"I have never had any lessons on the electric and about 1 years worth on the bass which I stopped learning on about 8 years ago. I was pretty useless as I didn't practise that much."
Those two lines worry me a lot. I think you should defiantly take up the guitar. However I hate to sound negative but I don't think it is for everybody. It takes effort and practice and maybe 8 years ago you were 12 and now at 20 you should be able to focus more.
If you want to just play a party song, well learn a party song, but that may not translate well into "playing guitar" more like mimicking. Some people have said you should learn some theory, I promise you that sounds much more daunting than it actually is. Just knowing a few scales and some basics on how notes relate to each other can be taught relatively quickly and that will go a long way towards actually playing, not just mimicking. I don't think there is anything wrong with mimicking, but after your play the two or three songs you know, you got nothing.
Well hope this didn't come off condescending because it was not intended to be. One last bit of advice, as once stated by the the mighty Yoda "Do or Do not there is not try"
"A working class hero is something to be..." -J. Lennon
