It is through our shared love of jazz, and especially bebop, that I became acquainted with John. As a keen amateur jazz musician myself, John was constantly trying to obtain my services for one of the many local bands he formed. He would regale us youngsters with stories of the London music scene in the fifties and sixties, with which he was heavily involved.

The sittings for this portrait took place in my studio at the time – a freezing cold attic room on a local industrial estate. We would spend the afternoon listening to jazz and talking intermittently on a wide range of subjects, from the day-to-day successes of our respective football teams to the comparative merits of the local supermarkets. On occasion, the sudden memory of a dead cert in the three o'clock at Newmarket would require his immediate delivery to the bookies in the High Street.

In the painting we see John surrounded by the artist’s paraphernalia and many jazz CDs, the symbols of those things which create the bond between John and me. It is a serious attempt to explain a genuine connection between two people, and to represent the passions that consume their lives.'