Ian Anderson is part of the group of British music industry professionals that came up with the world music concept. 'I was among the infamous gang of 19 who invented world music back in 1987, and devised the BBC Radio 3 Awards For World Music.'

Anderson became seriously interested in music in his early teenage years, when he heard an EP by Muddy Waters. At the time he also discovered a town coffee bar full of people who enjoyed a wide range of diverse non-pop artists, like Big Joe Williams, Bob Dylan, Mose Allison, Miriam Makeba, Charlie Parker, Jesse Fuller, Jelly Roll Morton, Lord Buckley, Davey Graham and Spider John Koerner. 'So I became a weekend beatnik, bought a guitar and taught myself to play.'

As soon as he left school, he moved to Bristol, and started playing in folk and blues clubs. 'I made my first EP record as part of the trio Anderson, Jones, Jackson - Bristol's answer to Koerner, Ray & Glover.'

Anderson became a full-time musician and promptly got caught up in the tail end of the late '60s blues boom. 'With the help and encouragement of people like the late great Alexis Korner and an early session for the BBC's John Peel, I moved briefly to London: an exhausting year followed during which I did hundreds of gigs all over the UK and recorded the LP Stereo Death Breakdown which came out on Liberty/UA as Ian Anderson's Country Blues Band.'

Back to Bristol, he released 4 subsequent solo albums in quick succession of mostly his own songs and guitar instrumentals, three for the Village Thing label (Royal York Crescent, A Vulture Is Not A Bird You Can Trust and Singer Sleeps On As Blaze Rages), 'before waking up to realizing I wasn't very good at it: for my second lightbulb moment I locked the master tapes away where they stay to this day. In spite of continual bizarre offers to re-issue them from Japan and the USA, they'll only be let out when I'm too old and incontinent to be proud, or one too many bailiffs come knocking at the door.'

In the mid '70s, by then relocated to Farnham in Surrey, he formed the duo Hot Vultures with Maggie Holland, getting back to roots music. 'We split our time throughout much of the mid-late 1970s between college gigs in the UK and touring extensively in Europe, particularly Belgium, where we lived for a while. We couldn't get arrested on the UK folk club scene for some years (possibly because we played everything rather fast and loud, though certain stars of the later punk era used to come to our gigs!) We released 3 albums, Carrion On, The East Street Shakes and Up The Line with lots of interesting guests. There's a best of CD Vulturama on Weekend Beatnik.'

'Somewhere around 1978 the folk police decided that fast and loud was just what the British folk clubs needed after all. Doing the rounds of even the most traditional clubs and festivals, we soon teamed up with English melodeon guru Rod Stradling and others to mix English & US-derived traditional musics as The English Country Blues Band, releasing 2 albums, No Rules and Home & Deranged, now compiled on a best of CD Unruly. Around then I also made a duet album with my old 1960s blues pal Mike Cooper for the Italian label Appaloosa, titled The Continuous Preaching Blues.'

Eventually the English Country Blues Band evolved into the noisy English/world roots dance band Tiger Moth, making another two albums Tiger Moth and Howling Moth, now on a best of CD Mothballs Plus before culminating in the late '80s world roots ensemble Orchestre Super Moth.

Another side of Anderson is enthusiasm for music journalism. 'I've always written about music, starting with local newspapers and Blues Unlimited in the '60s, running through Folk Review and eventually co-founding a regional mag called Southern Rag in 1979 which rapidly grew into the international roots music title fRoots and dragged me back to London where I've been skulking in deepest Harringay ever since. It's what has mainly occupied my days, nights & weekends for the past two decades.'

In addition to print media, Anderson also worked in radio. 'I've done a lot of radio work over the years, starting on local radio in Surrey, various series for BBC Radio 2, Capital Radio and the original World Routes on Jazz FM, a 10 year stint on the BBC World Service and now fRoots Radio on the web.'

Another area that Anderson is involved are record labels. 'I've run several record labels including Village Thing in the early '70s (producing artists including American folk legend Derroll Adams and English singer/songwriter/guitarists like Dave Evans and Wizz Jones) and Rogue Records in the 1980s/'90s which released the first albums in the UK by artists like Senegal's http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=1076 Baaba Maal, Madagascar's http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=1091 Tarika, Gambian kora duo Dembo Konte & Kausu Kuyateh, and Tex-Mex accordion giant Flaco Jimenez. I've done a fair bit of compiling work for other labels too (several Rough Guide CDs for example), and the occasional productions for others like the Copper Family.'

'I've also run clubs, festivals (notably Farnham Folk Day and Bracknell Folk & Roots Festival in the '80s), concert series (most recently the Europe In Union series with BBC Radio 3 and the first Half The World season at Pizza On The Park), ceilidhs (2005's big Ceilidh Aid among the more thrilling). I've booked tours for other artists, ranging from Mississippi Fred McDowell in 1969 to the Watersons in the '80s, and generally coordinated the careers of artists including Dembo Konte & Kausu Kuyateh in the '80s, http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=1091 Tarika in the '90s and UK-based Greek singer and songwriter http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=2190 Athena from 2005 until early 2007. You live and learn!'