Doug Lock left life on the road and now teaches fly fishing in Co Cork, writes Olivia Kelleher
DOUG LOCK tended the guitar of Jimmy Page, served as tour manager to Motörhead and was a guitar technician to the Moody Blues. However, a bout of pneumonia led him to re-imagine his life and he now works as a salmon fly fishing instructor in Fermoy, Co Cork.
Lock (57) has never been a man for hedging his bets, but instead has embraced every opportunity which has come along in his varied and fascinating life.
He grew up in North Devon and had a passion for guitars from a very early age, receiving his first electric guitar when he was 15.
He soon became involved in the semi-professional circuit in Devon and Cornwall. A blues lover, Lock played numerous gigs in clubs in Germany before returning to London to perform with various bands.
When Lock was about 22 he played with a band called Bulldozer and they toured the length and breath of England.
One of the biggest thrills of his life was playing with the legendary Graham Bond of the Graham Bond Organisation.
Bond has long been thought of as being a founding father of the English rhythm and blues boom of the 1960s. Along with John Mayall and Alexis Korner, Bond was one of the great catalytic figures of 1960s rock in Britain.
"It was unbelievable. Suddenly little Old Lockie from Devon was playing with Graham Bond. Bond is the musicians' musician and I was delighted to have the opportunity to play alongside him."
At one stage Lock's career went a bit pear shaped and he ended up driving a truck for a period.
However, he bumped in to an old friend and he ended up working as a guitar technician with the Moody Blues at the same time as their album Long Distant Voyager reached number one in the US.
Lock has fond memories of his time with bands like the Moody Blues and Motörhead. Whilst with the Blues he stayed in a succession of five-star hotels all across America for months on end leading to many Spinal Tap moments.
"We would be in the same chain in the same type of room in a different city every night. You would wake up and wonder where the hell you were. I played every major city in the US when I worked as a technician. It was a great time."
After he worked with the Moody Blues, Lock became a tour manager with Motörhead and he also spent time as an employee of Frank Zappa and Steve Winwood.
"It was like Spinal Tap at times. Lemmy [from Motörhead] is a really nice bloke. But some bands on the circuit were incredible. A lot of it is boredom.
"Some people make it in the music industry and they become monsters. Just because they can. Many of the bands and their sessions musicians had no concept of geography. They would be saying can we stop and get a burger at the American fast food chain Wendy's, not really understanding why they couldn't do that in Europe. You just had to develop a gallows humour to cope."
Lock recalls getting a phonecall in London on one occasion at 2am and being asked to fly out to work with Jimmy Page in the US.
By mid-afternoon the next day he had gone straight from Heathrow to Hartford in Connecticut, losing his bags along the way, and was preparing backstage.
"You're going to have to anticipate when I break a string," were the first words Jimmy Page said to him when he arrived.
Through all the madness of the music industry, Lock was grounded by his life-long partner, the aptly named Joy.
They met at a gig at the University of Salford when the pair were in their early 20s.
Joy was a career woman and never really minded that Lock was on the road for months at a time. The pair had a solid relationship and a sense of mutual respect.
The couple travelled to north Cork in the early 1990s and a bout of pneumonia made Lock reconsider his lucrative yet stressful career.
He bought a guesthouse outside Fermoy and it was an instant success.
After they finally got around to tying the knot, Joy was diagnosed with breast cancer. Tragically, after a brave battle she died.
A devastated Lock decided to stay on in Ireland and has worked for many years as a salmon fly fishing instructor.
It was an unlikely career change some would say, but Lock grew up in rural Devonshire and always had a love of fishing.
In fact he managed to fit in a bit of fishing while on tour in the US.
Lock was even part of a club called the Rock and Roll Fly Fishers. Eric Clapton joined the club one afternoon for a peaceful day's fishing.
Lock has numerous certificates proving his competency in relation to the teaching of fly fishing and has a booming business in his adopted home of Fermoy. He says he will never forget the crazy times he had on the road but he is very content with his quiet life in north Cork.
"I have been so fortunate really. Fishing was something I always did. I used to carry a rod around with me on tour and if I got an hour I would be out there fishing.
"I have always loved it and I really enjoy teaching. When I grew up in rural Devonshire you had to have an imagination. There was no X Box and you had to get out there and make your own fun. And I am still doing that in a way with the fishing."