Andy's journey to guitar stardom (From Stroud News and Journal)

Andy's journey to guitar stardom

From Iraeli kibbutz to London squat, banana farmer to juggling tutor Stroud guitarist Andy Dunn has called some pretty unusual places home and had some weird and wonderful jobs.

SQUATTING in London may not seem like everyone's idea of the good life.

But according to Andy Dunn, 37, best known in Stroud for his guitar playing in the band Flipside, living without the baggage of the rat race can be an eye-opening and inspirational experience.

"I wanted to be a musician and it's very difficult to find the time to play if you've got to work all the time to pay the rent," he said.

"The beauty of squatting is that you are free to experiment with different ideas and pursue artistic activity rather than work all the time to make money."

"It gives you a different outlook on life and makes you realise you don't necessarily have to do things the mainstream way."

It might be expected that Andy had an off-beat upbringing. But he had an ordinary working class childhood in a Birmingham suburb, the youngest son of a large family with Irish roots. He left school at 15 and went to work in a factory where he soon became bored.

"You wouldn't think it now but Birmingham used to be quite alternative and there was a hefty music scene which saw me through the time at the factory," he said.

"It gave me the courage to walk out of the factory."

"I had been working there two years and one morning I just thought, right, that's enough, and took off my overalls and walked out without saying anything to anyone."

"Ultimately I think music has been the most important thing in my life.

"Most people can identify with music and everybody likes it though they can't necessarily explain why they love it so much but there's something in there that touches people."

Andy spent his time playing in a prog rock band, Knight Flight, but it eventually folded leaving him at a loose end.

A visit to the careers centre led to a find that would kick start him on the road to travel.

"I picked up a leaflet about working in Israel on a kibbutz," he said.

Despite being a naive 18 year old who had never set foot outside Britain before, he took the plunge.

"Leaving Birmingham was quite a wrench," he said.

"Heaven knows what gave me the bottle to get on a plane with virtually no money and go to the Middle East.

"I expected the place to be nothing but desert with lots of camels and palm trees.

"I was quite stunned when I got to Tel Aviv and it was more like New York."

"The kibbutz itself was in scrub land away from any built up areas.

"It's like a collective community. When the Jews arrived in Israel after the Second World War they needed to stick together.

"Everything is shared and they are built on solid Marxist values."

Andy spent three years in Israel, moving around from place to place.

"I met lots of good people and it was a time of self discovery and learning.

"But I was blissfully unaware of what was going on which is very easy when you're just a young European.

"In the end I had to leave Israel because I realised how bad the situation was and how the Arabs were being treated."

Despite an obvious embarrassment at ever having been ignorant of the complex political issues Andy has fond memories and entertaining tales from Israel.

While managing a banana farm in a Moshav, a kind of toned down kibbutz, Andy was press ganged into helping out at the neighbouring crocodile farm.

"Sometimes we were dragged over to the crocodile farm to do jobs the Israelis would never risk their own lives doing," he said. "One time we were told to lasso a crocodile that was sick so a vet could give it an injection.

"It was a massive crocodile and our attempts proved a complete disaster.

"We were standing in a pit full of dangerous crocodiles, which was pretty scary.

"And once we got the rope round this thing's neck it was so strong we couldn't stop it walking even with five of us holding onto it.

"It dragged us down towards the water where all the others were emerging to see what was going on.

"Eventually it just rolled over and mashed its teeth into the fence, ripping a great big hole in it and we had to let it go and run for the wall."

After leaving Israel Andy spent a lot of time working his way round Europe, earning his keep through busking and casual jobs. When he finally returned to England in 1989 he headed for London.

Penniless in the capital city he turned to the loosely organised Squatters Association.

"I saw a notice by someone who needed people to live with them so went there," he said.

The next three or four years were spent squatting and busking with the odd bit of global travel thrown in to spice things up.

Various entrepreneurial scams kept the wolf from the door. "I went through a period of making juggling balls, selling them and teaching people who worked in the stock market to juggle because there was a juggling craze," said Andy.

"And I was doing a lot of busking on the London underground which was quite lucrative but not easy."

Though living a free and fulfilling life there was always the threat of homelessness and eviction. "It can happen at any time," he said.

"And you can't be too entrenched in any one way of doing things because at any moment you might have to pack up and leave. "It takes getting used to but it's also a bit of a buzz." "And I like the idea of things being transient.

