Middlesbrough guitarist Micky Moody has a book and an album out as he talks to Viv Hardwick about his early days on Teesside which led to world fame with the band Whitesnake.

MICKY Moody started off his incredible guitar career in the 1960s as an Acklam-born youngster performing in the pubs and clubs of Middlesbrough, South Durham and North Yorkshire.

Before his fame days with Whitesnake and David Coverdale, Moody was plugging away with a band called Road Runners. He says: "I went to school with Paul Rodgers and we've known each other since we were ten. We were in the same class at school, St Thomas' Secondary Modern, and I started guitar lessons in 1963 having realised that I wasn't going to be playing professionally for Middlesbrough, though I think they could do with me now as a goalscorer."

His experiences up to the 1980s adventures with Whitesnake have been captured in his book Playing With Trumpets... A Rock n Roll Apprenticeship, which has just been released. The book tells how Moody escaped from the prospects of a steelworks apprenticeship on a rollercoaster ride to fame.

In 1964, he began rehearsing with mates and, by 1965, he, Rogers and Colin Bradley formed a band. There were so many gigs then and the trio were so young that Moody admits: "We weren't the best in the area but people said 'you're only bairns' and encouraged us."

Rodgers developed from bass player into the lead vocalist and Bruce Thomas from Eaglescliffe (who went on to become one of Elvis Costello's Attractions) took over on bass. The band, now called The Wildflowers, headed for London.

"At the time I'd met David Coverdale and Chris Rea who were both Teessiders with Blues roots. We'd started off doing covers of the beat groups like the Beatles, the Stones and the Kinks and discovered blues through Chuck Berry and by the time we reached 16 we were pretty mature and had outgrown the Middlesbrough area. We'd get pretty wild on stage, particularly when you're playing St Patrick's Youth Club in Thornaby, and we'd do mad things like setting fire to an industrial sock that I'd got from my dad who worked at ICI. That was our idea of surrealism. That didn't go too well with the local promoters," he says.

"We were very ambitious, we didn't know we were going to succeed but we didn't think of anything else so we didn't have that negative attitude in our minds," adds Moody who recalls that the four-piece lasted most of 1967 in London surviving in a flat and touring.

Having gone back to the North-East for some classical guitar training, he couldn't resist an offer to join a band called Tramline, which recorded two albums for the famous Island record label.

Moody has lived in Twickenham, London, for many years now and been in "the softy south since the late sixties. My kids were born down here and my wife's from Twickenham and I've lived down here for 37 years now".

"I was back in Middlesbrough two weeks ago for a bit of a sad occasion. In my book I talk about Road Runners and the guy who really put us on the road was called Joe Bradley, the older brother of Colin, and he was our mentor who sadly died three weeks ago. Colin and Dave were at the funeral." The guitarist also managed to get news of Joe's illness to Paul Rodgers and the singer dedicated his Newcastle City Hall show to Joe just days before his death.

Moody recently saw Paul Rodgers with his band at the Albert Hall and comments: "He tours all the time and lives that life still whereas I don't and I pick and choose a bit now. But I think you have to set your sights pretty high because it's not an easy business and very competitive. If you don't set your sights high you really will be swallowed up pretty quickly."

There is obviously an opening for a follow-up book covering Moody's Whitesnake days

"Initially I met David (Coverdale) back in 1968 because he's from Redcar and we used to hang around a coffee bar called the Purple Onion in Middlesbrough when he was an art student and I was a professional musician. He blossomed into a name with various bands and had been on TV, including Opportunity Knocks, then I got a call in 1974 saying he'd joined Deep Purple," says Moody. A few months later he took part in Coverdale's send-off event by ex-Teessiders in London as the performer prepared to go to the US.

A few years later Moody was playing in Munich with the band Snafu when Coverdale approached him about session work which led to the creation of Whitesnake in 1977-78.

"I was quite surprised I was the only guitarist because I wasn't known as hard rock player but the rest is history," said the slide guitar player who enjoyed the camaraderie up to 1981, explaining: "We were party animals to the point where the music was becoming secondary. It's every bloke's dream to be in a top rock band and I thought 'well I'm here so I'm going to go for it'."

Moody returned for more in 1983 but halted his association feeling "drained from head to toe, partly due to self-indulgence, but didn't enjoy it any more".

Now he performs regularly at festivals with M3 Classic Whitesnake - involving ex-Whitesnake colleagues Bernie Marsden and Neil Murray - and he's just released a new album called Don't Blame Me.

"Things take their course and nothing lasts forever. I had a few good years with Whitesnake and I treasure them. I wouldn't have missed it for anything," he says.

* Playing With Trumpets... A Rock n Roll Apprenticeship is published by SAF Books www.safpublishing.com and Don't Blame Me can be found in record shops (GPA 2001, Evangeline) or www.evangeline.co.uk