European Guitar Award - October 2022

It was such an honour to receive the Sena Performers European Guitar Award on Thursday night.

Having enjoyed a walk around the picturesque historic town of Bergen op Zoom, it felt very special to be given a beautiful guitar recital by a group of students of After the Ordeal at the castle. My wife Jo, Adrian Holmes, Vince O'Malley and I were then treated to a sumptuous meal before being escorted to the Gebouw-T venue, where everyone greeted us.

Great to see friends there as well as Leendert Haaksma and Jan Akkerman, both of whom had won the award before. I was thrilled to see Jan again after so many years. I was incredibly moved by the video the organisers had compiled which included plaudits from several previous award winners including Brian May and Steve Vai. I very much appreciated receiving the award.

It was terrific to see a number of amazing guitarists playing either Genesis music or my solo stuff, and fabulous for me to play with both Jan Ackerman and the talented house band.

Many thanks from both Jo and myself to Adrian Holmes and Vince O'Malley for all their help and a big thank you to everyone involved at the event, in particular to the organisers Jean-Paul Heck and Sylvia Snel.