"It keeps you on your toes and it keeps life interesting. "But it's more of a struggle to be alternative these days. "When I was squatting there was real feeling that the alternative way of thinking was on the up.

"We weren't just getting drunk and hanging around, it was a genuine lifestyle choice. "We really did think things were going to change.

"With the whole rave scene and road protests going on at the same time I think the Government recognised this, didn't want anyone turning the system on its head and successfully stamped all over it.

"Now what we've got is a controlled party scene which is pretty boring."

During one of his many journeys abroad away from the squats he took a road trip through the States and Central America.

"We drove from Los Angeles right down the pacific coast of Mexico, into Guatemala and Honduras then back up the Gulf of Mexico he said.

"We had a fantastic time and I had lots of opportunities to play guitar with some excellent musicians."

He did, however, have a fright when he thought he had contracted rabies after being bitten by a dog in Guatemala. "I just dabbed it with a bit of TCP and didn't think anything of it," he said.

"But later on when I found myself back in America, in Oregon, I started coming out in great big rashes and I lost the hearing in one of my ears. "I really thought I had rabies."

He went to the nearest hospital but realised that just getting to see a doctor was going to cost him more money than he had, and he didn't have any health insurance.

"Eventually I managed to find a free clinic and it took the doctor about 30 seconds to diagnose that I had chicken pox.

"The receptionist at the first hospital could probably have told me the same thing but there's no money in that.

"That to me says something quite fundamental about the American health system and the way it's used to make capital gain."

While a committed anti-capitalist Andy is wary about falling into the trap of tarring all Americans with the same brush.

"In America there are two polar opposites - one is the type of person you see every day into their coke, cop shows and consumerism and on the other hand there is a really strong counter culture.

"It doesn't seem to be a problem because they have the space where these people can actually set up alternative communities. Andy eventually left London and the squatting scene which had grown stale.

He spent his summers working for Oak Dragon, which ran themed camps in the across the South West.

"It was during that time I had my first glimpse of Stroud," he said.

"A friend I'd met in Israel was playing a gig at The Pelican and we were at a festival outside Swindon so came over to see him. His friend suggested Andy join the Gloucester-based band and, having nothing else to do and nowhere to live once the festival season had finished, he took him up on the offer.

"The band eventually folded I found myself living in Gloucester with no particular reason for being there.

"By then Stroud had become familiar so I decided to move here. "At the time I was with a girl who had been the key board player in the band and she also played the violin.

"We had an act called the Horizontal Jesus Show which we used to do in the High Street."

"I was amazed at how quickly things took off when I got here." Within weeks of their arrival in Stroud they were offered a regular slot at The Pelican by pub owner and promoter Andy Thomas.

Soon after that Flipside was formed out of the unlikely catalyst of a Job Plan Workshop which aimed to get the unemployed back into work.

"They asked me what I wanted to do and I said I was a guitarist and all I wanted to do was play.

"At the end of the session this guy said 'how d'you fancy coming for a jam?' and that was the beginning of Flipside.

"It was exactly what I was looking for and I was amazed I had stumbled across it.

"Different people joined the band and it turned into a hip hop, drum and bass and kind of funky which at the time was quite an original thing to do.

" I did think we were at the cutting edge of something," said Andy.

"People were still putting out sound systems and playing techno but there was a niche there for a band that still played dance music but was live.

"These day's it's become standard to have a DJ and rappers creating a sound but we were right there at the beginning of it and that why we became very popular very quickly."

"At the time it was fantastic, we'd spend almost every weekend together rehearsing in the Pelican.

"We never had any cash in our pockets though, being such a large band."

Andy has now been in Stroud for eight years, longer than he has stayed in one place since he left Birmingham.

He works at Ruskin Mill as a tutor to young people with behavioural problems.

"It's extremely rewarding and there's a great community around Ruskin Mill," he said.

"But it's strange for me because at heart I'm still a traveller and it's odd to be in the same place for long enough that you feel you've become part of the woodwork.

"I still don't feel like I've settled down, I still feel like I'm going somewhere and I'm in transit.

"Ultimately I think you have to keep moving forward, though not necessarily physically."

"I have to have a feeling that I'm constantly learning and achieving things."

Not one to stand still for long Andy still has the wanderlust in his veins.

"I'd still like to travel, maybe in the Far East," he said. "I'd also like to learn another instrument and I'm interested in drama so if I was to stay in Stroud I'd like to become involved in the whole amateur dramatics thing."