[Popey292]

It was around October of 1991. I was the owner of a village Garage in Essex, England. One day I got a phone call from a man who called himself ‘The Egg and Potato Man’ I knew of his business but had never met him. He wanted me to carry out a vehicle test on his Austin Seven car and we arranged for him to bring it straight in. He was wild in appearance; big shaggy sideburns, long hair and bushy moustache with a strangely imposing manner. As we were chatting, during the test, he told me that he used to be a musician and played guitar; being the guitarist in my own band ‘Lethal Dose’; I asked if he played professionally. He replied that he had: a long time ago in the sixties. Had he played with any one I might know? He mentioned John Mayall; possibly a name not known to many in the village, but I had been a fan for 25 years so he was really pressing buttons in my head. Treading carefully, I asked if that would have been before or after Eric. He said after! He could only be one person then: Peter Green! Was it possible that the man and legend I had admired and tried to emulate was standing before me and had been living just a few miles away? I couldn’t let it rest and started probing with questions. He was evasive, kept pressing me to just finish the test and was reluctant to talk. I mentioned that I thought what happened to Peter robbed the music world of a great legacy and that I did not subscribe to stories about him being crazy and lighting cigarettes with royalty cheques and burning his guitars. He made no comment.

Back in my shop where I wrote out his certificate and took his money, he was silent until just about to leave when, with one foot outside the door he said…”Bye-the-way that cheque was for £20.000.” This convinced me that he was Peter and all I wanted was to know him better but he was gone. I was starry-eyed and excited for the next couple of days and told friends and the lads in the band that I had had Peter green in my shop. Frustratingly, the younger members didn’t know who he was!!!

Of course, it was not Peter green but Patrick Himfen (sometimes wrongly spelled Hinfen)

I am fairly certain that conning me was the beginning of the whole crazy saga as at this stage he never used the name Peter. He started turning up at my shop just for a cup of tea and a chat. I showed him some of my instruments and sometimes he would strum a few chords if a guitar happened to be lying around. He played as you might expect a very rusty ex pro to; almost getting quite tricky phrases and chords; it all added up. My feeling was that with gentle handling, I might coax him to come and jam with the band. He and I did one night at a pub where nobody knew us. I played and he sang, we did about ten minutes of ‘Hey Joe’. Himfen looked and sounded exactly as one would think an older Peter Green would. I even met his son who really does resemble the young Peter. In fact, when I recently saw the real Peter on TV I was shocked that he didn’t look and sound more like Patrick.

I thought we had become very good friends although he had a knack of rubbing everyone else up the wrong way; forcing me to defend his odd ways. There were many incidents when I protected his identity and stopped people calling him Peter. I went with him all over the place to check out old Les Paul guitars; he wanted to replace the one he sold to Gary Moore. His knowledge of Fleetwood Mac and the life and times of working bands in the sixties was encyclopaedic; he convinced every one we met that he was genuine whilst always appealing to them for discretion. These old guitars were pretty passed-it, either bent, rusty or both. I could hardly get a decent sound out of any of them. At that time I was playing a Gibson Les Paul 25-50 Anniversary and couldn’t see the attraction of those old bangers apart from sentimental value. Himfen hated my guitar, constantly criticising the gold plating, calling it a piece of rubbish, thinking that ‘Peter’ must know best, I eventually got Dave Edwards (mentioned in lots of articles) to sell it for me. Himfen later bought a Tokai Love Roc from Ray Marquis (a friend and great recording engineer and an OK drummer) He was convinced that the Japanese had bought all the best wood and their guitars were superior to Gibson. His intention was to replicate the PG ’59 Les Paul. The pickups were replaced with real vintage Gibson PAFs, the neck pickup is turned around, the scratch plate removed and Grover machine heads fitted. It has a great action, fabulous neck and amazing sound. The sustain is way beyond that of my 25-50 and it has a great burst on the body, just like the real thing.
I borrowed and played the guitar for ages and absolutely loved it. I later persuaded Himfen to sell it to me and I still own it.

About this time, several articles had appeared suggesting that Himfen was a fake; a fact I disputed vigorously until the day I also knew the truth. As is often the case, his elaborate masquerade was exposed to me by a shear fluke. We were sitting and just shooting the breeze one day when I asked him a simple question to which he gave a very wrong answer. I said “In all your playing career, was there a project or occasion that gave you the most personal pleasure?”… He replied “That’s simple: it was when I recorded the album ‘Two Greens Make A Blues’ with my brother Mick”. He then went on to reminisce about how great it was to be in a position to help his brother earn a bit of money… Peter Green does have a brother Michael, but he was not the player on that album, that was Mick Green of Jonnie Kid & the Pirates fame and no relation. What a bombshell, not only was Himfen’s history knowledge lacking but lets face it; you don’t get your own brother mixed up with somebody else. I was really pole-axed and I wanted to really make him face what he had done. My feelings and respect for Himfen went down hill from then though I have to say there were times when circumstances gave me reason to be grateful for knowing him, and at one time might even have supported his impersonation if he had been honest with me.

Himfen’s acts of mischief are quite easy to research and all seem to be for no personal or material gain. They have affected a lot of people notably Roger Taylor (not “Queen bassist…” as reported sometimes), Tony Meehan (ex Shadows) Terry Snell (Great Django player) Dave Edwards (just gifted) who really took the brunt of some serious agro and was hurt by Himfen at a bad time in his life. He destroyed my band by disrupting rehearsals and trying to take over. I was at a recording session under his direction where he sang ‘Amazing Grace’ with about six different guitar styles as an accompaniment. He persuaded Dave’s band ‘National Gold’ to rehearse his arrangement of the theme music to ‘Coronation Street’ a long suffering Brit soap. It was all way over the top like the time he placed a mike on the seat of an old Land-Rover inside a metal tea-pot or kettle and recording the sound of the engine ticking over for the rhythm section. We just thought the weird antics were part of his genius. His reign lasted about four years; I reckon Freud would have loved him; there can never be another. I think it’s a pity in some ways that the real Peter did not emerge until after this episode. For them to meet would have been amusing. I wonder if the excitement Himfen caused gave Peter any encouragement to come back, my impression, however, is that he was un-moved by the whole affair.


Thanks for listening