It took me nearly three years to go out and buy a sax! I had often thought how much I would like to try it, but was unsure whether I could learn a wind instrument. In the end, I went out in January 1997 and bought a student model sax - a Jupiter model. The first few days were a living hell for me and anyone within earshot. The notes initially seem to be laid out like a jigsaw in no particular order and there are false versions of some notes. My mouth hurt and there were certainly times when I thought it had all been a big mistake. However, after a few calls to sax playing friends, and a grim determination, it all started to take shape. I worked firstly on the sound and the note bending (scales can wait). Given that I have a sound knowledge of music theory and an instinct for soloing I just had to become familiar with where the notes were. It was made a bit more difficult because I can't read music notation but ultimately it all started to sink in. I first played sax in a concert when I had been playing for about ten weeks. It was truly terrifying! I now practice every day and have moved on to a better mouthpiece (a Dukoff ) and have recently purchased a Yamaha Custom Alto. The sax will always be a secondary soloing instrument to me but I love the contrast in expression to the guitar and I hope to be reasonably good at playing it within the next thirty years!"

To see how Ian's sax playing has progressed, check out the Rubber Universe clip to the left. If you have the Flash, you can stream it. Or you can download the higher quality mp3. I must warn you, it still a big one (199k). May not be as long as load as the previous one, but it sounds good and is very efficient. We all know size isn't everything.