Bert Weedon's Play in a Day: Guide to Modern Guitar Playing (Guitar)

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The manual Play in a Day was the bible for generations of budding guitarists in the 1950s and 1960s. Now, again, I'd never heard the word philosophy but it's something that intensely interested me, has done ever since. After he was discharged from hospital, doctors advised him to avoid smoky dancehalls and nightclubs, so he switched the focus of his career to records, radio and television.

The other night I was at a function and [English classical guitarist] Julian Bream was there and he said 'It's lovely to see you, Bert'. Although he first appeared on TV in 1946, it was not until the arrival of the independent network in 1955 that Weedon began to appear frequently on the small screen. His first chart hit in 1959 Guitar Boogie Shuffle began a path that saw him becoming a major influence. Brian May stated: "There's not a guitarist in Britain from my generation who doesn't owe him a great debt of gratitude. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.Photograph: John Londei/Rex Features Bert Weedon, expert on the instrumental niceties of rock'n'roll, in 1987. He was seen in Slater's Bazaar, the first TV advertising magazine, and from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s he was a regular in a series of children's shows: Small Time, Tuesday Rendezvous and Five O'Clock Club, with Muriel Young, Wally Whyton and the glove puppet Ollie Beak. Jerry Lordan got to know them and he said 'Look, I've written this and Bert Weedon's going to do it'. In 1976 he became the first solo guitar player to top the Official Top 40 album charts with 22 Golden Guitar Greats. It's at the Paris Cinema which is a downstairs studio, he said 'He's here,' and there was a sort of pregnant silence.

Just to pluck a few names out of the air – Brian May, Keith Richards, George Harrison and Eric Clapton.In 1987 Weedon issued a video version which promised that "a beginner can play in a group in only 25 minutes". Eventually I had saved up enough money and I went to the man and I said in a very haughty way: 'I'll have that guitar'.