of harp tune's from Wales.

From these sessions with Chris Billings (bass, flute vocals) and Dick Heckstall-Smith (saxophone) the band 3 Space was born.

The album also had two tracks with Pete Berryman- Rain on the Window and Dangling, the first time the two guitarists had recorded together since Sky in my Pie (1971) After opening for blues legends such as Mississippi Fred McDowell, Doctor Ross, John Lee Hooker along the way, a highlight came in 1981 when John toured the UK with Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee.

Chris a music graduate from St Lukes, Exeter played electric, acoustic and bass guitars also flute & keyboards.

The working idea of the repertoire was the music of Monk, Mingus, Mose Allison and some be-bop standards, plus all three musicians were composers.

When Chris left to pursue a life as a luthier (guitar construction and repair,) Dave Moore (keyboards) joined.

Mainsqueeze was a blues rock band whose members included John O'Leary, Keith Tillman, Diana Wood, Victor Brox, Eric Bell and the late great Keef Hartley.

In 1992, under the patronage of Gordon Simpson Music, the duo presented a daylong guitar seminar at the Edinburgh Folk Festival, followed by a headline concert the same night.

An expansive repertoire of western swing, blues and folk nowadays referred to as “Americana”, enabled the duo to play a varied tour schedule.

Eddie who took on the role of lead vocalist and acoustic rhythm guitar, was widely known on the UK folk scene as a solo singer guitarist/songwriter.

The release of the album Guitar Greats in 1999 saw a change from composing and transposing to featuring music from other guitar players who attained greatness for their contribution to the instrument rather than popularity from commercial success, including such players as: Among the guitars used on the album, as well as the Fylde Oberon and Epiphone Emperor, was a 1949 Gibson LG1 which JJ had bought from a music shop run by two session musicians (Terry Walsh and Bobby Kevin) in Tooting, London on his 21st birthday in 1968 Over a decade passed before the recording of the CD album Cafe Vienna.

The programme featured top acts from the UK & Irish folk scene, such as The Bothy Band, The Hennessey's, MacCalmans, June Tabor & Martin Simpson, Saffron Summerfield.

The original idea was to encompass all forms of the instrument, but as other publications started up better suited to cover electric guitar and rock & pop, Clinton changed editorial policy and moved to more classical, flamenco, some folk and blues & jazz.

After three years, JJ changed the series to feature more blues pickers such as Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy, Lonnie Johnson, etc.

With Dave Laibman, Peter Finger, Woody Mann, Duck Baker, Nick Katzman, Ton Engels and Lasse Johannson amongst the artistes on the bill, it became a de facto Kicking Mule Re-union.