John was raised in Industrial Ireland. There was not much industry in Ireland, but there was a coal mine. He worked there from the age of five, for his family was very poor. The mine was a noisy environment, and after his hearing had been damaged he began to find the mechanical groans and bangs to be strangely rhythmical and tuneful, and on his ninth birthday he received a saucepan for his birthday—the first saucepan he had ever seen! He mistook it for a musical instrument...