‘I’ve learned to play guitar with one arm after a stroke’

Progress was slow at times, and Tony recalls being told how his brain needed to be “taught” that his leg was still there and could work.

As he continued to make progress with his body, he was able to start trying to play guitar again as well, even though his left hand and arm were out of action.

“I had no idea how I was going to do it,” he recalls.

“It’s not like I could just go to a guitar teacher, but once I figured out a couple of techniques it became a case of practicing them, which was easier.”

The first song he re-learned was Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles, with a stripped-back arrangement to make it easier on him.

He could find inspiration in the likes of Edywn Collins, the former Orange Juice singer who suffered a stroke following a cerebral haemorrhage in 2005 but later returned to performing and making music.

Soon Tony was not just re-learning old songs but working on new material too, and in August the song Standing Stone was released on streaming services.

Another milestone came the same month when he played a gig for the first time in two years, taking the stage at the Rose Street Foundry in Inverness for 30 minutes.

“I was absolutely exhausted,” he recalls.

“I stood out of my wheelchair at the end and my legs were shaking. But I’m growing in stamina all the time – I’m hoping to do an hour and a half, maybe split in two 45 minute sets, for my next gigs.”