The first thing I ever said to Mick Taylor was, "We've got a spare Fender Twin in the bus, if you'd like to use it we can bring it in." His amp was sounding very unhealthy and he didn't have a spare one with him. That was at the Faust club in Hannover-last October 20th. My band and I had ended up watching Mick Taylor and his All-Star Band's soundcheck. We'd played in Bremen the previous night and as we were on our way back to Berlin and we had the band's equipment in our van. He mumbled, "Oh, it's okay…" A few minutes later he turned to his road-manager, Claude Taylor and said, "There's someone here who says they've got a Fender Twin we can use… I can't remember who it was…" He'd played a few versions of Separately before his amp totally packed up. That alone was worth the waiting around.

Claude tried to get my band and me to pay to see the show. I pointed out that Mick was using my amplifier. "Okay, two of you can be on the guest list." Such generosity! I ignored him and we sat tight. Mick played so loud through my amp it was almost impossible to stay at the front of the stage. After the gig we walked on stage to collect my Twin. Claude said, "Thanks for the loan." Mick hadn't commented at all.

The next time I talked to Mick Taylor was at the Landpension Hubner after the soundcheck for that night's gig at Zur Linde in Affalter. He seemed friendlier this time around. I went up to him and said, "Hi Mick, you used my Fender Twin in Hannover the other week." He smiled, "Oh, yea. It's okay mine's fixed now." I answered, "Well mine's blown up!" He didn't really respond. Just puffed away on a cigarette and sipped on his glass of cognac.

Mick and his two colleagues climbed into their car and drove back to Zur Linde to collect his Les Paul Deluxe. Radio producer Joe Liebschwager, concert promoter Thomas Neukirchner, Kevin Jay Lymn (my guitarist), German Stones' fan Hans Kroninger and I climbed into Joe's car and waited for them to return. We made the short drive to a studio in Lo?nitz where Mick Taylor was scheduled to record a session for HO*T FM. The drive was lengthened by Taylor's car getting lost en route-causing Joe quite a few headaches. The guitarist was located in the car park of a McDonalds, five kilometres down the road.

HO*T FM, based in Hof, Germany, has a weekly radio show called 9pm Session. Normally sessions are recorded at the radio station but due to the tight schedule of the tour a date had been slotted in at Stefan Gunther's Powertechnik studio. I've appeared on the show twice-therefore the invite to attend Mick Taylor's session.

Unlike our previous encounters Mr. Taylor now seemed pretty relaxed and in very good humour. He walked into the small, well-equipped, studio and picked up an acoustic guitar-pulled a slide out of his pocket and played a few notes. Then he asked for an amplifier, plugged in his Les Paul, and set about getting 'his' sound. He tossed off a few lines from Bob Dylan's Girl Of The North Country and a few brief instrumental passages. Stefan was setting the levels, giving Mick enough reverb, that sort of thing. Kevin, Hans and I watched Mick's hands, the way they coaxed the notes out of his Gibson. He remarked that he was used to playing to audiences, but this was a bit strange. Not disconcerting, just strange.

Mick remarked that he'd, "Just make up a blues…" He settled down and played a slight, but beautiful two and a half minute number. After he'd finished he said, "I don't know what that was!" I suggested it should be called Sad Wild Eyes after a line from the song. Mick, however mused, "Shall I be really romantic and call that Song For Marlies? Yea, Song For Marlies-we'll call that, yea…" One of his colleagues gave him a knowing glance. Mick went on, "Right, let me play some blues…" A laid back Love In Vain style piece followed.

"Train Station Blues. Train Station. Train Station Blues. No, Winter, Wintertime." Mick was searching for a title. Train Station Blues ended up the winner. The small audience applauded and the guitarist commented, "My first solo concert in Germany… in East Germany." He then spoke with Joe who was preparing to interview him, "The first song that I played you is actually two songs. Well, it's one song and I started to play a bit of another song. But the title I gave you is brand new so I have to copyright that… Just make sure that you put 'Copyright Mick Taylor'."

Then Thomas, Kevin and I got Mick to autograph some albums. I asked if he had any problem signing bootlegs. He replied, "No, I do it all the time!" One of the CD's I gave him to sign was, Is There Life After The Stones. He smiled and read out the title, autographed the cover and wrote, "YES!" under the title.

HO*T FM producer Joe Liebschwager did his interview. Mick seemed very happy to talk about the Stones, but Joe kept on saying, "No, we don't want to talk about the Stones…" Mick seemed to want nothing more. I wanted to ask him about his appearance on Ron Wood's first solo album-the subject of my forthcoming-half-finished book. But there was no time. The only question I got to ask was how long he'd been playing guitar with his fingers-in the past he'd always used a plectrum, "About five years." He expanded on the subject a bit.

Following the interview Mick and his friends drove back to Zur Linde for the evening's show. His playing that night was, as usual, impeccable. A real gentleman.

Check out: http://www.powertechnik.com/studio/Taylor.htm and HO*T FM's own homepage: http://www.hot-fm.de/9qmsession for further info and photos.

Nikki Sudden-Berlin-February 2001.
First published in It's Only Rock'n Roll No. 41-April 2000.