Bradford’s own blues guitarist John Verity has proved he’s still got what it takes by beating Joe Bonamassa in a public vote for the Best Blues Performance of 2012.

John got 73 per cent of the vote in the Wrinkly Rockers Club awards over the other short-listed artists in this category including Beth Hart, The Liam Tarpy Band and Joe Bonamassa.

He succeeded where Bruce Springsteen failed in the Best Rock Act category, which was won by Alice Cooper.

John said: “I got an e-mail to say I had been nominated nine months ago, but I didn’t think I had a cat’s chance in hell of beating Joe.

“The WRC awards are a couple of years old. There are quite a lot of folk and blues publications who attend big festivals. I think they saw me at the GB Rock and Blues Festival in Skegness last January.

“I went on before Ten Years After. It was a sold-out gig and I believe we raised the roof. That’s where I got a lot of votes, I think.”

John, whose former bands include Argent, also had the advantage of having his own signature guitar and a forthcoming album, It’s A Mean Old Scene.

The guitar, a Black Label J V Signature V was designed to John’s specifications by Trevor Wilkinson who made the Fret-King Super 60.

“The guitar is in the shops now. I rounded off 2012 with an appearance at the Northwest Guitar Show in Liverpool to promote the guitar.

“This year looks like more of the same. I’m appearing at the Newcastle Guitar Show on March 17 and then pretty much all of the shows and trade events across the UK.

“Gig-wise my next major one is February 2 at The Stables, Wavendon, Milton Keynes. Fittingly, as I am a Marshall Amp user, I’m appearing in the Jim Marshall Auditorium.

“Jim passed away in 2012 but I’m one of many who will keep his memory alive by making a racket with his amps.

“I remember how I used to collect the guitar catalogues and stare at the pictures of these seemingly unattainable beauties way back in my early days as a musician. It seems incredible now that I’m actually in one of those catalogues. I have one here at home and it really is surreal to gaze at it.

“It’s a great honour to have my ideas on guitar specifications put into practice, and to actually see them in the shops with my name and signature on the headstock.

“This and the recognition by fans through WRC really is the icing on the cake.”