winston delandro

Winston Delandro has been performing and gracing worldwide stages for several decades, as well as recording, arranging, producing and lending vocals. Currently touring with Ali Campbell of UB40.

Credits include:

Bob Marley & The Wailers, Johnny Nash, African People, Batti Mamzelle, Mike Storey, Doris Troy, Tony Bird, Eddie Quansah, The Real Thing, Linda Lewis, Joan Armatrading, Mark Ashton, Paul Carrack, Annette Peacock, The Breakfast Band, Snowy White, Anansi, Brother Resistance, Richard Bailey, Omar, Aurther Louis, UB40, Osibisa.

Exclusive Interview  

Q: Where are you originally from and when did you arrive in London?

I’m from many parts of the world. originally Trinidad, Port of Spain.

I don’t think they’d invented time when I came here! I think I was about three years old and we just came on a boat. That same one where they were going to send us all back!

Q: What’s a memory you remember from your homeland?

I still have memories of when I was little, great memories of carnivals and dancing. One thing that always stuck in my mind is in the West Indies we celebrate death. We all go to the cemeteries and light candles. It’s like a party for the dead, late at night with other families and food. They were celebrating the life of the people that died which was good; I thought it was great they appreciated the good things. So I thought we’re all in a graveyard but everybody’s happy.

Q: How do you find London compares to Trinidad?

Well Trinidad is a beautiful place but unfortunately there’s so much violence and because Trinidad being so close to Venezuela it was a cocaine haven for drug crimes.

Q: When did you start playing guitar?

I was about 11 or 12 years old. My mum had one of those catalog books where you could buy all sorts of stuff in it and I remember I was looking through it and saw a guitar and that was it, so she bought it.

It’s true what people say about music ‘You don’t choose the instrument, the instrument chooses you’ and strangely that’s what it did to me. When I got it, it was a horrible guitar that hurt my fingers all the time, so I had to put it down for a good few months. It was hard metal strings, barbed wire I think! Ha. So somehow I kept on doing it and mum sent me to a few guitar lessons as she saw I liked it. My brother in law who used to live upstairs from us at the time, he loved jazz, all kinds of that music and I used to go up there and just sit on the stairs and listen. I didn’t know what it was but I really liked it. I was the only one in my family that played, sorry mum I didn’t mean it! Ha.

Q: What was your first proper guitar?

I had a copy of some guitar when I went to Italy that looked like a Les Paul but it wasn’t a proper Gibson and an Italian guy saw me with it and he said ‘do you want to swap because I like that guitar you got?’ and he gave me a Fender. A proper Fender! That was a great old Fender. I had it for many years and then it got f*#king stolen in England.

Q: What was your first gig?

We had a little after school band and funny enough we played at the Roundhouse when we were only about 16 or 17 years old. We used to practice at the back of a sweet shop and this guy came in and heard us. He was a manager Joe Boyd, a very famous guy and he took us on. We were writing a few songs but it had a vibe to it because it was rock but the guy who was singing was a black guy and in those days black people would sing soul and white people played rock. So our thing captured him and he liked it. I remember that gig, although we didn’t even know what a gig was! It was the Roundhouse with everyone on acid and that sort of thing, big drug style. So John Lee Hooker was also on the gig along with a few different bands, well known bands, like Jimmy Page when he was playing with The Yardbirds. So we started the gig off, it was going alright and then John Lee Hooker walked passed my amp and he mustn’t have seen it but he kicked the lead out the back of my amp so all of a sudden it went all dead. I got really vexed and smashed my guitar on the floor and walked off and the crowd went yeah!! I don’t know if they thought good cause they stopped or great cause they liked it! Ha! That was a great memory.

Q: What followed that gigging story?

I met an artist called Titus who was quite big in Italy in a band called African People. So he asked me to come do some dates there so we all just jumped in a van and lived in Milan for about 5 or 6 years. We then met up with a producer guy who liked us and we did a version of the song Montego Bay and next thing it got to number 1!

Q: So you had a lot of good fortune starting out?

Things just happened. There was a lot of good fortune because there was a lot of live music and if you were lucky you fell into a good band and people were signing bands, it’s not like now. Back then there were a lot of people in the music industry who were really into the music.

