SEVERAL lifetimes of musical experience will help make this weekend’s Scartop Blues Festival a day to remember.

Alfie “Steeleye” Stockman, pictured left, is just one of the lifelong bluesmen peddling their wares at the moortop venue.

Alfie began playing professionally in his hometown of Derry/Londonderry in 1965 at the age of 14.

Having secured a gig with the resident rock band in The Embassy Ballroom, Alfie had to tell the Musicians Union he was 16 to get a card.

This gig led to a period of progress through various rock and blues bands, along the way supporting the likes of Taste, Fleetwood Mac and Chicken Shack across Ireland.

Also before he was 18, Alfie toured Europe with a Motown big band.

In the late 70s, after supporting the likes of Thin Lizzy and many touring European bands, Alfie decided to leave Northern Ireland and seek a career in England that would keep a roof over his head.

He carried out session working London studios while concentrating on furthering his career.

Alfie ended up in East Yorkshire in 1988, dabbling with acoustic music and forming an Irish band with folk musician Pete Clayton.

The band, False McCoy, coincided with the arrival of the Irish Bar craze and the band became successful covering Irish music with an irreverent 'Pogeish' touch.

Recent retirement has allowed Alfie to return to his first love, and his appearance on the blues circuit has included a successful appearance at the 2013 Beverley Blues Festival.

Alfie cites his main influences as Freddie King, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Isaac Guillory, and although thoroughly immersed in acoustic blues, his playing style is said to carry echoes of his electric blues past. Scartop Blues Festival is on Saturday at Moorlodge Country Retreat, near Stanbury, and features 11 acts over 11 hours from noon. Admission is free.

More details of performers on page 5 of The Ticket.