Whole lotta love got me here MR VE

Jimmy Page fan Gilding goes from being housebound to foe of household names

- MIKE WALTERS

GUITAR hero Andrew Gilding conquered the strum of all fears playing in his local church band. 

Now he has gone from a depressive recluse to an unlikely star on the oche and a riff diamond with a collection of replica six-strings as used by Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin.

Judge a book by its cover and you’d have Gilding, 53, down as a bank clerk, not a headbanger who pumps the car stereo to within an inch of meltdown by blasting Metallica on his way to tournaments.

But the UK Open champion, who won his first TV major in a thrilling last-leg shoot-out with Michael van Gerwen in March, has become a poster boy for throwing off the shackles after being weighed down by depression. Gilding goes into the Paddy Power PDC Darts World Championship, that begins at Alexandra Palace on Friday night, a 200-1 outsider – but the No.20 seed is a better player than that.