Q: Who would you say were your biggest influences?

Ah man, loads. George Benson. All the jazz guys. All the rock guys because I was wide open for everything so I didn’t have no limits. That’s why I sometimes find it a bit strange when you get musicians that say ‘I only like rock’ or ‘I only like blues’. No, music is the same. It’s an emotion. You can’t just cut off an emotion. 

Q: What other artists and styles of music did you love?

In those times, there was Jimi Hendrix, BB King. Albert Lee, Albert King.

I just enjoyed all of them. All music. I like African music, Arabic music, and Greek music. When I go away most of the times on tour I don’t put the tele on, I put the local radio stations on just to listen to what it is.

Q: Can you play another instrument?

I can play the fool! I know bits and pieces of others but not to do a gig on them.

I loved the guitar. Guitar was the one.

Q: How do you think the London music scene compares now to when you started?

There were more musicians actually playing music. Everywhere was live music. So you had to play and as a musician that’s where you learnt the trade. Back in the early days most record companies were higher-ranking people who actually loved music, they were in it to make music. What went wrong? I think something called money and greed. I don’t know if they’re a band!

Q: What do you like to see in a guitarist when you watch a gig?

I like to see personality come through. If you can feel the person, more than the technical side, the emotion is what reaches me. As a musician you got to play with your heart and your vibes and people pick up on that more than right notes and scales. Look at those blues greats!

Q: Should a guitarist play loud?

Definitely yea! You should have it on maximum of 15 if you can! Ha!

The sound of guitar is a dominant sound so it cuts through but in my schooling we had mature musicians in the band that would tell you. So as I tell a lot of guitarists, you don’t always have to play loud! If they are playing too loud or much they usually aren’t listening to the band. You got to play to the music. Otherwise just stand up and play by yourself.

Q: So who are you currently playing with now?

I’m playing with Ali Campbell, for nearly about 12 years. Time flies by!

What happened was Jake who was his MD at the time called me. Ali hadn’t left UB40 yet but wanted to do his own album and was going to do an acoustic thing for the BBC TV so I was invited down to the studio to check it out and I liked it.

I mean once you hear Ali’s voice, you know that’s why it’s lasted so long.  

I must take my hat off to Ali and UB40 actually because they grew up with and loved reggae and they took a lot of reggae artist songs and did them in their covers and owned up to the people saying ‘we didn’t write it, this guy wrote it, that guy wrote it, send them the royalties.’ So a few of those guys from Jamaica back then really appreciated UB40 for doing the songs and making sure they got their royalties. I respect them for that.

Q: Is there a highlight from gigging with Ali?

I mean it’s just one of those things, when you’re playing to 50,000 people in an open air space, it’s great to see them affected and loving it. That’s what us musicians want to do, make people happy or understand what we’re trying to say to them musically.

Q: Are there any artists you would have loved to play with?

It’s hard to say because I wouldn’t have wanted to interfere on their thing. I learned from it by listening to it. I appreciate all players.

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve been given?

Turn down! Ha!

Q: And the best advice you would give?

The best advice is that we all have technique and we all want to play millions of things but anytime you’re playing a song, play to the song. Don’t play what you want to play and if you don’t know what to play don’t play. There’s nothing wrong with stopping. Let it breath and it will come to you. It’s an overall sound.

Q: Have you a funny memory that you’d like to share with us?

One time I took LSD before a gig and by the time we got to the gig, it kicked off and I hit this note that never stopped, it went into the universe! It had nothing to do with the song and I was standing up front playing it over and over. The band was like ‘what the f*#k are you doing?’ and I was like ‘that note, that note! Don’t you know what that note was saying?!’

Q: What does the Rumband mean to you?

Lovely people and a great band. All great musicians, everybody. And some mad ones as well! It’s the music though cause we’ve had some great nights where the band was rocking and everyone wanted to play with us!  It’s a special group. We need to do a gig that’s recorded really well with punters to get the vibes from the people to make us play like that. There are some great moments!

Q: Do you want to continue gigging forever?

Well that’s my life, I still love it and it does things to me, even just emotionally. Sometimes after being on tour I’m so happy to be home, listening to some classical music and get the guitar out and just say hello. It calms me.