VIOLINIST Jonathan Phipps said the pistol blast, which left him without a fingertip, plunged him into a mental breakdown when he realised he could never play again.

The professional jazz musician from Franche, near Kidderminster, has pulled himself back from the depths, but he has revealed to the Evening News how life on income support was a poor substitute to his musical career in the south of France.

After operations to stretch his skin, into what now almost resembles a shorter middle finger, he examines his newly-constructed "fingertip" and its dead nerve ends.

It contains painful and bloody memories for the 52-year-old, who vividly remembers picking up the starting pistol from a cabinet of guns before it discharged into his hand at the Andrew Grant Fine Art auction in St Mark's House, St Mark's Close, Cherry Orchard, Worcester.

"I flicked the trigger and then I felt something warm, like a tingle," said Mr Phipps.

"Then I looked down at my hand and all I saw was blood, my skin was all ragged and hanging off and my bone was sticking out.

"I've no grudges against Andrew Grant at all. He's a really friendly person to know, but the accident should not have been allowed to happen in the first place."

A doctor was on hand to stem the bleeding, before an ambulance took Mr Phipps to the then Ronkswood Hospital in Worcester. But, despite several operations since the accident a year and a half ago, he is still no nearer to playing his beloved violin to the level he could once achieve.

"I will never play music again to a standard that would please myself and please audiences and it has left me absolutely distraught," he said.

"I have had a mental breakdown. I couldn't cope with the feelings of anger inside. I just thought why me?"

Mr Phipps was given his first violin at the age of nine by his father, who bought it for a pound.

Growing up in Stourport, he played his violin throughout school in the county's youth orchestras and then for the orchestra at the University of Manchester, where he later obtained a teaching certificate.

Folk clubs

After around six years of school life he decided teaching was not for him and began making a career playing at folk clubs throughout the country.

He then headed abroad to Paris and the south of France, where for 16 years he forged a musical career.

"We performed everywhere, outside the terraced bars in Avignon, the fine cafs of Paris. I used to spend six months abroad and then six months at home in Kidderminster," said Mr Phipps.

In 1996 he decided to settle in Kidderminster, creating a workshop to make and sell violins from his own home, but found the market was too erratic to earn a steady income.

He eventually returned to the world of performing and had been set to return to France for Christmas and the New Year before the accident.