I relocated to Stockport in 1964 as an apprentice service engineer for a large Scottish engineering company and later in 1968 started playing banjo with The Louisiana Shakers run by Ged Hone.  We played at the White Lion in Withington on Wednesday evenings. Other players in the band were: Ray Hayes, Howard Worthington and Eric Brierley.  I got the occasional gig with Derek Galloway and Gabe Ession's bands also. I did an 18 month spell working up in Preston installing machinery for British Aircraft Company.  The Silver Bell Jazz Band was playing, without a banjo player, at the Bridge Inn so was lucky to slot in there.  I can remember a surprise visit by Nat Gonella one evening.  We also played on the Lancaster canal, a paddle steamer ferry on the Humber and a few other far flung places; happy days.  On Friday evenings I travelled across the Pennines to Sheffield to play with Al Rogers Panama Jazz Band at The Norfolk Arms Ringinglow.  Sundays with The Florence Stompers in Chesterfield in one of the many now defunct Miners' Welfare Clubs where I met my wife.