At fifteen years old, and in order to pay for his first Gibson guitar (an SG Standard 1961), Ian got a weekend job playing in the shop which sold him the guitar. On Saturday afternoons he would play in the shop and gather a large crowd of musicians. You could almost guarantee that the guitar he had been playing would be sold the same day!

A band named by Ian as "Ears" was formed as a kind of Scottish "supergroup". Unfortunately the record business at that time was firmly established in London only and Ears was short lived.